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What concessions should House Democrats demand from Republicans in exchange for cooperation in electing a Speaker?

Making a deal with Democrats is one of the few obvious ways out of this mess for Republicans, and I’m convinced that Democrats shouldn’t help them for free.

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Ynotisay · M

I'm shocked he was voted in unanimously by Republicans. A right wing, Trump supporting, election denying, gay hating, abortion denouncing, extremist ideologue is now running the show and not ONE Republican had the guts to show any integrity.

This is the guy the NYT reported was “the most important architect of the Electoral College objections" in the 2020 election. A dude who represents a district that has about half of the U.S. median household income and gerrymandered the district to be more white and insure GOP control.

So any deal with the Democrats that may have come to pass to actually get Congress back to work would have meant nothing. They have no honor.

They went all in and the ONLY hope left to stop these people and protect this country is for the 40% of Americans who can't take the five freaking minutes to vote is for them to vote. If they do the GOP will be powerless on a federal level and it's long overdue. There can't be another election driven by apathy and ignorance.

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whowasthatmaskedman · 70-79, M

@Ynotisay One must not lose sight of the fact that there are two American games being played out here. The internal one, where quite frankly not much anyone can do will make a lot of difference, and the global one, where the Democrats are usually more consiliatory and the Republicans take a more aggressive stance. But Trump is an outlier. A complete sell out for money or trickets to anyone. That guy trashed Americas reputation overseas almost beyond repair then Biden spends most of his time trying to save the ship..(And hes not really the man for that job..)

Ynotisay · M

@whowasthatmaskedman I'm on board with most all of that but the perception of the U.S., by both populations and leaders, has rebounded pretty damn well under Biden. So I have to think he is the right man for the job. He was dealt a shitty hand, didn't whine, got to work and it's paying off. Which seems to be a pattern for all Democrat Presidents over the past decades.

whowasthatmaskedman · 70-79, M

@Ynotisay We agree. However, part of that is not down to Biden. Its down to it simply not being trump this time. You could have elected Phil the Groundhog and things would have got better on their own. Although fair is fair. Biden does get some credit..😷

JPWhoo · 36-40, M

Obviously it doesn’t matter now because Republicans finally found a consensus candidate for Speaker and elected him.

But, what I was thinking about were not like items on a wishlist for a progressive agenda, instead I was thinking about some basic expectations that we would hope reasonable, civilized conservatives could get behind. Things like:

Requiring the Speaker nominee to either have voted to certify the 2020 presidential election or to renounce his vote in opposition to certifying the election (or, in the case of a candidate who didn’t have the opportunity to vote to certify the 2020 election because he wasn’t in Congress at the time, require him to make a public statement affirming the legitimacy of the election).

Guarantee that aid will be sent to both Israel and Ukraine.

Some kind of deal to keep the government funded through…maybe at least Election Day 2024?

Drop the frivolous impeachment inquiry into President Biden.

Maybe some other things too, but those are the ideas I remember now.

ChipmunkErnie · 70-79, M

Too late -- the GOP has installed another whack-o into place.

whowasthatmaskedman · 70-79, M

@ChipmunkErnie Oh I can see this ending well... NOT!😷

BigBulge · 41-45, M

That's a non starter. The Democrats will never help the Republicans approve a Speaker.

SumKindaMunster · 51-55, M

Ok everyone can relax now, they finally elected a new speaker...for now....

https://www.foxnews.com/live-news/speaker-of-the-house-race-october-25

Rep. Mike Johnson was elected by the House to become the next speaker as Republicans rallied behind their fourth nominee to replace former Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Johnson could afford only a handful of defections from his fellow Republicans in the chamber-wide vote, but unlike prior candidates, there were no defections to his candidacy from his party.

He won 220 votes, needing around 217 to become speaker.

RosaMarie · 41-45, F

Ukraine and Israel aid
Something for the border, but I'm not sure what that might look like since no side has good ideas here.
Higher tax rate for the wealthy
Debt limit extension to the end of the year

JPWhoo · 36-40, M

@RosaMarie It doesn’t matter now, but I would think that would be asking too much. Even moderate Republicans would be upsetting their base to agree to a higher tax rate for the wealthy. Any new legislation other funding for existing programs and situations would have been too much to ask for, I think.

RosaMarie · 41-45, F

@JPWhoo I never said I expected them to get it. Just that would be the bar for a consensus. Or maybe a federal abortion bill that was middle ground and would wipe out the crazy states.

Patriot96 · 56-60, C

Making a deal with the. Devil

smiler2012 · 56-60

@JPWhoo well it may be a bit of a case of win some lose some i agree it does seem unfair with a plea bargain they walk free . alas in law that is a sort of lost leader they are preared to make them too turn evidence against the big fish in this case trump

Mistakesmakeus · M

I doubt that'll happen because the last person who made a deal with the demo-rats was ousted and fired by his fellow conserva-tards

JPWhoo · 36-40, M

@Mistakesmakeus Well it doesn’t matter now, but a few extreme members of his own party couldn’t have ousted him if he had had support from Democrats. He stabbed Democrats in the back, making negative public statements about them after they had just worked with him to temporarily avoid a shutdown, that’s why Democrats wanted him out.

Apparently you don’t like either Democrats or conservatives?

Mistakesmakeus · M

@JPWhoo but the democrast are in the minority, republicans voted him out due to having more than enough people to handle the vote. And since they saw working with the democrats and bending the knee that easily well... that just stoked a big ol flame and caused his own party to turn on him. Now we have a man who got the nomination.... and quit like hours later, a man who didnt even want to go to begin with and still got votes, and a man who lost the vote 3 TIMES

laotzu92 · 70-79, M

Now a moot point. But the Dems might have done it for the benefit of the republic. Or is that not a good enough reason?

JPWhoo · 36-40, M

@laotzu92 It would have been misguided to have done it simply “for the benefit of the republic” without extracting any concessions from Republicans in return for their cooperation. Republicans got themselves into this mess. Democrats helping them get out of it for free would have been enabling bad Republican behavior, which, in the long run would have been bad for the republic.

SumKindaMunster · 51-55, M

They don't need to do that.

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LeopoldBloom · M

@SumKindaMunster The problem is that anyone acceptable to the Freedom Caucus won’t be acceptable to the moderates, and vice versa. Although, if someone is obscure enough like this Johnson guy, either side can say they’re surprised when he doesn’t do what they want.

SumKindaMunster · 51-55, M

@LeopoldBloom Well then I guess we'll just be stuck in this cycle forever huh?

LeopoldBloom · M

@SumKindaMunster I should have checked the news before posting, as they had already picked Mike Johnson. The guy is a theocratic fascist, but he's been around for such a short time, and has accomplished so little, the moderates can get away with saying "oh, we didn't know he would do that" when he shuts down the government unless the Senate passes a national abortion ban.

It's not going to be that bad. Johnson is a terrible fundraiser and has very little negotiation experience. He's going to make McCarthy look like a genius. I predict this guy won't last two months before he upsets someone. The racists are already mad at him for saying that his adopted Black son will have a harder time in life than his white son because of institutional racism.

Stillwaiting · M

We need to kick most of these clowns out of office and start over

Roundandroundwego · 61-69

A vote on sigle payer.

Tetsuya · 56-60, M

term limits

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