Washington Wednesday: Bob Good’s final stand

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: It’s Wednesday the 18th of December.

This is WORLD Radio and we’re so glad you’ve joined us today. Good morning, I’m Lindsay Mast.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Time now for Washington Wednesday.

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With just days left in the 118th Congress, lawmakers are scrambling to fund government into the New Year or risk a shutdown.

MAST: When this session of Congress started back in 2022, Republican leaders had high hopes: They set out to restore so-called normal order meaning they intended to pass annual appropriations bills one by one instead of rolling everything together into one massive last-minute bill.

EICHER: That didn’t quite work out. One of the House Republicans on the front lines of this issue has been Virginia Congressman Bob Good, the now former Chairman of the House Freedom Caucus. Good was one of the Republicans who worked to push out Kevin McCarthy as House Speaker.

MAST: Good served two terms in Congress but then this summer he got pushed out, losing a Republican primary. His last day in office is Friday. WORLD’s Carolina Lumetta has the story.

CAROLINA LUMETTA: Virginia Congressman Bob Good has no qualms about saying no.

GOOD: We literally, with just the House, can stop and block anything. It's all about the money. All we have to do is not fund the policies we campaign against, the things we say we’re fighting against, the things we say we want to overturn or undo, or what have you. We’ll just not give you the money.

Good was first elected to Congress in 2020…representing a conservative-leaning district that includes the cities of Charlottesville and Lynchburg.

GOOD: Cutting our federal spending: is that a campaign talking point or is that real? Securing the border: is that a campaign slogan or is that real? Protecting our constitutional freedoms: are we really going to do that or are we just going to talk about it? All Republicans talk about those things, some of us have been willing to risk everything.

While in Congress, Good has often spent more time grappling with his own colleagues than with Democrats across the aisle.

GOOD: We can bring things to a screeching halt and force the Democrats to negotiate. I knew Kevin McCarthy wouldn't do that. He didn't do that. And that's why I was part of voting to remove him as speaker and to bring in Speaker Johnson.

Good and his conservative colleagues were hopeful that Louisiana Congressman Mike Johnson would lead the chamber in a new direction. Good and the House Freedom Caucus were pleased when Johnson listened to their recommendation to separate an Israel aid bill from a Ukraine aid bill. He called it the “high water mark.”

GOOD: We elected a speaker in October of '23 who believed the right things, at least the way he expressed them. But I saw the speakership change him almost immediately.

Johnson’s approach to government funding ran afoul of the Freedom Caucus’s priorities. He did get rid of the omnibus system, but not short term funding.

GOOD: I watched him change his views on Ukraine funding, which he said we would – We tried to get him to use the spending battles to secure the border. And he wouldn't, he refused to do that. He said, no, we're going to use the Democrats’ desire for Ukraine money to fight for border security. And then he changed his position on that. And he became in favor of Ukraine funding. And we didn't get any border security for it…

In the face of criticism, Johnson has defended his funding methods…as in this news conference yesterday where he discussed the latest continuing resolution to keep the government open.

JOHNSON: So it is not an omnibus, okay. It’s a small CR that we had to add things to. … We’re not doing an approps bill, we’re doing a short term CR to get us into next year, so we can put our fingerprints on what those final spending bills are.

The bill also contains a farm bill extension and supplemental disaster relief…for Hurricanes Helene and Milton.

Hardline conservatives like Good say stopgap funding like this is why they disapproved of McCarthy. For the 2024 funding, Johnson grouped the 12 appropriations bills into two batches, which lawmakers called “minibuses” instead.

GOOD: Abandoning his own stated position, and again, every major, six major funding bills, CRs or the minibuses, were passed with predominantly Democrat votes. So he has failed us. He's failed the country. He's failed Republicans.

Speaker Johnson’s office did not respond to WORLD’s request for comment. The GOP’s single-digit majority means Johnson can only afford to lose 3 or 4 Republicans for simple majority votes. And with his conference split on issues related to government funding, Johnson has negotiated with Democrats in order to pass short-term funding bills. In September, 209 Democrats supported a package that 82 Republicans opposed. Johnson secured that support by removing a provision that would have required proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections. Congressman Good finds Johnson’s approach unacceptable.

GOOD: He thinks it's worse to not do anything than he is to do something bad… We've got to be willing to say no. We've got to be willing to exercise walk-away leadership, where you're willing to walk away from a deal rather than do a bad deal and Republicans haven't shown a willingness to do that.

When Republicans reclaimed the House majority in 2022, Good hoped the coalition would operate on a more partisan basis. And with Republicans at the helm of all the committees, he wanted to leverage finances more.

GOOD: Most of what we fund is not an appropriate constitutional role to federal government. We could really cut our discretionary spending in half. We're spending about 1.7 trillion. About half of that's defense. Most of the rest is not justified.

Instead, Republicans negotiated. Good claims that working across the aisle compromises on conservative values.

GOOD: It's funny, Democrats don't talk about bipartisanship, nor do their media allies, when Democrats have full control of government. They unapologetically, unashamedly ram through their agenda. And this is not your parents and your grandparents' Democrat Party. The Democrat Party is an evil to be defeated politically.

Good cites common Democratic priorities like relaxed border security, COVID-19 lockdowns, and pro-LGBT ideology.

GOOD: And how do you compromise with that? If you have the majority and you have the power the people trusted you with, then utilize that to help the people, to save the country, to undo the harm that's been done… The American people don't want the things that they stand for. So, moderation or bipartisanship just means you don't stand for anything.

In the end, though, Good lost the support of members of his own caucus. Donald Trump, along with many Republicans in the House, endorsed Good’s primary opponent, John McGuire. Trump’s decision came after Good backed Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in the presidential primaries.

GOOD: I thought that we needed eight years instead of four. I was concerned because the polls indicated a year and a half ago when I made that endorsement that if President Trump were to be convicted by a crooked Atlanta, New York, or D.C. court that he would have trouble winning a general. Those polls were wrong, obviously.

McGuire defeated Good in a recount by fewer than 400 votes. After losing the recount, Good stepped down from his House Freedom Caucus leadership position. As an evangelical Christian, he says he’s been asking God about what to do next.

GOOD: His desire for all of us … is that we would bring him glory, that we would influence others for eternity, that he would utilize it to make us more like Christ. And I know that the journey that he's taken me through is consistent with that, what he has for me next is consistent with that. I'd like him to reveal the practical side of that on exactly what that looks like for me personally and professionally, and I honestly don't know yet.

But before he leaves Congress, Good has one last major vote this week…on keeping the government funded past Friday. With the federal deficit passing $1.8 trillion just for this fiscal year, Good says a shutdown might not be a bad thing.

GOOD: Just let there be a couple of weeks shut down into early January – who the heck cares if two weeks over Christmas the government's 85% of government continues operating anyway It's only the 15% that's considered non-essential. Probably most of what shouldn't even exist

In January, the GOP will have majorities in both the House and the Senate. With a trifecta of control between Congress and the White House, Republicans likely won’t want to burden the incoming president with a shutdown on his first day in office.

GOOD: Most Republicans, they don't want the responsibility of having to cut spending when they can't blame the Democrats anymore. If they have the House and the Senate and the White House, they can't blame the Democrats.

Now, House lawmakers have only days to address Speaker Johnson’s plan to fund the government through March. Republicans have complained that they are yet again ramming through last-minute funding legislation. But Johnson reassured his colleagues on Tuesday that working with divided government is almost over.

JOHNSON: We’re governing. Everybody knows we have difficult circumstances. We’re doing the very best we can under those circumstances…these are the hard choices that lawmakers have to make. But we will get the job done as we always do. We will keep moving forward, and in January we have a new lease on all this, so we’re excited about that. Looking forward to that opportunity.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Carolina Lumetta.

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