“Nobody except Newsmax” is rooting for the “dangerous chaos and financial pain” that would come with a government shutdown, the Biden White House said Wednesday in a statement swiping the House GOP’s far-right wing and its favorite MAGA cable outlet.
Ahead of the House of Representatives returning from Christmas recess this week, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) announced an agreement with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on spending levels that would fund the U.S. government through 2024. The deal is largely in line with the bipartisan budget that then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) reached with President Joe Biden last year—an agreement that eventually led to McCarthy’s ouster from leadership by hardline Republicans.
And now those conservative lawmakers have threatened to scuttle any spending deal that would avert a shutdown.
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“The House GOP left Washington for an early vacation in December—as the president and Senators in both parties kept working,” Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates said in an exclusive statement to The Daily Beast. “Now, even though they just returned, a number of House Republicans are already shouting about how eager they are to shut down the government.”
The statement continued, “Think about that: House Republicans just got back to work, and they’re already clamoring to hurt our economy and undercut our national security by shutting the American government down. Nobody except Newsmax wants that dangerous chaos and financial pain.”
Since returning to Capitol Hill on Tuesday, House Freedom Caucus members have expressed fury over Johnson’s spending negotiations with the Senate, complaining that he abandoned conservative priorities.
“Before we could even get together, he announced the terms of the surrender,” Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH) told reporters, while Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) floated the idea of booting Johnson from the speakership—less than three months after Johnson succeeded McCarthy.
Hours after a contentious GOP meeting, the conservative rebellion took over the House floor on Wednesday as 13 House Republicans joined Democrats in striking down a procedural vote to start debate on several unrelated bills. “We don’t have a great deal of opportunity to express our disapprobation,” Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) said, explaining why right-wingers pulled off the maneuver.
Outside of wannabe Fox News rival Newsmax, as the White House pointed out, Johnson has faced heat from other members of the MAGA media. Podcaster and ex-Trump strategist Steve Bannon said Wednesday that “maybe it’s time to look for a replacement” while blasting the speaker for not committing to “shut down the government” over Biden’s border policies.
“And when it comes to dangerous chaos, remember that for three straight weeks last year, House Republicans’ infighting paralyzed Congress after they removed the Speaker of the House,” Bates wrote in the White House statement. “The American people were rightly fed up with that self-inflicted turmoil.”
He continued: “What’s more, that came after House Republicans took numerous votes that would have damaged economic growth and harmed our national security, like attempting to eliminate over 2,000 Border Patrol agents and forcing hard-working Americans to lose health care coverage.”
The White House statement further touted the economy, claiming the “American people are experiencing major financial gains thanks to Bidenomics” while noting that “inflation and costs are falling.”
“Americans want their leaders to conduct themselves like President Biden is—reaching across the aisle in good faith to achieve even more progress toward making us safer in the world and more prosperous here at home,” Bates concluded. “The last thing American families deserve is for extreme House Republicans to plunge the country into harmful, unforced chaos that hurts our economy and undermines our national security.”
