'Total failure': MAGA Republicans revolt after Mike Johnson cuts spending deal with Dems

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) is facing a growing rebellion from within his own caucus after working with Democrats on a framework to keep government agencies funded as a deadline looms.

The Hill reported Wednesday that a procedural vote failed after 13 Republicans joined all Democrats in voting down holding debate on several non-budgetary bills. Republicans from the far-right House Freedom Caucus (HFC) reportedly shut down debate on the bills as a means of protesting Johnson's latest government funding proposal brokered with Democratic members of Congress. That deal greenlights a total of $1.59 trillion through fiscal year 2024, with another $69 billion in non-defense spending.

"It’s even worse than we thought," the HFC posted to X (formerly Twitter) after the deal was announced. "Don’t believe the spin. Once you break through typical Washington math, the true total programmatic spending level is $1.658 trillion — not $1.59 trillion. This is total failure."

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Johnson is already struggling to maintain cohesion within the House Republican Conference after a wave of exits reduced his already-thin majority at the end of 2023. Later this month, Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Ohio) will leave Congress to accept a job as president of Youngstown State University, meaning after his exit, Johnson will only be able to have two defections from his caucus in order to pass legislation without Democratic votes.

On Wednesday, Reps. Andy Biggs (R-Arizona), Bob Good (R-Virginia), Chip Roy (R-Texas), Ralph Norman (R-South Carolina), Anna Paulina Luna (R-Florida), Matt Rosendale (R-Montana), Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia), Scott Perry (R-Pennsylvania), Eric Burlison (R-Missouri) and Andy Ogles (R-Tennessee) voted against the procedural motion, suggesting Johnson may have lost a key bloc of his majority over his bipartisan efforts to avert a government shutdown.

Under the "laddered" funding package Congress passed in November, there are now two separate deadlines to avoid a shutdown, with some agencies operating through January 19, and all remaining agencies needing appropriations by February 2. Johnson had more votes from Democratic representatives than from Republicans when passing the November deal through his chamber. Republicans argue deep spending cuts are necessary in order to address the $34 trillion national debt. However, in a 2020 post, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis explained that a vast bulk of the national debt is actually just US Treasury securities, which institutional investors use to park their money to get around the $250,000 FDIC limit for bank deposit guarantees.

"To the extent that the national debt is held domestically, it constitutes domestic private sector wealth... The implication of this is that increasing the national debt makes individuals feel wealthier," the St. Louis Fed wrote. "[W]e might want to look at the national debt from a different perspective. In particular, it seems more accurate to view the national debt less as form of debt and more as a form of money in circulation. Investors value the securities making up the national debt in the same way individuals value money—as a medium of exchange and a safe store of wealth. The idea of having to pay back money already in circulation makes little sense, in this context."

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