Back in the Saddle

 

After an almost three week disaster, the House of Representatives appears poised to resume working for the American people with yesterday's election of a Speaker!

Yay!

Not so fast . . .

Speaker of the house, Mike Johnson

Eschewing the opportunity to elect a Speaker who would provide a bipartisan approach to governing America, the Republicans managed to elect another flawed member won some have called the least prepared Speaker of the House in over 100 years. 

Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) added: “Apparently experience isn’t necessary for the speaker job…. We’re down to folks who haven’t had leadership or chairmanship roles, which means their administration of the House will be a new experience for them.”  (Letters from an American)

Guaranteed to be fraught with growing pains. 

But wait, there is more:

The new Speaker does not foster an inclusive view of America, here are some of his views and actions as reported in Politico. 

Abortion

Johnson co-sponsored federal legislation that would have prohibited abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected, usually around six weeks into a pregnancy. The bill has exceptions for physical illnesses that endanger the life of the pregnant person but not psychological or emotional ones.

Hours before he officially won the gavel Wednesday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told CNN that Johnson is “an extreme right-wing ideologue” who “wants to criminalize abortion care and impose a nationwide ban.”

Transgender Care

The new speaker opposes gender-affirming care for children and led a hearing about the topic in a House Judiciary subcommittee, which he chairs. 

“The so-called ‘gender-affirming care’ is anything but affirming and caring,” he said in opening remarks for the hearing. “This is adults deciding to permanently alter the bodies of children who do not have the capacity to make life-altering decisions on their own.”

Military Spending

When the House passed its defense bill largely along party lines in July, Johnson touted the addition of a variety of conservative provisions to restrict abortion, transgender medical care, the discussion of critical race theory, diversity efforts and punishments for troops who refused to take a Covid vaccine.

Johnson was among the Republicans who argued Biden-era efforts to promote diversity and combat extremism in the ranks amounted to politicization of the military and distracted troops from their warfighting mission.

Johnson was also a cosponsor of Rep. Ronny Jackson’s (R-Texas) amendment to overturn the Pentagon’s policy to reimburse troops’ for the costs of traveling to seek abortions. Speaking in support of the amendment on the House floor last month, he linked the public’s falling confidence in the military to DOD’s leadership being “overly politicized.”

Ukraine

Johnson has consistently opposed more funding to assist Ukraine, a record that will give advocates of aiding Kyiv heartburn.

Johnson received an “F” grade from Republicans for Ukraine and has argued that there’s insufficient oversight of the money and it could be better spent on priorities at home, a common talking point among opponents.

Education

Last year, the House speaker introduced legislation to cut off federal funds to schools or other entities that promote “sexually-oriented material” for young children. Opponents decried it as a federal “Don’t Say Gay” law in the image of Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ legislation that restricted school teachings on race-related and sexual orientation issues.

I have posted only a few concerns from the article which I quoted and provided a link for further review. 

Wait...Did I mention that he is an election denier? Yup. He continues to be part of the Republican Party which fosters fiction over fact.

It is clear that the Republicans have elected a Speaker that does not represent the majority of Americans and who my be intent on pushing his narrow-minded view of America onto everyone.

-- Bob Doan, Tequesta, FL