Three Pros and a Rookie
MAGA Mike bows to political reality.
Feathers of Hope is a network of ordinary citizens who have joined together around a shared commitment to diminishing the power and influence of MAGA extremists in the House of Representatives.
Since January 2023, we have been urging moderate Republicans and Democrats to form a bipartisan majority voting bloc in order to conduct our nation’s legislative business, and to defend the institution from its internal enemies.
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Remember the Debt Ceiling Agreement?
In our November 13 post, In Search of Moderate Republicans, we discussed at some length the emergence in the House of Representative of a de facto cross-party alliance between Democrats and those Members whom Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) calls “traditional Republicans.”
While never recognized as a formal alliance, this bipartisan majority passed the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 (FRA) last Spring. The FRA codified into law an agreement between former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and President Biden, which raised the country’s debt ceiling. 149 Republicans joined 165 Democrats to provide a 314-117 vote.
Largely forgotten now, there had been a months-long impasse over whether there would be a “clean” debt ceiling increase — that is, a simple raise of the government’s borrowing limit without conditions. Mr. McCarthy would not agree to that. Having promised MAGA extremists that he’d threaten a default on the country’s debt to demand draconian budget cuts, he insisted on negotiations to set spending limits for the coming fiscal year as part of the deal.
President Biden had already submitted his budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2024, and that became the starting point for bargaining. During negotiations, the President made significant concessions to reach an agreement with House Republicans. Federal spending under the FRA will be reduced by about $650 billion over a decade, including a $10 billion reduction in previously approved IRS enforcement funding. The final agreement, as Mr. Biden characterized it, “…represents a compromise, which means not everyone gets what they want.”
At the time, there was a general expectation that since the FRA not only raised the debt limit but also established funding levels for the coming (now current) fiscal year, there would be no threat of a government shutdown in the Fall.
In a normally functioning legislative body, that would have been the result.
Once an agreement is reached and legislation passed, the next order of business would naturally be the writing of specific bills to implement the law. But as we now know, the defeated minority of MAGA/Freedom Caucus extremists (who actually wanted a default) refused to accept the painstakingly negotiated parameters of the FRA.
Instead, they set out to sabotage their Speaker, and the will of the majority of Representatives. Having lost the debt ceiling battle, their next move was to threaten a government shutdown by failing to pass the needed appropriation bills.
In response, the same bipartisan majority passed a Continuing Resolution, which simply authorizes continued funding at current levels until the new bills are passed. Again, this would be normal procedure when legislating falls behind schedule. But the aggrieved MAGA extremists who “want to burn the whole place down,” as Mr. McCarthy later observed, replaced the Speaker with an inexperienced but more sympathetic colleague. That led to another round of obstruction, and another bipartisan vote to fund the government via Continuing Resolution.
This is not how representative democracy is supposed to work.
The point of negotiating spending levels is to reach a compromise agreement, and then to pass enabling legislation implementing the terms of the agreement. As President Biden pointed out, “not everyone gets what they want.”
But MAGA extremists in the House are not ordinary politicians. They're not just another minority voting bloc. Unwilling to work within the system, according to established norms and practices, they use the forms of parliamentary procedure as a smokescreen. Their real intent is to obstruct and disrupt, not to legislate.
For that reason, we at Feathers of Hope have been advocating since the opening of the 118th Congress that moderate Republicans and Democrats form a temporary bipartisan alliance, for the explicit purpose of marginalizing the extremists.
As explained in that November 13 post,
“The House of Representatives is where those who support convicted January 6 insurrectionists currently wield the most political power. And it's in that institution where we need to prevail. We must defend the beating heart of our self-governing democracy against those who would bring it to a halt.
If we believe that the silence of Republican moderates gives comfort and support to the extremist MAGA faction, then our urgent task is to persuade them to do otherwise. We can't just declare that all is lost and there's nothing more to be done until 2025.
The struggle against authoritarianism is happening right now.
As the Republican party finds itself too riven with dissension to accomplish the basic tasks of governing, a shutdown looms. For MAGA extremists a government shutdown is a victory, an element of their “burn it all down” agenda.”
Elusive "Bipartisan Alliance" Finally Emerges.
On Sunday, Democratic and Republican leaders of both the House and Senate announced agreement on spending limits for appropriation bills that will fund the government through Fiscal Year 2024, within approximately the same parameters as the original debt ceiling agreement. In a normal legislative session this would be considered a routine announcement. But after eight months of Republican in-fighting over the budget, which led to the ousting of their own Speaker, it is anything but routine.
The agreement is a decisive victory for us — a stinging defeat for MAGA extremists.
The agreement was quickly condemned by the far-right, with the Freedom Caucus being most succinct: “It’s even worse than we thought. Don’t believe the spin… This is total failure.”
Speaker Johnson explained meekly, but truthfully: “This is a step forward. It’s not what we want, it’s not everything we want, but remember, we have a one to two vote margin in just one chamber of the legislative branch. I mean, this is the best we could do right now.”
Before the holiday recess, Freedom Caucus policy director Chip Roy (R-TX) had publicly called for House Republicans to only pass appropriation bills that secure deep spending cuts and conservative policy riders — i.e., bills that stand no chance of passage in the Senate. While he is likely to continue pressing for these riders, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) left no doubt about their fate:
“Finally, we have made clear to Speaker Mike Johnson that Democrats will not support including poison pill policy changes in any of the twelve appropriations bills put before the Congress. … Both sides will need to work together bipartisan to avoid a costly and disruptive shutdown.”
Isn’t this what cost Kevin McCarthy his Speakership?
In a word, Yes. But the power dynamic has changed.
A year ago, it appeared that MAGA extremists would dominate the House through their control of Speaker McCarthy. He had made so many concessions in exchange for their votes, it was thought he’d be powerless to oppose them on any issue. But wielding a threat to “vacate the chair” as the means to discipline the Speaker eventually proved to be of little value.
Mr. McCarthy simply betrayed the extremists. He agreed to a debt limit raise, reached a spending limit deal with President Biden, and avoided a government shutdown by passing a Continuing Resolution — all with votes from moderate Republicans and Democrats. MAGA’s bluff was called. And when he challenged them to “file the fucking motion” to vacate the chair, they obliged.
But as we are now seeing, after all the drama, a minority faction of extremists remains just that: a minority faction. With their “burn it all down” mindset, they over-played their hand. And crucially, in the process they alienated traditional Republicans— moderates who would ordinarily value party unity over most other considerations. Disregarding the interests of their moderate colleagues, those who value the institutions of our democratic republic, proved to be their undoing.
In the end, MAGA extremists were able to disrupt House proceedings for a time. But ultimately, they are left with only exaggerated performative outrage — the unmistakeable signature of sore losers.
This is a network of ordinary citizens. In a democracy, we exercise our power by raising our voices. To be silent is to be powerless.
The sweetest "revenge" is when people who are being disagreeable hoist themselves on their own petard. I always thought a petard was a sword but I looked it up. A petard is an explosive device. To be hoisted on your own petard is to blow yourself up. And that's exactly what the so-called"Freedom Caucus" did. But don't let your guard down - an animal is more dangerous when it's wounded. The Freedom Caucus is a creature of Trump and there's a ways to go yet before he is defanged.
The tea of optimism is a particularly strong brew this morning. I think you're right Jerry, but I'll be much happier when the deal is done and a couple of bills have been signed.