Several weeks ago Congressman Matt Gaetz initiated the motion to vacate Kevin McCarthy from the House Speaker’s Chair.  Because removing the Speaker is an extreme, and highly disruptive, action, Gaetz wanted to ensure the public clearly understood why he was doing so. For this reason he did a round of interviews on the cable news shows and the independent news outlets, such as Bannon’s War Room.

As Gaetz explained it, McCarthy needed to be ousted as Chair because he had repeatedly broken the promises he had made in January when he was elected Speaker. The broken promises Gaetz was most concerned were those involving fiscal responsibility. For example, McCarthy had broken his promise to present 12 clean spending bills before the August recess. Having 12 clean spending bills ready prior to August not only was in compliance with federal law, but it also afforded House committees time to carefully scrutinize individual line items in each bill, and debate what to cut in order to ensure we didn’t add any more debt to our current $33 Trillion in debt. Instead of keeping this commitment, McCarthy ensured that the House left for August recess without any individual spending bills completed. Gaetz asserted that McCarthy had done this intentionally in order to lead the House down the usual path of having to scramble at the end of the year and push through one behemoth omnibus spending bill that was full of pork, rather than cuts.

McCarthy also was pushing for new aid for Ukraine and Israel — something Gaetz also opposed due to our astronomical $33 Trillion debt.

Since McCarthy’s ouster the House has been engaged in the process of choosing a new Speaker. During this time Gaetz has thrown his support behind Jim Jordan and Tom Emmer. This is perplexing because neither candidate exhibits the brand of fiscal responsibility that Gaetz supposedly requires of a Speaker. Jim Jordan has developed centrist RINO tendencies in the past few years, and was publicly supporting massive financial aid for Ukraine and Israel. Tom Emmer was McCarthy’s whip, and a candidate who many view as being as bad as McCarthy when it comes to fiscal irresponsibility.

Gaetz’ inconsistency is concerning — why did he oust McCarthy for his fiscal irresponsibility, only to turn around and then support new candidates who appear to be of the same vein as McCarthy? Did Gaetz really go against McCarthy for his fiscal irresponsibility, or, was that just an excuse he used to oust McCarthy for personal reasons?

We can’t ask Gaetz to explain himself because he isn’t going on the cable shows, and he isn’t providing any explanation via social media or his podcast. 

We hope to get a full explanation from Gaetz in the near future.