POLITICS

GOP Division, Dysfunction Already On Display

Can the party of Trump actually govern?

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With Donald Trump leading the way, ‘Republicans’ won the presidency, captured the U.S. Senate and retained a narrow majority in the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2024 elections.

The historic vote served as a decisive repudiation of the economic lethargy, woke ideology and immigration insanity foisted upon the country under the administration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

But will the GOP – which offered itself up as the alternative to these failed policies – be able to govern? Will Republicans be able to deliver on the many promises made to voters on the campaign trail? And as for Trump, will he be able to more consistently advance the ‘America First’ populism that has placed him (once again) at the helm of the American Republic?

Early returns are not encouraging…

The dysfunction and drama accompanying last week’s passage of a continuing resolution to fund government for the next 74 days exposed deep rifts within the GOP caucus – and within the MAGA movement.

At the center of the gathering storm? South Carolina’s Nancy Mace.

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Nancy Mace (Provided)

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Mace was one of thirty-eight fiscally conservative Republicans (fellow South Carolinian Ralph Norman was another) who voted against a Trump-backed proposal to raise America’s debt limit in conjunction with a scaled-back spending bill. Fiscal conservatives rightfully argue a debt limit increase must be accompanied by corresponding spending cuts. Meanwhile, MAGA backers believe Trump’s tax-cutting agenda could be stymied absent an increase in the debt limit.

Others believe the debt limit debate is “performative.”

“If the goal is financial discipline, the debt ceiling is not a viable substitute for rigorous scrutiny of appropriations,” noted former Cato Institute board chairman Robert A. Levy. “Americans would be better off by repealing the debt ceiling and avoiding the periodic hand-wringing over breaching a performative number.”

According to Treasury data released earlier this month, the red ink coming out of Washington, D.C. in the final months of the Biden/Harris administration is nothing short of staggering. A whopping $624.2 billion in new deficit spending was recorded during October and November – the first two months of the federal fiscal year. That’s the highest two-month total to start a fiscal year ever – and has pushed the national debt to a scarcely comprehensible $36.3 trillion.

Rather than unite behind fiscally conservative tax and spending policy, Republicans are eating each other… with Mace finding herself at the center of several unsavory spats with GOP centrists as well as MAGA luminaries.

Frustrated by incessant criticism directed at her by former South Carolina congressman Trey Gowdy, Mace posted the following missive on X…

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Mace’s “bathroom broadside” against Gowdy sparked a flood of recrimination – including a sharp rebuke from her former campaign consultant, Wesley Donehue.

“You can stop texting me,” Donehue wrote on X. “I fired Nancy Mace as client a few months back because I’m a political consultant and not a babysitter, a sex therapist or a doctor who can prescribe fixes for chemical imbalances. I don’t have time for her constant egotistical bullshit and drama in my life.”

Mace also mixed it up with conservative commentator Jack Posobiec, stating in a post on X she wouldn’t be bullied by him and was “not sure what his obsession (with) me is all about.” Mace further stated she “would not” with Posobiec – an open-ended declination many interpreted as her expressing a lack of sexual interest in the married activist.

That assertion opened the floodgates for another round of vitriol against Mace – including a broadside from Posobiec’s wife, Tanya Tay Posobiec.

“Honey, he’s not going a rent a Honda Civic when he’s got a Ferrari at home,” Posobiec wrote on X.

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As these sophomoric exchanges were unfolding, the proverbial red ink meter was running… with billions of dollars in new deficit spending being added to a debt burden now totaling $271,791 per taxpayer.

It’s a “red ink reckoning” – and with each passing day it slips further from the reach of rectification.

Rather than addressing this pernicious reality during the latest spending debate, Trump took another tack – threatening to run primary challengers against several fiscally conservative Republicans seeking to hold the line on new deficit spending.

How on earth is that in any way consistent with the mandate he just received?

Trump ran great guns in 2016 – vowing to drain the swamp in Washington, D.C. and to eliminate deficit spending in our nation’s capital. Obviously, things didn’t work out that way – and Trump’s fiscal failure was one of the reasons he lost his reelection bid. Crippled by the inevitable inflation ensuing from years of bipartisan profligacy, voters have seen fit to give Trump and the GOP yet another chance to right the nation’s fiscal ship. And with interest payments on the national debt now approaching $1 trillion annually, trust me… it’s now or never.

Can they do it? Based on the first spending debate since Trump’s election, the answer would appear to be a resounding “no.”

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …

Will Folks on phone
Will Folks (Brett Flashnick)

Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.

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2 comments

Nanker Phelge December 24, 2024 at 12:36 pm

In her attempts to become the new MTG, Nancy will soon be fighting Lauren Boobert in the ladies room. She is shameless.

Can’t wait until we buy Greenland!!!

Reply
Tom December 27, 2024 at 10:19 am

Its amazing this site covers crap like this while ignoring the important news that the Tech Bro wing of MAGA thinks it has bought and earned control of this Presidency, and is now saying that America does not make good engineers; so they need to bring in more engineers from India.

So much for America first. I guess in the era of Trump it is billionaire first, millionaire second and we don’t really think the third place matters.

Reply

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