Which proverb applies to this situation? “Be careful what you wish for, you may get it” works, as does “same song, second verse.” Mike Johnson is making the exact same deal that Kevin McCarthy did in a budget deal, and if Freedom Caucus Republicans are shocked, well… this is the game you played.

There’s no need to recap the absolutely embarrassing saga of how Kevin McCarthy was forced out of the speakership because Matt Gaetz got seven other Republicans to vote with all the Democrats to oust him, and then we got to watch the House Republicans play round after round after round of Speaker Roulette, finally ending when the wheel stopped on Mike Johnson. The Republican vote was unanimous by design, and the hardliners rejoiced that they had gotten what they wanted.

Fast-forward to now. The budget issues have not changed. The GOP majority has actually gotten narrower, thanks to the ouster of George Santos and the resignation of Kevin McCarthy. Which means that all that Mike Johnson can do, with a tiny majority and a Democrat-controlled Senate, is basically rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic as he announced a budget deal on Sunday to the GOP caucus.

Johnson recognized in a “Dear Colleague” letter Sunday that the spending levels “will not satisfy everyone, and they do not cut as much spending as many of us would like.” But he touted some wins on accelerating clawbacks of IRS funding, as well as a $6.1 billion cut to “COVID-era slush funds,” calling it “the most favorable budget agreement Republicans have achieved in over a decade.”

Again, Johnson has ZERO leverage to negotiate more robust cuts to the budget. The GOP majority is excruciatingly tight right now, with two vacancies and Steve Scalise currently out having a stem cell transplant. The Senate is controlled by the Democrats. A Democrat is sitting in the White House. Any idea that there is a way for the Freedom Caucus to demand more out of Johnson is a joke. But that isn’t going to stop Republicans from complaining about the bad hand of cards that we are all being dealt.

Don’t be fooled. The DC Uniparty’s spending “deal” is a total sham.

The REAL topline spending level is $1.658 trillion—not $1.59 trillion.

Our nation simply cannot afford the Swamp’s reckless spending habits.

— Rep. Andrew Clyde (@Rep_Clyde) January 8, 2024

And now Representative Chip Roy is making noise about Mike Johnson’s job.

“We’re spending more money we don’t have,” Roy said. “It’s just more of the same, and, you know, I wish Speaker Johnson [wasn’t] doing this. I’m very disappointed, and hopefully, we can try to figure out what we can do to change it in the next few days.”

Asked if he was holding Johnson responsible, the Texas Republican said, “Well, I mean, his office is doing the negotiating, so that’s the deal.”

In reference to a possible motion to vacate the new speaker, Roy said, “You know, we’ve gone down that road. I didn’t prefer to go down that road with Speaker McCarthy.”

“We need to figure out how to get this all done together. But it isn’t good, and there’s a lot of my colleagues who are pretty frustrated about it,” he stressed.

Leaving the option on the table, he added, “We’ll see what happens this week.”

Roy voiced similar concerns in an interview with the Washington Examiner, suggesting there needs to be “real sober conversations about the state of the House GOP.”

“Let’s just say there’s a lot of conversations underway right now about our complete lack of confidence and where the Republican leadership is,” he added.

Look, the disappointment about the budget should be widespread, but no one on either side of the aisle in leadership is willing to put the brakes on spending. Sure, you can replace leaders, but the voters want all their goodies and none of the sacrifice involved. There needs to be massive re-education in this country when it comes to government spending, benefits, and social programs. But the long and the short of it is that both parties are happy to keep tossing that hot potato back and forth, hoping that when the thing finally explodes, their side isn’t the one left holding it. Austerity measures are going to have to be instituted, but the only way that becomes politically palatable is when the bank account is empty. Nothing but the most dire economic straits is going to trigger real spending reform in the United States, because neither side wishes to be “the bad guy” who reforms Social Security, raises the retirement age, restructures Medicare, or institutes permanent welfare reform. Everything up until this point has simply been putting band-aids on a gaping wound. Eventually, surgery is going to be needed, and someone with political guts is going to have to be willing to be the bad guy.

Speaker Mike Johnson did not sign up to be the bad guy, and he doesn’t have the leverage to effect any substantial changes on his end. The deadline is January 19th. Congress either needs to pass the new budget, pass another “continuing resolution” to keep things moving, or have government shut down. Some Republicans would be fine with letting everything just shut down.

In an added wrinkle, several hard-line GOP members are calling for a government shutdown if the Biden administration does not agree to border policy changes — a debate that has largely been centered around separate supplemental spending package that pairs it with Ukraine aid.

While this would be fine in principle, it’s also moot because Democrats will vote for the spending bill, since both Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries have given their approval. This entire thing is pretty much over except for the shouting, and trying to threaten Mike Johnson with losing the Speaker’s gavel? Oh please. Is the point to defeat Joe Biden in 2024, or to fight for ideological purity in the House of Representatives? I thought the point was to defeat Biden, and win big enough majorities in the House and Senate to allow for real budget changes, AND win back the White House to make sure those budget changes get signed into law!

Yanking the gavel out of Johnson’s hands would mean another merry-go-round of chaos that distracts the American public from the failures of the Biden administration, and allows Democrats to skip merrily away from taking any responsibility for those failures. But, the GOP isn’t “the Stupid Party” for nothing. And if the Freedom Caucus decides to remove Johnson (in favor of God knows who, because THEY certainly have no idea), then it will be a gift to Joe Biden.

Featured image: Mike Johnson, official Congressional portrait by Ike Hayman, cropped, public domain