Mike Johnson, the current speaker of the House, is hell-bent on keeping his post in the next Congress despite only having a one-vote majority and facing resistance from angry archconservatives. In the face of a Democratically controlled Senate and White House, he remains steadfast in his pursuit of a conservative agenda, even as his Republican detractors believe he is caving into the liberal Washington establishment.
Even though he has only been speaker for about six months, Johnson is already threatened with ousting. His three most conservative House colleagues accuse him of giving in to Democrats and steering the party to the left on critical issues, such as the recent $61 billion foreign assistance package that went to Ukraine but did not contain any money for border security in the United States.
Johnson maintains his loyalty to Reagan’s conservative ideology and is doing his best to advance Republican agenda items, including working with Democrats to achieve incremental wins that keep the government running and handle crucial national security concerns. Instead of attempting to depose him as speaker, he thinks Republicans should concentrate on increasing their majority in the Senate and capturing the White House.
When it comes to addressing the southern border crisis and the runaway government spending that has caused crippling inflation and high-interest rates, many Republicans feel they have achieved very little of the policy victories they had hoped for under Johnson. The speaker justified his actions, including the funding for Ukraine, by claiming it was a decision influenced by generals who maintained that the country would be unable to defend itself against an invasion by Russia and would pose a threat to U.S. national security. He also mentioned that Democrats in Congress and President Biden would have opposed any attempt to tie the aid to policies and funding for border security.
If Donald Trump is elected president in November, strict border security measures will have a greater chance of becoming laws. It would be more prudent for Republicans to concentrate on increasing their majority in the Senate and the White House rather than plotting his ouster from the speakership.
