Sen. Ruben Gallego said Thursday that Mike "Jesus" Johnson was likely to lose a chance at another House Speaker term over his decision not to bring the lower chamber back in session amid the government shutdown. Via The Hill:
“Johnson sent his team home, not necessarily just to put pressure on us, but so he doesn‘t get pressure from his own members,” Gallego said during a Thursday appearance on CNN’s “The Source.”
“He‘s barely going to win, and he‘s probably going to lose the Speakership next year. But he‘s putting his members on a plank that‘s not reversible,” he added.
[...] Amid the government shutdown, GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) has been a vocal critic of Johnson’s decision not to bring the House back in session and failing to provide a plan for the future of Affordable Care Act subsidies.
“I think he should really bring the House back in session for many reasons,” Greene told CNN in an interview Wednesday, while criticizing Johnson for stalling legislative business.
“Any serious Speaker of the House is going to build consensus within his conference behind a plan. It’s not something secret that gets worked on in a committee,” she said, referring to Republicans’ refusal to negotiate on extending the Affordable Care Act premium health care subsidies in exchange for Democratic votes to reopen the government.
Senate Democrats have been blocking a stopgap measure from advancing in an effort to ensure Republicans back the extension of the Affordable Care Act premium subsidies before open enrollment on Nov. 1.
However, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said the topic is not up for discussion until after the federal funding lapse is resolved.
“It is a failure on Thune and Johnson, not necessarily because they‘re shutting down, but also they just didn‘t even bring it up to their membership. They didn‘t bring up, ‘Hey, we need to start negotiating to come up with a path out of this,’” Gallego told anchor Kaitlan Collins on CNN.
All this theater! Democrats aren't "blocking" anything. All the Republicans have to do is suspend the filibuster and take a vote. They just don't want their partisan fingerprints all over this wildly unpopular and heartless giant turd of a bill in an election cycle, and really, who can blame them?
They're basically trying to coax Democrats into saving Republican asses with their voters. Why should Democrats take that bullet for them? Man up, boys. Just say no to your Fearless Leader.
