Checks and Balance: Speaker out of turn

Checks and Balance from The Economist

The Economist

Politics, News & Politics, News, Us Politics

4.6 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 6 January 2023

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The 118th Congress is, so far, a shambles. A contingent of hardline Republicans have banded together to deny Kevin McCarthy the 218 votes he needs to obtain the speakership. The House can’t start the small matter of governing the country until the debacle is resolved. Can this Congress get over its chaotic start?

Molly Reynolds from Brookings explains how House procedure has led to the mess. We go back 100 years to the last time it took multiple ballots to elect a speaker. And The Economist’s James Bennet considers the prospects for the year in Washington.

John Prideaux hosts with Charlotte Howard and Idrees Kahloon

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Call it the Curse of the Young Guns. In 2010, three up and coming ambitious Republican
0:09.6	congressmen published a book with that title. They anointed themselves the new generation
0:15.3	of conservative leaders and claimed to be changing the face of the Republican Party. Instead,
0:21.7	the Republican Party changed them. Eric Cantor was House Majority Leader when he lost
0:27.4	his primary in 2014 and retired from politics. Paul Ryan made it to Speaker, but he served
0:34.0	just three years before retiring from politics. The last Young Gun standing, Kevin McCarthy,
0:41.4	has made history, but not in the way he would have hoped when he co-authored that book
0:46.0	13 years ago. He is the subject of the most protracted election for the Speaker of the
0:51.3	House of Representatives since before the Civil War.
0:56.0	I'm John Prado and this is Chex and Balance from the Economist.
1:03.2	Each week we take one big theme, shaping American politics and explore it in depth.
1:16.3	Today, can this Congress get over its chaotic start?
1:30.4	The 118th Congress is so far as shambles. Though Republican secured a narrow majority in
1:36.4	the midterm elections in November, a contingent of hard-line congressmen have banded together
1:41.3	to deny Kevin McCarthy the 218 votes he needs to obtain the speakership.
1:47.6	The House can't start the small matter of governing the country until the debub is resolved.
1:53.6	What does all this mean for how things will work in Congress this year?
2:11.3	With me this week to discuss the McCarthy model and try and make some sense of it are
2:16.4	Idris Kallun in Washington and Charlotte Howard in New York. Charlotte, how are you doing?
2:21.5	Happy New Year.
2:22.5	I am well. I'm happy to be back in New York. I was away for a few days. My favorite news
2:28.4	story from my hometown currently is about Mayor Adams receiving repeated warnings from
	...

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