Washington Wednesday: The obstacles facing Speaker Johnson

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Wednesday the sixth of March, 2024.

This is WORLD Radio and we’re happy you’ve joined us today! Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

Today is Washington Wednesday, and we’re looking at another government funding deadline this week.

If that sounds familiar, it’s because Congress has been stuck in this loop since last Fall, extending deadlines while negotiating government funding, only to again extend the deadlines.

REICHARD: But on Thursday, House Speaker Mike Johnson said this messy process is still an improvement from passing massive omnibus spending packages of the past.

SPEAKER MIKE JOHNSON: We broke the omnibus fever, right? That's how Washington has been run for years. We're trying to turn the aircraft carrier back to real budgeting and spending reform. This was an important thing – to break it up into smaller pieces…

BROWN: Speaker Johnson and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer agreed on a funding plan after meeting with leaders of the Senate and the White House last week.

The House bill outlines funding for six of the twelve appropriations bills. It would also slightly raise defense spending while making small cuts to some federal agencies like the FBI.

REICHARD: Joining us now to talk more about Johnson’s leadership in this process is Marc Clauson. He’s professor of History and Law at Cedarville University. Before that, he served in West Virginia’s Department of Finance.

Marc, good morning.

MARC CLAUSON: Good morning.

REICHARD: Johnson mentions the government funding process is like turning an aircraft carrier around: going from massive omnibus bills without much debate or scrutiny back to individual appropriations bills with debate and scrutiny. Based on Johnson’s four months as speaker, by how much has he turned the aircraft carrier around?

CLAUSON: Not a whole lot, and I actually don't blame him for that. For the most part, I think what we have here is an institutional problem that's been going for a long time. For one thing, the funding bills get bigger and bigger. For another thing, there's every incentive for one side, generally liberal or Democrats, to spend more and every incentive for the more conservatives to spend less, but conservatives have to deal with the fact that they have to spend money for their constituents. So they're incentivized to vote for more spending, too. So we get piecemeal kind of budgets. We don't really get full budgets anymore. They don't meet, they don't talk about a whole budget, they do these little pieces of spending, funding. And in the meantime, the institutional arrangement continues. There's no incentive in the abstract. Everybody would say we want to limit spending. But when it comes right down to your district, they can't do it. They can't limit their spending. But at the same time, they can't act as if there are no limits at all, if they're conservative. So that puts them in a quandary.

REICHARD: Well, this is the second deal speaker Johnson's made with the Democrats to pass a spending plan and fund the government. He used another continuing resolution to extend the deadline, and that frustrated some people, but Johnson said the point was to give lawmakers time to read the bill before voting on it. What does this say about his ability to lead his caucus and lead the House?

CLAUSON: Well, it's difficult to lead a caucus and to lead the house. Now, especially there's a fringe group, of course, that may vote against any spending bill, and he has to face that he has to somehow compromise for them. And then he has to somehow compromise for the middle way Republicans. That means he has to get together and form some kind of a coalition with the Democrats. And that's really hard to do. It's always been hard to do. But because, like I said, because of the institutional arrangements that we've been seeing for the last few decades, makes it even harder for him to do. He's not exemplary, but he's not a failure yet, either. We'll have to see, time will tell.

REICHARD: Johnson says his goal is to get the funding for fiscal year 2024 done so that Congress can get a head start on funding for 2025. What are his biggest obstacles to making that happen?

CLAUSON: Well, he's obviously got to bring his right side along with him, that is the more conservative, much more conservative members of the House, because it's a really thin margin. And he has to bring them and he also has to bring some of the Democrats along too. And again, that means he's got to compromise. He's got to form coalitions. Can he do it? I think he can. Other speakers have managed it fairly well. But it's still not the ideal, and I don't know whether he can ever reach the ideal.

REICHARD: Well, let's turn now to the top Republican over in the Senate, and that is Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who announced on Friday that he was going to step down as leader after the 2024 election. And here's part of what he said.

MCCONNELL: As Ecclesiastes tells us, for everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven. To serve Kentucky in the Senate has been the honor of my life. To lead my Republican colleagues has been the highest privilege. But one of life's most underappreciated talents is to know when it's time to move on to life's next chapter.

Marc, let’s talk legacy for a moment. What stands out to you about McConnell’s record?

CLAUSON: Well, in the last few years, I think his efforts to to keep the Supreme Court conservative have been really good. He didn't bring a vote for Merrick Garland to the floor, he resisted that. That was big, because at that time, it could have begun to go in the wrong direction. And he prevented that from happening. His main legacy overall is not so much what he did, but what he didn't do, how he would keep bills that were bad from reaching a vote. And he could be really good at that when he wanted to be. Sometimes he couldn't do it. But he was very close even on the ones where he didn't succeed. So it's really what he didn't do that really stands out to me. And that helped the nation, I think.

REICHARD: Last question...Thursday is President Biden's State of the Union address. He is now consistently polling behind Donald Trump in swing states. So this is an opportunity for the President to win over voters. What do you expect to hear Thursday night?

CLAUSON: Well, I know there's going to be a huge effort to get the president to sound very presidential and very dignified, very sharp. That's crucial, because of the criticism of his age and his cognitive abilities. He's going to have to sound like he knows what he's talking about. He also is going to have to find a way to appeal to the voters out there who are unsure of not only his age and cognitive abilities, but also his policies. What's he going to say? Right now, it looks like there's very little that the Democrats are able to say effectively to sway voters. For example, he could say, “Democracy is under threat right now.” He could also say, and this is a little trickier, that “My policies have been working. They may not have worked as fast as I thought they would, but they've been working.” So he'll point to inflation, the rate of inflation slowing down, although inflation hasn't stopped, it's slowing down. He'll point to that. He's going to point to some of his programs that have been passed. He's going to point out people in the audience who will testify to that. 

Beyond that, it's not clear to me what he's going to be able to say, outside of those kinds of things. He knows that if he goes too far, he's going to sound, come off sounding like he's obfuscating or lying. And that's a problem. A president should never sound like that. He should be confident, and also accurate in what he says. Now, accuracy doesn't always mean that he tells the whole truth. But it does mean he what he does say he tells the truth. So voters are going to be looking for that.

REICHARD: Marc Clauson teaches history and law at Cedarville University in Ohio. Thank you for joining us, Marc!

CLAUSON: Thank you.

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