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House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) isn’t finished caving to the far-right in his conference, even as they continue to sabotage his attempts at passing party-line spending bills ahead of an imminent government shutdown.
The latest instance came on Friday—just eight days out from a shutdown—when McCarthy bowed to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-GA) demand to remove $300 million in aid for Ukraine from a Pentagon spending bill. The bill was voted down by Greene and other hardliners twice this week, despite usually being one of the easiest government funding measures to pass, and one McCarthy hoped would chart a way forward for passing a wider resolution to divert a shutdown.
The concession underscored the lengths to which McCarthy has been forced to go to appease hardline conservatives who, because of the razor-thin margins in the House, effectively have a gun to the speaker’s head allowing them to get whatever they want at the expense of effective governing.