The rancor over the vote to oust Kevin McCarthy as Speaker seems quite pervasive. Seems to me we have not had a Republican Speaker fully committed to saving our republic since the first few years of Newt Gingrich’s Speakership.

By the summer of 2006, our Republican House majority had passed some good bills, but nothing with the intent of forcing the Senate to pass them into law. We had a Republican president who had been persuaded not to push for bold reform or a balanced budget. Voters saw through Congress’ self-satisfaction and we lost the majority.

After the landslide Republican victories in November 2010, it quickly appeared clear to some of us that Speaker Boehner wanted his committees to stimulate significant soundbites blaming Democrats for the problems, but he was not particularly interested in actually solving the problems. As a result, our new Republican majority passed up opportunities to get to a balanced budget. We passed up incredible opportunities to reform healthcare spending to assure more healthcare that was less costly. Yes, it was possible then. We even had no help from our Republican leadership, Boehner/Cantor/McCarthy, to stop illegal immigration. We could have; we should have; but, our leaders stifled our best efforts.

Just as with Boehner’s Benghazi Committee, it was clear he was not interested in anything from the committee but soundbites for political news. There was no interest in actual accountability. He lied to our Republican conference about his negotiations or lack thereof multiple times, along with so many other issues it would take a book to cover. Yet, because no one in the last 20+ years became chair of a committee nor received campaign money from the enormous coffers of the NRCC without Speaker approval, the vast majority of Republicans were lulled into being “team players” for what the Speaker said the team should do.

Even in 2017 when Republicans held the White House, the House and Senate, Ryan and McConnell prevented the best of our bills from passing both Houses. If one was passed in one house, it was quickly dismissed in backroom deals as to what legislation both leaders wanted to become law.

It is possible that we will not recover from the millions upon millions of people illegally welcomed into the U.S. by the Biden administration. The truth is that illegal immigration began long before there was a President Biden, but his administration created the exponential increase. We could have stopped it under the Bush administration, but did not. Great reductions were made under President Trump, but Speaker Ryan, like Hastert and Boehner were clearly not interested in ending the problem entirely. That gave Biden the opportunity to blow the gate wide open.

If the dollar were not the international standard currency, or the U.S. were part of some union like the E.U. so we could not control the number of dollars being created, we would have already experienced the complete collapse of our monetary system like Greece did in the last fifteen years.

Well before COVID, I was visiting with the leader of a foreign allied country when he asked about the US debt to GDP ratio. Having as much debt as GDP has traditionally signaled the collapse of an economy. On hearing that our debt to GDP was over 100%, he responded, “I didn’t realize the United States was in that much trouble.” Since 2020 and COVID, that ratio has grown to 120-130%.

Once you grasp the extent of the danger to this republic’s existence, you see unequivocally something must be done. “To get along, go along,” as Speaker Rayburn famously said, is not going to save our nation. The concern was so great last January, that two dozen Republicans endured the massive criticism to demand the Speaker relinquish some of the dictatorial power. That power had been accumulating in the Speaker since 1923 which was the last time a Speaker’s crown was delayed until he relinquished some power back to the members and committees.

As a result, McCarthy provided promises including reducing our debt and securing our border. Those promises finally achieved Kevin McCarthy’s election. Unfortunately, McCarthy, having been handpicked by Boehner for leadership in November 2010, handled the debt ceiling basically as Boehner and his handpicked successor, Paul Ryan, did. They agreed to an unlimited raising of the debt ceiling until January of 2025. There were House Republicans ready to take action back then. They were persuaded, however, to hold off to see how dramatically appropriations were reduced by October because it was going to be bold. It wasn’t.

If in the selection of the new Speaker, a person is elected who is finally independent of the imprudent thinking of the top House and Senate leaders of the last two decades, then we just might be able to extend this experiment in self-government for another generation or more.