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What the Battle for House Speaker is Really All About

On Tuesday, while Terry and I attended the swearing in ceremonies for Senators Rand Paul and Mike Lee, we were inevitably drawn to the drama playing out in real time on the other side of the Capitol, in the House of Representatives. As someone who used to be intimately involved in such things, I wanted to offer a little historical context for what’s going on as Kevin McCarthy continues to cling to the hope that he will eventually win the vote for the next Speaker of the House.

This fight is indicative of the diminishing power of the office of the Speaker over individual House members. Leadership historically controlled campaign purse strings in a complete top-down system. It was very difficult for individuals, particularly non-incumbents, to raise their own war chests. Since leadership controlled the re-election chances of the rank and file, they owned their votes. So, a vote for Speaker was typically just ceremony.

Technology-fueled grassroots movements like the Tea Party and the Ron Paul Revolution empowered political outsiders to fundraise and organize outside of the formal party structure. When elected, they were less beholden to leadership and could act more independently—democratically, as it were. The response from the Speaker, starting with John Boehner, was to continually strip more of the rights away from individual members, and centralize the legislative process, particularly the budget process, as a way to marginalize individuals within the conference.

This didn’t ultimately work for Boehner, who was taken out by those marginalized members. But it worked well for Pelosi, because outsiders like AOC and the Squad ultimately bent the knee and typically submitted to her will. This is where these multi-trillion “omnibus” mystery legislative packages came from, and why the entirety of government is done behind closed doors by leadership on Christmas Eve.

Thus, the more democratic political outcomes are, the less democratic the legislative process becomes.

This clash between the democratization of everything and the desperate attempts by political elites to maintain control is playing out everywhere. And right now it’s playing out in Kevin McCarthy’s so-far failed attempts to secure the speakership. Who knows how this may end although I’m sympathetic with rabblerousers like Rep. Chip Roy. The best outcome, regardless of who wins the speaker’s gavel, would be a return to regular order and an open and transparent budgeting process that allows individual members to offer amendments in committee and on the floor. This is something Justin Amash has been talking about for years. I don’t know if that will happen today or tomorrow, but something has to give, and someone needs to step up and seriously address the willful bipartisan collusion that has produced so many trillions in new debt.

If you’re interested in a short, but deeper dive into this, I recorded a special Kibbe on Liberty yesterday, including a brief conversation with Congressman Roy, who stepped out from the floor battle. Three days in, this beltway saga continues.

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Free the People publishes opinion-based articles from contributing writers. The opinions and ideas expressed do not always reflect the opinions and ideas that Free the People endorses. We believe in free speech, and in providing a platform for open dialog. Feel free to leave a comment!

Matt Kibbe

Matt Kibbe is President at Free the People, an educational foundation using video storytelling to turn on the next generation to the values of personal liberty and peaceful cooperation. He is also co-founder and partner at Fight the Power Productions, a video and strategic communications company. Kibbe is the host of BlazeTV’s Kibbe on Liberty, a popular podcast that insists that you think for yourself.

Dubbed “the scribe” by the New York Daily News, Kibbe is the author three books, most recently the #2 New York Times bestseller Don’t Hurt People and Don’t Take Their Stuff: A Libertarian Manifesto.

He was senior advisor for a Rand Paul Presidential Super PAC in 2016, and later co-founded AlternativePAC to promote libertarian values.

In 2004 Kibbe founded FreedomWorks, a national grassroots advocacy organization, and served as President until his departure in 2015. Steve Forbes said: “Kibbe has been to FreedomWorks what Steve Jobs was to Apple.”

An economist by training, Kibbe did graduate work at George Mason University and received his B.A. from Grove City College. He serves at the whim of his awesome wife Terry, and their three objectivist cats, Roark, Ragnar and Rearden. Kibbe is a fanatical DeadHead, drinker of craft beer and whisky, and collector of obscure books on Austrian economics.

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