https://news.yahoo.com/republicans-plan-torpedo-key-biden-070017722.html
The Guardian
Republicans plan to torpedo key Biden policies as polls predict midterm
victory
Chris Stein in Washington DC
Fri, October 21, 2022 at 3:00 AM
A standoff over the debt ceiling. Aid to Ukraine on the chopping block.
And impeachment proceedings against homeland security secretary
Alejandro Mayorkas – or perhaps even president Joe Biden himself.
With polls indicating they have a good shot of winning a majority in the
House of Representatives in the 8 November midterms, top Republican
lawmakers have in recent weeks offered a preview what they might do with
their resurgent power, and made clear they have their sights set on key
aspects of the Biden administration’s policies at home and abroad.
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Kevin McCarthy, the top Republican in the chamber, this week signaled in
an interview with Punchbowl News that if Congress is going to approve an
increase in the amount the federal government can borrow – as it’s
expected to need to by sometime next year – Republicans are going to
want an agreement to cut spending in return.
“You can’t just continue down the path to keep spending and adding to
the debt,” said McCarthy, who is likely to be elevated to speaker of the
house in a Republican led-chamber. “And if people want to make a debt
ceiling [for a longer period of time], just like anything else, there
comes a point in time where, okay, we’ll provide you more money, but you
got to change your current behavior.”
Asked if he might demand that Social Security and Medicare, the two
massive federal retirement and healthcare benefit programs that are
nearing insolvency, be reformed as part of debt ceiling negotiations,
McCarthy replied that he would not “predetermine” anything.
But the California lawmaker warned that members of his caucus were
starting to question the money Washington was sending to Ukraine to help
it fend off Russia’s invasion. “Ukraine is important, but at the same
time it can’t be the only thing they do and it can’t be a blank check,”
he told Punchbowl.
Then there’s the question of if Republicans will choose to exercise the
House’s powers of impeachment – as they did against Bill Clinton in
1998, and as Democrats did to Donald Trump in 2019 and 2021.
The prime target appears to be Mayorkas, whom Republicans have pilloried
amid an uptick in arrivals of migrants at the United States’ border with
Mexico. Yet another target could be Biden himself – as Jim Banks, chair
of the conservative Republican Study Committee, which crafts policy for
the party, suggested on Thursday.
Political realities may pose an obstacle to McCarthy and his allies’
ability to see their plans through. High inflation and Biden’s low
approval ratings have given them momentum to retake the House, but their
chances of winning a majority in the Senate are seen as a toss-up. Even
if they did win that chamber, they’re unlikely to have the two-thirds
majority necessary to convict Biden, Mayorkas, or whomever else they
intend to impeach – or even the numbers to overcome Democratic
filibusters of any legislation they try to pass.
Matt Grossman, director of Michigan State University’s Institute for
Public Policy and Social Research, questioned the GOP’s willingness to
legislate. The party’s plans, as outlined in the Commitment to America
McCarthy unveiled last month, appear thin in comparison to similar
platforms rolled out in 1994 and 2010, when Republicans again took back
Congress’ lower chamber from Democratic majorities.
“There’s a longstanding asymmetry between the parties. Republicans
legitimately want government to do less,” he said.
“They’re doing pretty well electorally without necessarily needing a
policy agenda, and they’re tied to, kind of, defending the Trump
administration or attacking the Biden administration. There’s not much
of a felt need for a lot of policy.”
There are also signs of division within the party over how the GOP
should use its new majority. In his interview with Punchbowl, McCarthy
said he was against “impeachment for political purposes” and focused
instead on addressing crime, border security and economic issues, all
familiar themes for Republicans running this year.
The split was even more pronounced when it came to Ukraine. On
Wednesday, Trump’s former vice-president Mike Pence called in a speech
at influential conservative group the Heritage Foundation for
Republicans to continue to support the country, saying “there can be no
room in the conservative movement for apologists to” Russian president
Vladimir Putin.
The day after, the foundation’s president Kevin Roberts put out a
statement saying: “Heritage will vigorously oppose Washington’s big
spenders who attempt to pass another Ukrainian aid package lacking
debate, a clear strategy, targeted funding and spending offsets.”
Democrats are assured control of Congress until the end of the year, and
have taken note of the apparent erosion of will to support Kyiv. NBC
News reports they may push for another big military aid infusion in a
year-end spending bill, intended to keep the Ukrainians armed for months
to come.
It seems clear that Republicans will eventually coalesce behind a
strategy to strong-arm the Biden administration for some purpose, but
Grossman predicted the likely result would be similar to the 2013
government shutdown, when then president Barack Obama and the Democrats
refused the GOP’s demands to dismantle his signature health care law.
“With McCarthy it just seems like he is a go along,” he said. “He’s
going to be a go-along speaker and that’s going to be the case with a
pretty fractious caucus.”