New US Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) speaks to reporters in Statue Hall after being elected Speaker of the US House of Representatives in the 15th round of voting late in the fourth session of the 118th Congress in the US Capitol. Washington, US, January 7, 2023.
John Cherry | reuters
After a chaotic week in the US House of Representatives Kevin McCarthyMaking a bid for the speakership, Republican representatives said Sunday they are not concerned that he gave up much to secure the gavel.
After 14 failed votes since Tuesday, California Republicans were able to overcome opposition after making extraordinary concessions to a small faction of the far-right who refused to support his speaker bid.
Republican Representative Scott Perry, who had been among the most vocal opponents of McCarthy’s speakership bid, flipped his vote for McCarthy on the 12th ballot. He said on Sunday that the McCarthy’s Concessions Will act as a mechanism to get the job done and rule out issues like debt ceiling.
Perry said on ABC’s “This Week,” “It’s never about Kevin McCarthy. It’s about power for the American people.” “And with all due respect, Nancy Pelosi runs Congress like a prison camp with no accountability.”
Rep. Andy Barr, R-Q., said on Sunday that he was not concerned that Kevin McCarthy accepted too much to be the speaker. He said he understood why Americans were frustrated with the time it took to choose the speaker, but a healthy democracy requires debate.
“The process that we went through this week was pretty healthy in terms of resolving all of these issues,” he told ABC’s “This Week.”
In his first speech, McCarthy laid out an ambitious plan to address the 118th session of Congress on Saturday morning, saying he wanted the president to “be a check and provide some balance.” Joe Biden’s policies.
He said the first piece of legislation he plans to tackle would be to repeal funding for more than 87,000 new IRS agents. He underlined immigration reform as a top priority, saying the Republican-controlled House would hold its first hearing of the year on the southern border.
Rep. Dan Bishop, R.N.C. said he thought McCarthy was an “extraordinarily talented leader” and believed much work would be done while he was speaker.
He told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that the Speaker’s vote was not “useless chaos” as many had claimed. This gave Republicans an opportunity to take a closer look at each other.
“That was the most important equation deciding how this Congress would move forward, and we’ve achieved a huge amount,” he said.
Democratic representatives were less optimistic.
Massachusetts Democrat Catherine Clark told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that she thinks House Republicans were trying to turn Americans off their legislative agenda.
“When they talk about the process, it’s a smoke screen,” she said.
But House Minority Leader Hakeem Jefferies said that if McCarthy is willing to try and find common ground, he will find willing allies among House Democrats.
“Obviously we’re going to have strong disagreements at times, but we can agree to disagree without disagreeing,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday.