By now, you’ve likely heard that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has been removed from his seat of power – and it was his own party members who voted for such a move. The question is why.
Why would Republicans turn on McCarthy and move to remove him from the speakership? Aren’t there bigger things they should be worried about?
Well, according to those few GOP members who joined together to put forward the motion of removal and are now seeking a vote of no to McCarthy continuing as speaker, it is most certainly one of their worries.
Take Republican Representative Tim Burchett of Tennessee, for one.
As he explained in a video post to social media on Tuesday, McCarthy has been a rather close friend for years now. However, there are some things more important than friendship and possibly losing a friend. Things like the future of the country and its economic turmoil.
My decision on Motion to Vacate and how I came to it. pic.twitter.com/kePHTSHUlw
— Tim Burchett (@timburchett) October 3, 2023
And according to Burchett, McCarthy is playing right into the hands of the establishment and progressives who keep hurling this nation faster and faster towards destruction.
He said, “My thought process is like this: Kevin McCarthy is my friend, and I hate to lose him as a friend, but I had a choice between that and my conscience and what my conscience tells me to do.”
He added, “My conscience tells me that we’re $33 trillion in debt. We took off the whole month of August, knowing that September was going to come around. It does every year, the end of our budgetary year, fiscal year, and there’s no urgency.”
So instead of pushing the House to agree on budget reforms and such, and earlier, McCarthy allowed the legislature to dawdle and nearly cause a government shutdown.
Then, if that wasn’t bad enough, McCarthy chose a continuing resolution instead of going through the regular budgetary process and a separate appropriations bill. By the way, McCarthy promised when he took the speakership that this was exactly the kind of action he wouldn’t take.
After all, with Republicans now in charge of the House and so funding the government, McCarthy and the Republicans could choose to completely redo the entire federal government, making sure that our limited funds go to where they actually need to instead of needless spending on things like racist trees.
Yet, McCarthy took the easy way out and went with what was already in place: spending bills that Democrats and liberals designed that only put us more into debt.
My statement on my intention to vote for the motion to vacate. pic.twitter.com/4vrlp2XUra
— Rep. Tim Burchett (@RepTimBurchett) October 3, 2023
And as Burchett explains, that’s not getting us very far.
The continued resolution will only get the government through until around Thanksgiving. And with the holidays in full swing and the budget being what it is, it’s likely that an omnibus or “big” bill will get pushed through to cover the rest of the year.
“More spending, more grease, more lobbyists and more special interests, and the big boys will stay in power,” as Burchett says.
“I hate losing Kevin as a friend, but I worry about losing our country, in all sincerity. We are rapidly approaching that point.”
Now, to be fair to McCarthy, his rather quickly put-through continued resolution did prevent a 45-day government shutdown.
I kept government open so the families of our troops and border agents could get paid.
If a handful of Republicans side with Democrats to remove me for that—it's a fight worth having. pic.twitter.com/BBz8yuC0ez
— Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) October 3, 2023
However, the question for his fellow Republicans is, at what cost? The continued resolution and any possible omnibus bill will only put the nation into more debt and weaken the dollar and our economy that much more.
That’s exactly why Burchett concluded that “come hell or high water,” he voted to remove McCarthy as speaker.
And he’s not the only conservative to feel that way.
