Herding Cats

Populist contradictions in Mike Johnson’s first major bill.

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Former Speaker Pro Tempore Rep. Patrick McHenry talks to then-Rep. Mike Johnson before the House of Representatives holds an election for a new Speaker of the House at the U.S. Capitol on October 25, 2023 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Imagine you’ve just been elected speaker of the House by a conference that can’t agree on anything, including who should be speaker of the House.

What would your top priority be in your first weeks on the job?

House Republicans did finally agree on something when they elected Mike Johnson, of course, but it took weeks of political agony—and ultimately pure exhaustion—to force them into alignment. He was the fifth choice of his colleagues, behind Kevin McCarthy, Steve Scalise, Jim Jordan, and Tom Emmer. No speaker in modern American history has begun from a position of such weakness.

So imagine you’re Mike Johnson, having just been handed the gavel. You’re desperate to restore order to the House majority and prove that you can lead. What’s your first order of business? A government funding bill? Aid to Ukraine? Weapons for Israel?

No. Your first major order of business is simply to prove that you can get 217 votes on major legislation from your fractious, ungovernable, two-parties-under-one-banner laughingstock of a conference. Which is just what Johnson has undertaken to do.

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  1. Avatar photo
    Ben Connelly

    Some commentators (including colleagues of yours) remain entirely unconvinced about the idea that this IRS funding will “pay for” itself. I understand the argument for why it might make the IRS more efficient. But I also see a strong reason why it won’t: throwing money at a problem rarely does what leadership and better management can’t.

    Screw the IRS. Taxation is theft. The government is the only organization that takes my money to pay for things I didn’t want and give me things I didn’t ask for and then expects me to be grateful.

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  2. Kevin M

    What is really sad is the one thing that Mike Johnson cannot do is pass a bill that depends on a single Democrat vote. Even though he will get 100 of them as it turns out.

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    Rdpulfer

    The far right definitely idolizes Putin, but they also fetishize Russia's military, seen as a more traditionally masculine than our own supposedly weak and woke military (odd coming from a party that claims to be America First but whatev's). So to see that same army get totally demolished by a hodge-podge of supposedly weaker Ukrainian soldiers and volunteers, along with a not-inconsiderable amount of US weapons and funding, must particularly frustrating.

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      Ben Connelly

      It’s pretty clear that the New Right (I won’t call them far right - they’re to the left of Romney and Sasse) has fallen for Russian and American marketing videos. By any objective measure there’s plenty of traditional masculinity in the American and Ukrainian militaries. I mean, the idea that Putin is more manly than Zelensky because Putin poses for a few shirtless out-of-shape pictures holding a gun (which then get turned into ridiculous memes)…

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    2. Scianti7

      That's funny that the right fetishizes Russia's masculine military. Whenever my husband & I watch failarmy, & there is one with military people, our theory is they're always/most likely Russian. Which is usually correct judging by language.

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  5. Matsson

    Allah, you've been my favorite political writer for eons, so I write to complain because this column was a rare quality snafu. It half-read like a defense of the IRS in general, which, as the sibling of an accountant and someone who just had an insane runaround with them (they essentially admitted incompetence on THEIR part, but I'm still not sure if I'm "in the clear"), makes me declare that the DMV is a well-oiled machine compared to the black hole of dysfunction that is the IRS. But what really got me are these lines:

    "Global politics would surely be easier for the United States if it turned its back on the Jewish state and allied itself with the hundreds of millions of Muslims behind the Palestinians. Our decades-long cold war with Iran might end."

    Huh? You've studied Islamists forever. Obama and Biden tried to pay Iran to be friends with us... it didn't work. The Ayatollah genuinely believes his theocratic nuttery... as do all these pro-Hamas (and I chose that word accurately) Islamists. We're still the great satan infidels no matter what we do. Look how Iraq went full-jihad violent, ransacking the Swedish embassy because the Swedes allowed a Koran-burning... in Sweden. They hate the West, and us supporting Israel just adds another BS talking point of hatred for them. The Muslim Ummah is never going to be real friends with the USA (think the signers of the Abraham Accords will actually fight for Israel's existence?) or the West... unless a Great Reformation happens to Islam. And no one sees it happening any time soon. As someone might say, "C'mon, man."

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    1. Martin W Kraegel III

      Thanks for saying this. Was thinking the same thing.

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  6. CCA

    I don't have Twitter, and even if I did, I doubt I would have seen Mr. Gaetz's latest entry in Logic Games 2023. Water is a collection of molecules that you can see and touch and makes your hand wet. Air is a colorless, odorless group of molecules that nobody can see. These are not the same thing and should be considered independently. So we should make sure we have clean water. Screw the air.

    Thanks, Matt.

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    Scarlette Tarte

    You get the part about Israel right, Nick...their religion says they "need Israel" so Christ can come back, and then tell all the Jews they have to convert or die. (Yes, it's weird...why do Jews even take aid from Christians that ultimately don't respect their faith, at all).

    But the IRS bit? Wrong. They want it defunded because THEY don't want to audited. Most of them have gotten silly rich being in Congress, and I would bet in many ways that are less than strictly legal. And if not them, their donors.

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    1. Scianti7

      And, if I may posit, MAGA is a grift. The IRS might get in the way of the money making con.

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      PJ

      I also find it weird that Christians attach to Jews but not Muslims who are also attached to their roots.

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      1. Dhafvens

        1. Christians and Muslims tend to squabble hard over which is the right universal religion. The passages in the Koran endorsing the political mistreatment of unbelievers make life difficult (along with general selfishness and lust for power, which both sides share). Jews neither try to seriously convert either group nor have had the power (until very recently) to exclude those who disagree with them.

        2. As the West becomes more secular, look to see more mutual appreciation between the "People of the Book" on culture war issues. Prominent Christians are already writing accolades for the Muslim families pushing back on LGBTQABCDEFZ propaganda in schools.

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        1. Avatar photo
          PJ

          I expect Muslims to neutralize their Koran like many Christians have done with their bibles also. We need to speak more to killing for your god makes your god look weak and silly.

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          1. Dhafvens

            I think that's a losing argument, PJ. Victory over one's enemies is a sign of divine favor in most religions. I find the argument from free will to be stronger: that a moral deity who wants everyone to worship him wouldn't be pleased by compelled worship, so we need to persuade rather than threaten.

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      2. Martin W Kraegel III

        It's because of their eschatological interpretation of the modern state of Israel. That and the Arabs who invented Islam are thought of as being of the seed of Ismail through Abraham's concubine Hagar.

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          PJ

          Gods work in mysterious and weird ways.

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  8. Ashleynoah

    MAGA funding for Israel makes sense when you look at it from the lens of Christian Nationalism. Christian Nationalism views support of Israel as a key religious pillar and a protection for/against (?) the end times. You have to layer on the religious element to the otherwise incoherent MAGA worldview.

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    1. Rch22

      Yes, I was surprised he missed this.

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  9. RGS

    Beyond any political bias of the IRS, most on the Right viscerally dislike it. I see little of the populist support of "Yeah, let's soak the rich" Nick (rationally) says should be there.

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    1. Martin W Kraegel III

      I don't see the MAGA right being committed to an economically populist agenda of the kind, say, Bernie Sanders advocates. They love wealthy people. They worship folks like Trump and Musk etc.. They don't care that Trump's a tax cheat.

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  10. Rossknode

    The whole argument about securing the border to stop drugs from coming into this country is ridiculous. That is presupposing people illegally crossing the border are carrying drugs. Where is that evidence? People who are illegally crossing are doing it on foot. How in the world is someone who's trying to get across the Rio Grande on foot supposed to be carrying any amount of drugs? They're not. Drugs are coming into the country at checkpoints in vehicles. Increasing our ability to quickly scan more and more vehicles at crossings is what will slow the drug trafficking, not preventing people from illegally crossing the border on foot.

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    1. Martin W Kraegel III

      A lot of drugs come through the port system as well. Still the principle of having a secure border matters regardless.

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      Normb1442

      Targeting commercial vehicles, many of which are owned and operated by American corporations at both ends of the cross-border journey, shifts attention from poor Latinos on foot, who are choice targets for MAGA politicians. Don't expect that to change because of logical arguments like the ones you've presented here.

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