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October 28, 2023

Kevin McCarthy’s ouster revolved entirely around budgetary issues, including Ukrainian war funding. In his first floor speech as presumptive House Speaker, Mike Johnson outlined his priorities:

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The skyrocketing cost of living is unsustainable and Americans should not have to worry about how they’re going to feed their family every week because they can’t afford their groceries anymore. Everybody in this room should think about this. Here’s the stats: prices have increased over 17% in the last two years. Credit card interest rates are at the highest level in nearly three decades, and mortgage rates are now at a peak we haven’t seen since 2001. We have to bring relief to the American people by reining in federal spending and bringing down inflation. The greatest threat to our national security is our nation’s debt, and while we’ve been sitting in this room that debt has crossed almost $33.6 trillion. In the time that it’s going to take me to deliver this speech it will go up another $20 million in debt. It’s unsustainable. We have to get the country back on track. Now we know this is not going to be an easy task and tough decisions will have to be made. But the consequences if we don’t act now are unbearable. We have a duty to the American people to explain this to them so they understand it well and we are going to establish a bipartisan debt commission to begin working on this crisis immediately.

Johnson outlined “seven core principles of American conservatism,” including “fiscal responsibility,” two words terrifying to lobbyists. He was then sworn in as the 56th House Speaker and announced:

The chair would take this occasion to note that the Speaker’s announced policies with respect to particular aspects of the legislative process placed in the record on January 9, 2023 will continue in effect for the remainder of the 118th Congress.

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This is where it gets interesting. The January 9 Congressional Record provides a preview of coming attractions:

SEC. 2. CHANGES TO THE STANDING RULES.

(a) INITIATIVES TO REDUCE SPENDING AND IMPROVE ACCOUNTABILITY. —

(1) CUT-AS-YOU-GO. — In rule XXI, amend clause 10 to read as follows:

‘‘10.(a)(1) Except as provided in paragraphs (b) and (c), it shall not be in order to consider a bill or joint resolution, or an amendment thereto or a conference report thereon, if the provisions of such measure have the net effect of increasing mandatory spending for the period of either — ‘‘(A) the current year, the budget year, and the four fiscal years following that budget year; or ‘‘(B) the current year, the budget year, and the nine fiscal years following that budget year.

‘‘(2) For purposes of this clause, the terms ‘budget year’ and ‘current year’ have the meanings specified in section 250 of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985, and the term ‘mandatory spending’ has the meaning of ‘direct spending’ specified in such section 250 except that such term shall also include provisions in appropriation Acts that make outyear modifications to substantive law as described in section 3(4)(C) of the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010. . . .