@felix not if one person can call a vote to remove the speaker. If all Dems vote to remove McCarthy and 6 republicans don’t want the debt ceiling raised he’s gone right?

@felix What’s happening now is precisely what we’re worried is going to happen with the debt ceiling—a small group of nihilists preventing the orderly functioning of government. Also, to resolve the impasse, McCarthy is offering the nihilist more power to prevent things like raising the debt ceiling. So I think it’s worrying.

@felix It's a question of legislative rules and tactics: can the house pass legislation by discharge petition and majority vote, even if the beheld speaker and rules committee oppose it with every tool available?

@felix ? Nobody questions, I think, that there is going to be a majority in favor of raising the debt ceiling. But what gets brought to the floor isn't what a majority of Congress wants, it's what the majority party is able to have some consensus on, and worse, the debt ceiling adjustment is active not passive: they have to decide to do something. They can't even decide on a Speaker.

@felix they need to change the rules from majority to plurality voting, but I don’t know how they do that

@felix I don't see the mechanism. If McCarthy wants to raise the debt ceiling, you need unity, so that he doesn't get removed for raising the debt ceiling. If he doesn't, lack of unity could be good but you'd still need a way to bring the debt ceiling up for a vote.