House Freedom Caucus

Where Things Stand: Save This Clip For Next Time They Pretend They Don’t Wanna Cut Soc Security, Medicare
This is your TPM evening briefing.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is seemingly trying to get a handful of far-right members of the Freedom Caucus to chill out and stop threatening to redo the speakership election. They’re not likely to successfully depose him, but no one is eager for a redo of the January spectacle as a few loud members seek to reassert their authority. And, so, in what is seemingly a half-hearted effort to throw them a bone, McCarthy went on Fox News and promised to create some vague “commission” that’ll review further cuts to next year’s budget.

The speaker then took it a step further. Instead of just promising that “this isn’t the end” and proposing some sort of additional amorphous cuts to quell a hardliner uprising, McCarthy doubled down, raising the possibility that this next step commission could look into gutting Social Security and Medicare. Music, in theory, to the ears of a salivating Freedom Caucus.

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Where Things Stand: Some 2024 Hopefuls Latch Onto Freedom Caucus Complaints. Trump Remains Silent.
This is your TPM evening briefing.

As my colleague Josh Marshall spelled out earlier, there is one very loud voice that is notably absent from this conversation.

Donald Trump has remained largely silent on the debt ceiling ever since the Biden White House and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) settled a deal over the weekend to ransom the debt ceiling hostage in exchange for some GOP legislative priorities, most notably work requirements for SNAP recipients.

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UNITED STATES - DECEMBER 11: Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., makes an opening statement during the House Judiciary Committee markup of the articles of impeachment against President Donald J. Trump in Longworth Building on Wednesday, December 11, 2019. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)
UNITED STATES - JUNE 12: Reps. Justin Amash, R-Mich., left, and ranking member Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, are seen during a House Oversight and Reform Committee markup in Rayburn Building on a resolution on whether to hold Attorney General William Barr and the Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross in contempt of Congress on Wednesday, June 12, 2019. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)
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