Sofia ☭🇧🇷☭Jan 7, 2023
Can someone give me the TLDR on the US Speaker of the House situation and why it matters? Do the Republicans actually control the House now or is this just another case of the Democrats failing to keep their reps in line?
Show threadTravis from 🇨🇦

@sofiav

The Speaker is a key role in the House, having a lot of control over the basic functions - without a Speaker nothing else can happen, and they control much of the flow of business once selected. Nancy Pelosi appeared to be very effective in this role, Kevin McCarthy has bargained away much of his own power to get elected - it remains to be seen how this works out.

Republicans control the House in the sense that they have the votes for a simple majority when they all work together, but as the Speaker situation has shown they are significantly divided. How well they exercise the control of the house is very much in question.

Without control of the Senate they are not going to be able to do anything significant but may pull off big symbolic moves only to have them blocked as they move through the rest of the system.

This could end up simply being a blockade to any further Democrat agendas until the next election which could swing things in either direction.

Hope that helps!

Jan 7, 2023 at 4:55pmWeb
Show threadSofia ☭🇧🇷☭Jan 7, 2023
@TCadd thanks. Although from what I understand, Democrats had simple majorities in both the House and Senate for the last two years and still weren't getting very much done? So now they'll get even less done? Hooray? 💀
Show threadTravis from 🇨🇦Jan 7, 2023

@sofiav

Sort of. Part of the problem is that in the Senate a simple majority is not usually enough - thanks to the very strange filibuster rule they usually need 2/3rds to pass something, and they needed two senators who seemed to enjoy obstructionism to reach that number. In that situation they were stuck, and so often made major concessions to their bills to appease the obstructionists.

The current situation is not conducive to big moves by either party but for symbolic action to raise outrage the Republicans are well placed. They often manage to turn outrage in to votes, so it may benefit them in the next election. For Democrats the opposite effect seems to happen more often from what I can see, so their position is less advantageous.

Show threadSofia ☭🇧🇷☭Jan 7, 2023
@TCadd the filibuster thing was weird too because they weren't actually DOING the filibusters, right? They should have been forced to actually stand there and speak every time they wanted to block something, to see how often they'd actually go through with it
Show threadSofia ☭🇧🇷☭Jan 7, 2023
@TCadd ...did I actually use the word "actually" 3 times in that toot? 💀
Show threadTravis from 🇨🇦Jan 7, 2023
@sofiav
... Yes
Show threadTravis from 🇨🇦Jan 7, 2023

@sofiav

That is a part of why it is odd, definitely. That and having to apply it to virtually everything is crazy.