276
submitted 3 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world

When Republicans gained control of the House in November 2022, many in Washington wondered how they would be able to govern effectively with one of the slimmest majorities in history. Some Democrats even speculated if they might be able to take back the House before the term ended.

Sixteen months later, as the Republican majority has shrunk even further, House Speaker Mike Johnson is admitting that possibility. He told Fox News on Monday that there is a slim chance he could lose the speakership to Democratic House leader Hakeem Jeffries in the next few weeks amid a wave of early retirements. "That's a risk,” Johnson said of Democrats taking control of the House.

Already three Republican lawmakers have resigned from their posts mid-term—Reps. Kevin McCarthy, Bill Johnson, and Ken Buck. A fourth Republican, Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, is expected to step down in mid-April, bringing the party’s former nine-seat majority down to just 217-213 as Republicans lost a fifth seat after George Santos was expelled from the House.

all 31 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] Kid_Thunder@kbin.social 67 points 3 months ago

many in Washington wondered how they would be able to govern effectively with one of the slimmest majorities in history

Through diplomacy and compromise I'd imagine.

[-] Hazzia@discuss.tchncs.de 20 points 3 months ago

Bro they ain't even able to govern effectively when they had a bigger margin, why are they only asking this question now

[-] shadowspirit@lemmy.world 11 points 3 months ago

🤯 mindblown

[-] MagicShel@programming.dev 41 points 3 months ago

I feel like 4 more retirements just to get it to a tie seems exceedingly unlikely.

[-] Astrealix@lemmy.world 19 points 3 months ago

Honestly though, at the point where only two people would need to flip for the majority to go to the Democrats, it seems crazy that no one's tried.

[-] quindraco@lemm.ee 11 points 3 months ago

You could read the article. The majority threshold is based on seats, not members.

The spate of early departures means that Republicans can soon only afford to lose one single vote when all lawmakers are present and voting, since 216 votes would constitute a majority.

[-] kbotc@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Bobo’s out ill, soo… That threshold has been reached.

[-] SkyezOpen@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

So theoretically a dem could vote to vacate right now and they could potentially do it? Though I imagine Republicans would be incredibly offended they didn't call the vote and uninamously vote against.

[-] MagicShel@programming.dev 1 points 3 months ago

I get it's about defects on individual votes, but Jeffries isn't going to become speaker without an actual majority. Anything short of an actual majority just means Republican control of legislation becomes more tenuous, not that Democrats will take control.

[-] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 5 points 3 months ago

It's possible that a few Blue State GOPs would cross Party lines to vote for him.

Sampe quote. "I am a proud ronald Reagan Republican. I remember when Reagan and Tip O'Neil would fight over a bill, then reach a mutually acceptable compromise. I'll happily step away from the likes of Lauren Bobert in the name of civility."

[-] MagicShel@programming.dev 4 points 3 months ago

I'm not getting excited until it actually happens. I'm burnt out being edged by the news for almost 8 years that Trump was on the verge of being held accountable. I'm done. Hope it'll happen, but I expect nothing and I expect this whole article to be a completely pointless waste of energy by the time elections roll around. I would fucking love to be wrong.

[-] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 2 points 3 months ago

There's an old joke about how to things come to complete ruin. Gradually, and then all at once.

[-] shalafi@lemmy.world 22 points 3 months ago

I'm not so certain I'm having fun watching the GOP implode any longer. Laughed my ass off for some time, but as they get more desperate, they're getting more radical.

[-] Hyperreality@kbin.social 28 points 3 months ago

They were getting more radical anyway.

[-] crusa187@lemmy.ml 0 points 3 months ago

Yeah of course, they’re going to try to take everything down with them as their party implodes. What else would you expect from such simpletons?

[-] Jaysyn@kbin.social 21 points 3 months ago

These traitors deserve to lose much more than their majority.

[-] xploit@lemmy.world 20 points 3 months ago

Wouldn't surprise me the least if these early retirements were all planned so that Dems get house control few months before elections, can't accomplish anything with it because bunch of them are just as useless (double agents?) as republicunts, and republicunts get to blame all the inactivity over these two years on dems and everyone will eat it up

[-] Dkarma@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago

You absolutely want to control the house.

Can you idiots stop pretending "the GOP will say..." Is a valid excuse to not do something we were going to do.

The gop will always criticize the Democrats in bad faith no matter what. Stop fucking pretending otherwise.

[-] Asafum@feddit.nl 8 points 3 months ago

Not that I want them to win at all, but I think losing the house would be a godsend to the Republicans. It would be yet another fire under the asses of voters to "save America" from the Democrats...

I'm so sick of all of this. I'm so mad my candidate lost...

[-] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 15 points 3 months ago

I think losing the house would be a godsend to the Republicans. It would be yet another fire under the asses of voters to “save America” from the Democrats…

How would that logic work?

GOP Reps: "You need to vote us Republicans in so we get majority control of Congress !"

GOP voters: "err, we did. You guys quit in massive droves after passing the least amount of legislation in history. So you didn't do your jobs, then you quit, and you want us to vote you back in? Won't you just quit again?"

[-] Jimmyeatsausage@lemmy.world 28 points 3 months ago

It would work the same way it's worked for the last 30 years...Fox News will make some shit up and they'll believe it.

[-] EldritchFeminity@lemmy.blahaj.zone 13 points 3 months ago

They don't care about what actually happens in the government. They would happily get torched under a flamethrower if they could hold a couple of immigrants down underneath them while it happens.

Or, as my grandfather used to say, and my boss when I was a teenager, "I'm a Republican. I vote for the nominee."

[-] empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 3 months ago

you are making a massive fatal flaw in logic in this comment: you're assuming repubitard voters have enough braincells to use logic, or object permanence from more than 1 week ago

they only ever react to whatever the current fox news outrage is

[-] treefrog@lemm.ee 8 points 3 months ago

You're overestimating the memory of the average voter.

[-] hanrahan@slrpnk.net 7 points 3 months ago

You've not met many republicans then ?

[-] Soulg@sh.itjust.works 6 points 3 months ago

Mostly because republican voters are absolute dipshits with the memory of a goldfish who believe everything they're told on right wing TV without a second thought

[-] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 4 points 3 months ago

Talk to a Boomer who was around in the 1970s, and they'll bend your ear telling you about how they could live well off of minimum wage.

Then ask them if Reagan's 'trickle down' ever worked for them. They'll really go off telling you how great Reagan was.

[Apologies to all those who voted for Jimmy Carter et al]

[-] frezik@midwest.social 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Do Democrats want to take the speakership at this point? They may not be able to get much done between now and the next congress, anyway. Why not let Republicans continue lopping their own limbs off with a chainsaw?

[-] SpruceBringsteen@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago

Because it might stop some Russians from doing the same to their neighbors?

[-] kbotc@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago

They can push proper funding bills through which would help calm investors and improve the economy/lower inflation which would help next election a ton.

this post was submitted on 04 Apr 2024
276 points (99.3% liked)

politics

18073 readers
2921 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
  2. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  3. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect!
  4. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive.
  5. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  6. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS