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
Â
View this email in your browser
**OCTOBER 4, 2023**
On the Prospect website
* Arn Pearson and
**David Armiak**: Not so smart ALEC
* Luke Goldstein: Fear and loathing at the Competitive Enterprise
Institute's gala
* Rachel Phua: Worker pensions invested in private equity
-to
promote other workers' misery
Kuttner on TAP
****
****
****
****
****
****
****
**** The House GOP's Self-Immolation
The Republican uncivil war is a partisan gift to Democrats, but it does
vast institutional damage to Congress's capacity to govern.
It's too soon to sort out all the consequences of the coup against
Kevin McCarthy, but here is a preliminary list.
The ouster of the former Speaker by a tiny fraction of Republican
nihilists does serious damage to Republican chances of holding the House
in 2024. Republican candidates, and not just the GOP incumbents in the
18 districts that voted for Biden in 2020, can reasonably be charged by
Democrats as a party that cannot be trusted to govern. This will also
spill over into the contests for the presidency and control of the
Senate.
One thing that McCarthy did well was to raise tons of money. His
leadership super PAC raised more than $250 million in the 2022 election
cycle for House Republican candidates. Some kind of House leadership PAC
will continue but without McCarthy's personal Midas touch.
But the deposing of McCarthy makes it even harder to get through this
budget season. Whoever becomes the next Speaker, there is simply no
recipe that satisfies both the right and the far right, not to mention
the Democrats in the Senate, the House, and the White House. If the next
Speaker makes a compromise budget deal of the sort that cost McCarthy
his job, he faces ouster all over again.
It's a mistake to see the Republican split as normal conservatives
versus a far-right splinter. The vast majority of the GOP caucus is
almost as extremist on the issues as the Gaetz faction, wanting drastic
cuts in domestic spending including Social Security, Medicare, and
Medicaid. Some of the more florid lunatics in the Republican Caucus,
including Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene, did not even vote
to oust McCarthy.
It has become conventional to view Matt Gaetz as someone purely on an
ego trip to settle a personal score, with no convictions other than a
wish to tear the House down. But if you listened to his performance last
night, you could discern an ideology.
Gaetz's attack on McCarthy for making a budget deal with Democrats is
just a more extreme version of what most Republicans want. Only eight
Republicans voted to depose McCarthy, but 90 voted against the budget
deal that kept the government running for 45 days. The problem is that
both the Gaetz version and the slightly less extreme version are wildly
unrealistic, as substance and as politics.
Perhaps the most important takeaway is that this was a big personal win
for Hakeem Jeffries. Going into this fight, some Democrats were
uncertain whether their new leader had the stature or savvy to fill the
giant shoes of Nancy Pelosi. He does. Over the weekend, there were
rumblings that some "Problem Solver" Democrats were inclined either to
support McCarthy against Gaetz or to vote "present" to tilt the
arithmetic in McCarthy's favor.
But Jeffries astutely orchestrated the Tuesday Democratic Caucus meeting
so that it stimulated a litany of complaints on how McCarthy could not
be trusted to keep his word, and the often fractious caucus voted as a
bloc, surprising both Gaetz and McCarthy.
And Jeffries said one important thing that prefigures the only sensible
endgame to this mess. Speaking to reporters after the closed-door caucus
meeting, Jeffries Tuesday urged moderate Republicans to break away from
the "extremists" in their party and join with Democrats "to move the
Congress and the country forward."
In practice, that could mean an ad hoc coalition with the 10 or 20
anti-MAGA Republicans to keep the government operating, or it could mean
a moderate Republican Speaker elected mostly by Democrats. One can only
imagine the reaction of Matt Gaetz to that.
~ ROBERT KUTTNER
To receive this newsletter directly in your inbox, click here to
subscribe.Â
Follow Robert Kuttner on Twitter
[link removed]
After 50 Years, This Right-Wing Law Factory Is Crazier Than Ever
The American Legislative Exchange Council is where corporations and
far-right groups go to buy government policy. BY ARN PEARSON & DAVID
ARMIAK
Workers Funding Other Workers' Misery
Billions of dollars in public pension fund money flow to private
equity-owned firms that union-bust, violate labor laws, and put
workers' safety at risk. BY RACHEL PHUA
One Night With Elvis and the Men Plotting to Take Back America
Fear and loathing at the Competitive Enterprise Institute's annual
gala BY LUKE GOLDSTEIN
Â
[link removed]
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
.
