The Latest from the Prospect
 â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â
View this email in your browser
Â
SEPTEMBER 12, 2023
On the Prospect website
* David Dayen on the Google monopolization trial
that started today
* Robert Kuttner on the Supreme Court case
that could take away much of the power to tax
* Justin Miller on week two of the Ken Paxton impeachment
trial in Texas
Meyerson on TAP
An American Leader's Job Tenure Is Now in Question
Joe Biden's? No, Kevin McCarthy's.
In the annals of American history, we've never had a presidential
impeachment process begin because the House Speaker feared for his own
job.
Well, not until today.
Reeking from the slime of Florida swamps, Freedom Caucus member Matt
Gaetz rose on the House floor today "to serve notice, Mr. Speaker, that
you are out of compliance with the agreement that allowed you to assume
this role" (the Speakership). To win the votes from Gaetz and his ilk
that enabled him to win that post, Kevin McCarthy was compelled to agree
to their demand that a single House Republican was all it took to force
a vote on the Speaker's continuing tenure. The spirit, if not the
letter, of that agreement, Gaetz noted, required McCarthy to suspend the
deal he'd cut with the president last spring to extend the debt limit
and to bring a balanced-budget constitutional amendment to the floor.
McCarthy has not yet complied with those demands, though he appears
poised to demand massive cuts to the spending authorized in the debt
limit deal. Scrambling to keep Gaetz from going off fully cocked
(half-cocked is the best one could expect), however, McCarthy did
authorize a House investigation into President Biden today on
impeachment charges, even though those charges don't really exist.
Though Republicans are a party that now drapes itself in the banner of
parents' rights, the worst that can be said of Biden is that he's
guilty of undue paternal solicitude to his undeniably screwed-up son. I
doubt McCarthy believes that that rises to the level of the "high crimes
and misdemeanors" that the Constitution requires for impeachment and
conviction. I don't doubt that he hopes initiating the impeachment
process will save his own skin.
Previously, the Speaker had vowed that he wouldn't initiate
impeachment hearings until the House-that is, all House
Republicans-voted to go forward with them. As he lacked the votes to
do that, he weighed the Freedom Caucus's threat to his Speakership
against that from the invertebrate slightly moderate caucus and
concluded that his survival required caving to his right. Hence his
authorization today that lets the impeachment process begin.
It's really McCarthy's job that's on the line in all this, not
Biden's. But if job insecurity is to be his lot, the Speaker has
decided that he won't experience it all by himself.
~ HAROLD MEYERSON
Follow Harold Meyerson on Twitter
[link removed]
The First of Several Trials of the Century
U.S. v. Google, which begins today, is part of a litany of cases against
dominant firms from Biden's reinvigorated antitrust enforcers.
Here's what it's all about. BY DAVID DAYEN
The Stealth Attack on the Power to Tax
The Supreme Court could overturn a well-established form of federal
taxation. BY ROBERT KUTTNER
After a Week on Defense, Ken Paxton's Team Gets the Floor
The second week of the impeachment hearings may be the last. But
there's still a lot of ground to cover. BY JUSTIN MILLER
[link removed]
Â
To receive this newsletter directly in your inbox, click here to
subscribe.Â
Click to Share this Newsletter
[link removed]
Â
[link removed]
Â
[link removed]
Â
[link removed]
Â
[link removed]
YOUR TAX DEDUCTIBLE DONATION SUPPORTS INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM
The American Prospect, Inc., 1225 I Street NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC xxxxxx, United States
Copyright (c) 2023 The American Prospect. All rights reserved.
To opt out of American Prospect membership messaging, click here
.
To manage your newsletter preferences, click here
.
To unsubscribe from all American Prospect emails, including newsletters,
click here
.
