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What Kevin McCarthy Promised
Herewith the last 90 seconds or so of my Uncommon Knowledge interview with Kevin McCarthy, which we taped just before the 2014 midterms. If the Republicans returned a majority in the House and captured control of the Senate, Cong. McCarthy promised, they would address Obamacare, enact tax reform, and restructure federal bureaucracies because they’re “too powerful.”
Robinson: You will pass a reform agenda, putting bill after bill on President Obama’s desk?
McCarthy: Yeah. That’s our job.
To quote Ricochet member Koblog, who earlier today put up a post about this, “And you wonder why there’s a revolt in the ranks.”
See for yourself:
Published in General
Gaffe: “You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means”
When I hear “gaffe”, I think of someone saying something in such a confused way that it does not mean what they wanted to say. Didn’t McCarthy actually mean what he said? To me that’s more disturbing than a ‘gaffe”.
Love the smile he can’t suppress when saying it.
This says it all, Brother Robinson.
This is the issue.
McCarthy, Boehner, McConnell, Ryan et al understand that while the far right/Tea Party/Freedom Caucus is a minority within the the party Republicans are a hobbled minority without them.
The furor, at least mine, does not stem from being a minority of a coalition party. The furor comes from guys like this and especially McConnell promising to stop the Obama agenda by any means and then claiming they are powerless the second they take their hand off the Bible when sworn in.
What if McCarthy, McConnell, et al told the truth in the campaign and said they would not vote for expanding Obama’s agenda, but they would fund it and under no circumstances use the power of the purse and risk a partial gov’t vacation?
If they told the truth they would be a respected minority, but because they misled now they are a reviled majority.
Bravo, Peter. I’ve leveled the charge before that you’re a member of the Establishment, but I rescind that.
You’re a bomb-thrower. Well done.
I was hoping for a couple of Presidential vetoes. It would have shown some level of commitment to conservative principles. Compromise after a veto I could accept.
It’s difficult to get excited excited for 2016 when the Republicans pre-surrender.
“But we need a veto proof majority in the Senate . . . “
I only watched the first 10 minutes or so when Peter recently posted the full interview. What I saw was a Mafia Don. Maybe it was the coif and the tailored jacket, but the detailed but unconvincing answers he gave seemed like John Gotti in his teflon prime.
Oh my God! You know that is exactly what they will say. No more jelly backed congressional leaders. It is time to put some crazies in charge, just to show we mean business. Use reconciliation to ram things through congress and onto the president desk. Make him refuse to sign independent funding for the military, homeland security, food stamps. I think Rand Paul was right when I heard him last week on the radio say that once we let the budget pass, then we force them to get 60 votes for everything they want rather than forcing us to get 60 votes for everything we want. Maybe he should be in charge of the Senate.
Bye Felicia but it is way too late.
What is happening to these liars is that their money requires votes that don’t line up with the people they need to actually vote for them. All they can do is lie to their voters and wink at the Chamber of Commerce. This was a successful strategy for many years but conservative voters are on to them. It is alright not to give loyalty but don’t expect any back.
Dude, it’s what they have been saying since 2008.
– We need control of the House, then we’ll see a change . .
– We need control of the Senate, then we’ll see a change . . .
– Sidetrack: Ted Cruz cost the Republicans the Senate with the government shutdown, the sky is falling . . .
– We need the Presidency, then we’ll see a change . . .
– We need 60 Senators, then we’ll see a change . . .
I am close to embracing the Republican motto, “It’s never too early to quit.” But I like the way Rand Paul thinks. Thank you for sharing that, it provides a little hope.
Has anyone ever asked him, on the record, why he failed to do what he calls his job?
I believe Rep. McCarthy suffers from mid-cranial calcium deposits of significant mass
This past weekend I was going around the yard and picking up all of the junk my kids had strewn about, piling it in the back of my truck, to be thrown into the dump. My wife and I were looking at all the crap, mostly plastic toys, and we were digusted with ourselves. I said “Let’s make a pact to never again buy something that will end up in the back of the truck, headed for the dump.”
So…here’s the question: when McCarthy showed up he was the guy who was gonna fix everything. But now, he’s just a broken nerf gun. How do we make sure we stop electing nerf guns?
Spin, I can’t believe what you’ve done. Now for the rest of my life when I see a nerf gun I’ll think of Kevin McCarthy. How did you do that?
Perhaps the one thing worse than having been lied to by these people, is to be repeatedly disparaged as a “purist” or a “whacko,” and mocked by consultants, pundits, politicians and others for having taken Messrs. McCarthy, Boehner and McConnell at their word in the first place.
McCarthy lied? Wait…let me go and put on my surprise face.
In a similar vein, it was pretty gobsmacking when Boehner came out the next day after conservatives had handed Republicans the Senate, saying blithely that they would be able to govern without conservatives.
This is exactly why Cruz has gotten my attention. He’s not my perfect candidate, and I’m still learning about him, but he’s demonstrated that he’ll take a stand. We need someone on our side who is willing to dig his heals in and be unreasonable on matters of principle. Sometimes the fights you can’t win are the ones most worth fighting.
I like Kevin McCarthy, but I did not think he was a good choice for Speaker. The Speaker is the voice of his party in Congress, and I thought his answer to Hannity was stupid because of its impact on Trey Gowdy’s committee, and doubly stupid because it was in response to Hannity asking what the Republicans had accomplished since the 2014 election. McCarthy’s answer was not a long list of accomplishments that would convince the public that maybe they should elect more Republicans in 2016.
That said, after the actions today of McCarthy and the Freedom Caucus (FC) as far as I’m concerned it is a pox on both of their houses. As Michael Barone said in the Examiner, sometimes the Freedom Caucus should call itself the Samson Caucus. How does the FC putting the Republican House into chaos help the conservative cause in an election that is 13 months away? Why don’t they publicize what changes in process they want so we can discuss it? Several sources today said there wasn’t even a common list as several FC members listed mandatory requirements that were in conflict with each other. If they can’t agree among themselves, how can they convince the 200+ members who don’t agree with them to make any changes? McCarthy at least put the country ahead of himself.
I used think that politics was the art of the possible. Now it seems to be the art of saying “No!”
Call me an optimist… It would be nice to find someone who can be an actual “speaker”, rather than just a ranking politician. There are so many things said by this president and the media which warrant a mordant reply.
Well said. I couldn’t agree more. That’s why I think Paul Ryan is the best person to fulfill this role. But if the entire Freedom Caucus cannot enthusiastically support him he should stay in Ways and Means.
Peter,
I got a chance to watch the whole thing. This is really where we are at. McCarthy gets the economics as good as anybody. What he says on energy and jobs is right on the money. However, with the democrats doubling and tripling down on extreme left wing ideology McCarthy is out of his depth.
He doesn’t understand Benghazi or Clinton Cash or Obama’s anti-colonialist-Marxist-Jihadist sympathies. He doesn’t get this and that’s why he could make a boast about political poll numbers when Hillary Clinton is guilty of the highest malfeasance in office and should be indicted.
We need leadership that goes beyond this. I like McCarthy but he doesn’t have what it takes. Boehner should retire on that huge government pension. After all that was what it was all about anyway.
Got to have somebody with an edge to him.
Regards,
Jim