The High Stakes in the New Speaker’s Race

Plus, a major healthcare strike ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ [The Fisc](   By Yuval Rosenberg and Michael Rainey Happy Wednesday. As Washington struggles to digest the unprecedented removal of a sitting Speaker of the House, candidates for the office are beginning to plot their strategies and work the phones. It may take a while before a clear winner emerges, though. Thankfully, we have baseball playoffs to watch in the meantime. Here’s what’s going on. Rep. Steve Scalise (Sipa USA/Reuters) Chaos in the House Leaves Key Questions Unanswered The full extent of the fallout from the political earthquake that was the ouster of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy won’t be clear for some time, but the immediate aftermath has involved House Republican lawmakers doing both a whole lot and nothing at all. By a whole lot we mean the maneuvering going on in the race to succeed McCarthy, with candidates positioning themselves for that or other leadership jobs and gauging what support they or colleagues might have in the GOP conference. Both House Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana, who announced in August that he had been diagnosed with multiple myeloma, and Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the firebrand chair of the House Judiciary Committee, said Wednesday that they were running to be the next speaker. Other top Republicans who might throw their hat in the ring include Rep. Kevin Hern of Oklahoma, who leads the conservative Republican Study Committee. Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota, meanwhile, is backing Scalise and aiming to take over as majority leader. It's not clear yet if any candidate — or anyone at all — can unite a bitterly divided Republican conference. As Republicans try to sort out their leadership and work through their intraparty anger, they are slated to hold a candidate forum next Tuesday, with votes for speaker potentially following the next day. Until then, though, the House is essentially frozen — and the Senate is out next week. The Republican dysfunction leaves several key issues yet to be resolved. Among them: The House rules: Some moderate Republicans, incensed over McCarthy’s ouster, are insisting that the threshold for triggering a “motion to vacate,” the process used to remove the speaker, must now be set higher than the single vote that McCarthy had allowed. Hardliners want the rule to remain as is. How this clash plays out could determine how secure the next speaker will be in the job. Government funding and a potential shutdown: The short-term government funding bill enacted on Saturday — the proximate cause of (or excuse for) the uprising against McCarthy — set November 17 as the new deadline to avert a government shutdown. That’s just 44 days away. But House action to pass the GOP’s annual spending bills or negotiate either short-term or full-year legislation to avoid a shutdown is now delayed. And the next speaker could find it nearly impossible to reach any sort of bipartisan compromise on federal spending levels. President Joe Biden warned Wednesday that the deadline was not far away, and he called for bipartisanship. “We cannot and should not again be faced with an 11th-hour decision or brinkmanship that threatens to shut down the government,” he said. “And we know what we have to do, and we gotta — we have to get it done in a timely fashion.” Support for Ukraine: With House Republicans increasingly opposed to providing additional aid for Ukraine, Biden on Wednesday expressed concern that such funding was at risk given the GOP turmoil. “It does worry me,” Biden said, “but I know there are a majority of members of the House and Senate in both parties who have said that they support funding Ukraine.” Biden said he’d be making a major speech on the issue, explaining “why it’s critically important for the United States and our allies that we keep our commitment.” Biden has asked for an additional $24 billion in emergency funding related to the war against Russia, and the White House said this week that current funding levels would last about two more months. Jordan told reporters Wednesday that he’s opposed to providing more money for Ukraine. “The most pressing issue on Americans’ minds is not Ukraine,” he told reporters. The Pentagon currently has $1.6 billion available for replenishment of weapons sent to Ukraine, and the administration has the authority to send another $5.4 billion worth of weapons to Ukraine, according to [Reuters](. Number of the Day: 75,000 At a time of increasing labor ferment, unionized employees at Kaiser Permanente made history Wednesday as 75,000 of them walked off the job, initiating the largest healthcare worker strike in U.S. history. The workers are represented by a coalition of eight unions, and most plan to strike for three days following the failure of contract talks earlier this week. The strike is affecting hundreds of Kaiser facilities in California, Colorado, Washington, Virginia, Oregon and Washington, D.C., with the largest concentration on the West Coast. The striking workers – who include nursing staff, dietary specialists, receptionists and pharmacists, but not doctors – are demanding higher pay and increased staffing from Kaiser, one of the nation’s largest nonprofit health systems. Workers say that insufficient staffing has created an environment in which patient care is suffering. Doctors will continue to work during the strike, as will many nurses, Kaiser announced. Negotiations continued Wednesday, and workers are expected to return to work on October 7, even if no deal is struck. A longer strike is planned for November if both sides cannot come to an agreement in the meantime. Biden Forgives Another $9 Billion in Student Loan Debt President Joe Biden announced Wednesday that his administration has approved $9 billion in student loan forgiveness affecting 125,000 borrowers. The loan forgiveness is the result of corrections the Biden administration has made in three programs that have been plagued with problems in the past, the White House said. About 53,000 borrowers owing $5.2 billion will see forgiveness under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which applies to public service workers and requires 10 years of payments. Another 51,000 borrowers owing $2.8 billion who participated in income-driven repayment plans for 20 years but never received proper credit will benefit. And nearly 22,000 borrowers owing $1.2 billion will have their loans forgiven due to having total or permanent disabilities. Although President Biden’s previous effort to erase hundreds of billions of dollars in student loans for millions of Americans was rejected by the Supreme Court earlier this year, he has pledged to continue to find ways to reduce student loan debt. The Biden administration has now forgiven about $127 billion of student debt for nearly 3.6 million borrowers, according to a White House [press release](. --------------------------------------------------------------- Send your feedback to yrosenberg@thefiscaltimes.com. And please encourage your friends to [sign up here]( for their own copy of this newsletter. --------------------------------------------------------------- Fiscal News Roundup - [Scalise, Jordan Running for Speaker, but May Get Company]( – Roll Call - [It’s On: The Bare-Knuckle Battle for House GOP Leadership Spots Begins]( – Politico - [McCarthy Behind Move to Kick Pelosi Out of Her Office, Sources Say – So He Can Move Into It]( – CNN - [Biden Fears Congressional Chaos Will Disrupt US Aid to Ukraine]( – Reuters - [House Braces for Fight Over Ukraine Aid Amid Other Funding Priorities]( – The Hill - [Most Favor Military Aid to Ukraine, but Partisan Split Grows, Poll Finds]( – Washington Post - [Kevin McCarthy Was an Early Architect of the Republican Majority That Became His Downfall]( – Associated Press - [The Bewilderment and Schadenfreude the White House Feels Over McCarthy’s Ouster]( – Politico - [What Can Patrick McHenry, the Interim Speaker, Do?]( – New York Times - [Vote to Oust McCarthy Is a Warning Sign for Democracy, Scholars Say]( – Washington Post - [Kaiser Workers Launch Largest-Ever US Health Care Strike]( – Bloomberg - [Over 80 Percent of Four-Star Retirees Are Employed in Defense Industry]( – Washington Post Views and Analysis - [McCarthy’s Gone. Republican Dysfunction Is Here to Stay]( – Dana Milbank, Washington Post - [Republicans Cut Off Their Own Heads]( – Wall Street Journal Editorial Board - [Why Is the Public’s Business at the Mercy of a Few Extremists?]( – New York Times Editorial Board - [McCarthy’s Extraordinary Downfall Reflects an Ungovernable G.O.P.]( – Carl Hulse, New York Times - [McCarthy Became the Latest Victim of Trump’s Extreme GOP Revolution]( – Stephen Collinson, CNN - [Can Anyone Lead House Republicans Out of the Darkness?]( – Michelle Cottle, New York Times - [Republicans’ Very Bad Week Distracts From Real Target: Joe Biden]( – Mario Parker, Bloomberg - [How Gerontocracy Explains the Matt Gaetz Clown Show]( – Ross Douthat, New York Times - [Are Rising Bond Yields and Deficits a National Crisis?]( – Eric Levitz, New York Copyright © 2023 The Fiscal Times, All rights reserved. You are receiving this newsletter because you subscribed at our website or through Facebook. 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