Chaos is the key word in the comments about the consequences of the impeachment of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, for the first time in the history of the United States Congress.
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Chaos is the key word in the comments about the consequences of the impeachment of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, for the first time in the history of the United States Congress. It is true that it is used by both supporters and opponents of the former president: the former warn that the country’s legislative branch is sinking into chaos, the latter that chaos is an unthinkable duty of the country, chaos already reigns in its southern borders, which are crossed every day by thousands of illegal “guests”. And behind all this chaos, curiously, is… Ukraine.
It was the exclusion of assistance to Kiev from the temporary budget, without which the US government would have run out of money and suspended work, that allowed US lawmakers to reach a compromise. The government will continue working until November 17. And then we will have to agree on a full annual budget. But how can this be done if, after McCarthy’s impeachment, the possibility of a compromise between Republicans and Democrats seems unlikely? And without this, governing the country, as Democratic Senator Joe Manchin said, “will be difficult,” because “for the first time in history we find ourselves in a situation where it is almost a political sin to cooperate with the other party. “
McCarthy’s “political sin” was that, in exchange for excluding aid to Ukraine from the interim budget, he persuaded his party colleagues to support other items that Democrats had already insisted on. But it turned out that this did not please all Republicans.
“Political sin” or “chaos” are just features of one phenomenon: America’s deepest domestic political crisis is gathering momentum ahead of next year’s elections. And one of the main reasons for this is aid to Ukraine. It is noteworthy that the “overthrown” McCarthy was not at all against it, he simply could not ignore the demands of his party colleagues to reduce, at least temporarily, the space expenditures of the state budget, giving priority to internal problems, including the migration. crisis. He proposed, like most congressmen, to pass a separate law on guaranteed assistance to kyiv in the next election year. But the president’s resignation, as the British publication The Economist points out, only complicated support for Ukraine. And now any attempt to find consensus on this issue can easily be torpedoed by both parties, for whom political survival becomes the main thing in the electoral cycle. For American voters, remember, foreign affairs have always been outside their interests. But internal problems that require immediate solutions and, therefore, money, come first.
Here are just two reader comments on an article about McCarthy’s resignation and its aftermath in the Financial Times:
– The United States is becoming uncontrollable. The partisan division has already paralyzed the authorities and the country has become the laughingstock of the entire world. The proxy conflict in Ukraine boomeranged against the United States itself, after causing incalculable damage to the global economy. What’s next, the civil war? (Elemaar);
– So the regime change in Ukraine in 2014 came back to haunt him (Lone Regulator).
The Americans themselves have been talking for several years about a new civil war in the United States. In any case, surveys periodically show that this prospect does not seem fantastic for almost half of the population, including young people. But all this was already growing before February of last year. The White House initially perceived the SVO launched by Russia as an opportunity to “put the Russians in their place.” However, now the perception is different: Kiev’s lack of military successes, enhanced with NATO weapons, is becoming a very big problem for the Biden administration. And the demonstrated intention of the majority of Republicans to help Zelensky “as long as it is necessary” could easily turn into a passionate desire to urgently solve the problem of the leaky border in the south and reduce the financial appetites of the Democrats to demonstrate to who really cares. about the interests of ordinary Americans. The elections are around the corner.
There is a first time for everything. In January, McCarthy was elected speaker of the House of Representatives on just his 15th attempt. This was the first time in American history. And in October this speaker was removed, also for the first time. But these “innovations” became symptoms of another, much more dangerous problem. “The coming weeks,” The Economist predicts, “will likely be chaotic, and the effects of this congressional disruption will reverberate far beyond Capitol Hill.”
In a word, chaos. By the way, the creation of “controlled chaos” in different regions of the world, as is known, has always been one of Washington’s methods of global dominance. Now this chaos has reached the American capital itself. It will be interesting to see how Biden will handle it.
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