Rep. Martha McSally (R-AZ) consistently votes with the rest of the Arizona GOP congressional delegation who are members of the farther-far-right GOP House Freedom Caucus. She recently voted for the 20 week abortion ban and to defund Planned Parenthood as part of the GOP House Freedom Caucus aka the “Shutdown Caucus” plan to shut down the federal government this week over defunding Planned Parenthood.
This past week the GOP-friendly media in Arizona announced that Rep. McSally would not vote for a continuing resolution (CR) appropriation bill that defunds Planned Parenthood because it would result in a government shutdown. She is trying to have it both ways after enabling the GOP crazy base with her votes on abortion and defunding Planned Parenthood, but stopping just short of supporting a government shutdown, McSally: Don’t shutter government over Planned Parenthood funding, as if she should receive praise for doing what is the baseline expectation of most Americans, that their member of Congress will act responsibly and not shut down the government.
Rep. McSally was financially supported by Weeper of the House John Boehner in her races in 2012 and 2014. Boehner to campaign in Marana for McSally. In exchange for his financial support, McSally voted for Boehner for Speaker in January, when the radical extremists in the House first tried to unseat Boehner.
Now that Boehner has announced that he will resign at the end of October, the expectation is that a short-term CR appropriations bill funding the government through December 11 without a provision defunding Planned Parenthood will pass this week. (McSally may still have to vote on a reconciliation bill that does defund Planned Parenthood. Best bet is that she votes “yes” on both bills, trying to have it both ways again).
All this short-term CR will do is shift the government shutdown strategy to early December when the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the federal debt ceiling will be reached, CBO: Debt ceiling will be hit by early December, so the radical extremists in the GOP House Freedom Caucus can tie their annual lunacy over the federal debt ceiling together with the next CR seeking to defund Planned Parenthood, and take the country hostage again.
Rep. McSally said during a GOP primary debate last year: ““We are not a deadbeat nation, and we need to pay our bills and I would not have supported shutting down the government. That hurt people here in our community and Congress should have seen that coming. That is another failure of leadership that they wait until these things hit brinksmanship and then they make people back on main street actually suffer for that…I would not have voted to shut down the government but we need to pay our bills those were two separate votes… and I wasn’t there. Do we want to lose full faith and credit in the United States, I don’t think so . . . So I would not have supported us losing full faith and credit.” Republicans in CD2 Race Would Rewrite Immigration, Border Bill.
Well, you are there in Congress now, Ms. McSally, and your Arizona GOP Congressional Caucus colleagues are plotting a government shutdown over the federal debt ceiling and defunding Planned Parenthood.
Question for Martha McSally: What are you doing to stop a government shutdown? I mean, other than enabling the “Shutdown Caucus” by voting for their bills to defund Planned Parenthood?
Now that the TanMan is stepping down as Speaker, this sets up a vote for Speaker and other GOP leadership positions in the House. The “conventional wisdom” of the Beltway media villagers is that Kevin McCarthy is the next speaker, which probably means they are wrong. Lucky Kevin McCarthy is the odds-on favorite to be the next speaker. He’ll need it.
McCarthy has a thin resume and little experience in a leadership position. Steve Benen explains, Who wants the Worst Job in Washington?
Remember, when McCarthy was elevated to the #2 slot in the House Republican leadership, he’d only been in Congress for seven years – making him easily the least experienced Majority Leader in American history. By one count, during his brief tenure, McCarthy sponsored only three bills, and only two of them actually passed.
One of them renamed a post office.
The other renamed a flight research center.
Now he’s going to be Speaker of the House and second in the line of presidential succession?
This is sending a sheep to slaughter at the hands of the radical extremists in the GOP House Freedom Caucus. If you thought Boehner was weak, just wait.
There are 9 Possible Candidates for House Speaker: Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) currently House Majority Leader; Jeb Hensarling (R-TX); Jim Jordan (R-OH) and chair of the GOP House Freedom Caucus; Raúl Labrador (R-ID); Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) currently chair of the House Republican Conference, now running for House Majority Leader; Tom Price (R-GA); Peter Roskam (R-IL); Steve Scalise (R-LA), now running for House Majority Leader; and Daniel Webster (R-FL) who ran against Boehner in January. Expect announcements in coming weeks.
Question for Martha McSally: Who will you support for Speaker of the House, and why? If McCarthy does move up, who will you support for House Majority Leader, and why?
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Here’s what I don’t understand about Martha McSally. Her claim to fame is that she sued the Pentagon so that she wouldn’t have to wear a head scarf in Muslim countries, saying that was an unreasonable burden for her to bear. Now this probably meant wearing a scarf for an hour or two while she was off base.
On the other hand, she thinks it’s perfectly fine to force a woman to carry a fetus inside their body for nine months.
It just seems surprising that a woman who makes such a big fuss about a scarf would be so interested in letting the government tell her what she must do with all her other body parts.