House GOP pushes to punish rebels on the right
WASHINGTON – A push to punish a handful of the most conservative lawmakers in the House reignited in a closed-door meeting as some Republicans lashed out over their colleagues’ disruption of the lower chamber and GOP leaders’ agenda.
In a weekly Republican meeting Wednesday, Rep. Max Miller, R-Ohio, specifically called out the House Freedom Caucus during the meeting’s open mic session. The Freedom Caucus is a group of ultraconservative lawmakers who often have been a roadblock to spending agreements, foreign aid packages and other urgent legislation.
House Republicans as a group need “discipline and structure,” Miller said after the meeting, calling for Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., chairman of the group, and other right-wing conservatives to be punished for rebelling. The Ohio lawmaker suggested removing them from their committee assignments or cutting off access to campaign fundraising.
“No one here is special. And I think everyone in Congress needs to hear a lot that sometimes they don’t matter. Because sometimes their egos are so big that they think the world is to themselves,” Miller told USA TODAY after the meeting.
Miller also accused top Republican leaders of bowing to the rebels, questioning why Good was seemingly allowed more speaking time compared with other members.
“I’m just gonna say it. Bob Good gets to the mic and he gets like five minutes when everyone else gets a minute. Why?” Miller said. “It’s because for whatever reason, I think people in leadership are afraid of him. Well, I’m not, and that’s why I called him out.”
Good told USA TODAY the notion he is given more time to speak “is silly” and remarked “Good luck with having a majority” in Congress in response to Miller’s suggested punishments.
The House’s right flank has often drawn the ire of fellow GOP lawmakers for their outsized leverage since Republicans took control of the lower chamber last year. That power is boosted by Republicans’ razor-thin margin in the House.
The tensions between the House’s ultraconservatives and the rest of the conference reached a boiling point last year after just eight GOP lawmakers voted with Democrats to remove former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, RCalif., from his post. As Republicans squabbled over electing a new speaker for weeks, effectively paralyzing the House, calls to punish the members who voted to boot McCarthy surfaced.
Miller’s public call underscores that those tensions haven’t been resolved since October and could intensify as conservatives air their grievances over the latest government spending battle.
Members of the House Freedom Caucus have been furious at new House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and GOP leaders over their approach to government funding after Johnson announced a bipartisan handshake agreement with Democrats on spending this month.
Johnson’s move enraged conservatives who took issue with a side deal and added government spending they called unnecessary. In retaliation, Freedom Caucus members tanked a procedural vote last week and froze action on the House floor.
But they weren’t done. Afterward, those same conservative lawmakers led a pressure campaign against Johnson to back out of the deal he struck with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. Those efforts proved futile after the speaker announced he was sticking with the agreement.
Now, GOP members not aligned with the Freedom Caucus say their colleagues should stop wasting time and get in line with the vast majority of the conference that has followed the leaders they elected as a group.
“Some people come to town to fix it. Some people come to town to burn it down,” Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., told USA TODAY.
The Montana Republican, a former Navy SEAL and commander, looked back on his military service and said hard-right members need to get realistic when it comes to their demands, considering Democrats control the Senate and White House.
“From a commander’s perspective, we don’t have command of the field. We don’t have the Senate. We don’t have the administration. We have power, but we can only wield it if we work together,” Zinke said.
When asked whether disruptive members should face consequences, Zinke said being a part of the conference “is a privilege, not a right.”
Rep. John Rutherford, R-Fla., also said the rowdy conservative members “ought to be punished” for their antics. Democrats, Rutherford said, are better at accepting small victories in negotiations, but conservative hard-liners “want 100% of everything, which is ridiculous. Because what you wind up with is a lot of nothing.”
“To use a football analogy, they want to throw a Hail Mary pass on every play,” he said. “You don’t win ballgames that way.”