Chaos in the House as a Republican rebellion shuts down votes...

 

Republican Anna Luna led the rebellion. Fox News/Getty.

Two critical House votes have been tabled after a rebellion led by a small group of Republicans. Fox News. The rebellion was led by Representative Anna Luna who wanted legislation to pass that would allow members of congress to vote remotely for 12 weeks after having a child. Luna led an extremely rare Discharge Petition against her own party and was joined by 8 other Republicans and every Democrat in the House. House leadership tried to block the vote but failed as Luna had enough votes. The rebellion led to Speaker Johnson to cancel the rest of the votes this week, including critical votes on the No Rogue Rulings Act and the Safeguarding Voter Eligibility Act. 

My Comment:

What an utter embarrassment and this is why Republicans never seem to get anything accomplished. The core legislation at play here has little to do with the disorder in the house, it's the fact that instead of voting on absolutely critical legislation, Luna pulled a stunt and Johnson angered part of his party in response. Now neither bill is going to be considered and I am furious at both sides. 

I generally disagree with the idea that members of Congress should be able to vote remotely under any circumstances. If they don't want to be there after having a child, they can resign. For your vote to count, you should be in Washington DC. And the whole thing is ridiculous as the House has a child care unit, for free, as a perk of the job. There is absolutely no excuse for new parents in the House to have this vote from home perk when it's not needed at all. 

And Luna's rebellion is not going to play well at all for folks at home. Instead of doing what their base wants, Luna and her allies worked with Democrats (!) to shut down legislation for a niche issue that does not affect American voters in any way whatsoever! Most folks don't get 12 weeks of home work after having a kid and they certainly don't have free child care like members of Congress do. I know a lot of folks are very upset that the issue was even supported by any Republicans at all. 

Of course, Johnson stepped in it too. Instead of allowing this stupid vote to pass and be voted on, he tried to force a rule that would have stopped it. Had he simply allowed the vote to go through, it likely would have passed, which would have been bad optics, but nothing compared to this. He made the wrong choice and now two absolutely critical bills aren't going to go anywhere for at least the next week. 

So instead of voting on a critical legislation, the House ripped itself apart over a niche issue that voters are not going to care about at all, and giving the Democrats a rare win for absolutely no reason. How can Republicans claim to be a serious party if things like this continue to happen? The party won a mandate and the voters kept their part, but the party is absolutely not doing theirs. 

I have never understood why the Republicans constantly shoot themselves in the foot like this. The Democrats, despite being a much more fragmented and dysfunctional party, never seems to have their party pull stunts like this. I don't know if it's something in the psychology of Republicans that force them to fight amongst themselves or if the Democrats have better leadership (in terms of whipping the party).