Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is splitting from fellow House Republican Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and, in a lengthy thread on X, formerly Twitter, explaining why House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is not the cause of budget chaos and noting a motion to vacate stripping him of his gavel won't fix what has long ailed the process of funding the federal government.
After the House and Senate were able to pass a continuing resolution to temporarily avert a government shutdown over the weekend, some House Republicans — but mostly Gaetz — were unhappy with the outcome and said they would attempt to strip Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) of his gavel with a motion to vacate this week.
Conservatives such as Mark Levin have leveled criticism at Gaetz for killing a continuing resolution that would have cut spending and increased border security, saying he "plots and schemes with the most radical Marxist Democrats in the House" in his efforts to go after McCarthy.
Now, Gaetz's fellow House Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is pushing back on attempts to pursue a motion to vacate against McCarthy.
"I don’t agree that a motion to vacate will effectively create the changes needed to solve the intentional systemic failure that create the annual never ending CR’s and Christmas omnibus mega spending packages," Greene wrote.
"We are here because Congress operates on a calendar set up for producing annual failure," Greene explained of the usual funding mess that seems to always be in crisis mode at the last minute.
"With a September 30th fiscal year end, and a calendar that sends congress home all of August & half of September, it’s obvious why there’s usually an emergency CR to avoid a shutdown usually resulting in a Christmas omnibus which is really like a giant lump of coal in the American people’s stockings," MTG continued. "No wonder we’re $33T in debt. Intentional systemic failure is something I have no respect for and refuse to be a part of," she declared. "This has to change."
That failure, Greene explained, is why she ran for Congress in the first place aiming to fix what's broken. MTG said she agrees with Gaetz that "things must change," but argued a motion to vacate would not actually fix things.
Instead, a motion to vacate, Green said, "gives the upper hand to the Democrats, during dangerous times while we have been handed over under the presidency of an ailing old man ridden with dementia, whom has spent over 50 yrs in Washington seats of power corruptly enriching himself and his family by delivering policy deals to foreign investors."
In addition to opposing the motion to vacate, Greene said she also opposes talk of attempts to expel Gaetz and argued congressional Republicans need to "get our act together" and "get off the power trips, stop the absurd drama, remember who the enemy is, stop fighting with each other, and get serious about solving the problems that produce annual systemic failure."
"That requires real hard work," Greene noted. "And real hard work that is focused on putting America first, and ourselves last." That work, however, is never easy — especially with a slim Republican majority in the House.
"The electorate gave Republicans the majority this congress, which means we are in charge of responsibly making a budget and control where the American people’s hard earned tax dollars are spent and how," Greene reasoned. "But we only have 222 Republicans and it takes 218 to pass anything. I can’t possibly explain to you how difficult it is to get 218 of us to agree on anything, I often compare it to that family argument of not being able to agree on where to eat dinner," she said.
"And now while our federal government is once again floundering with less than 45 days left on another CR (borrowed money & borrowed time) and we still have to pass 8 more Appropriation bills, it’s going to be really hard to do that in normal times but now we’ve got to start the week off with a big family feud with a motion to vacate Kevin McCarthy and a movement to expel Matt Gaetz," Greene said, evaluating the state of play on Monday.
"All of this has the Democrats, who America’s electorate fired last congress, giddy with opportunity to take full advantage of gleaning prizes for themselves in exchange for votes," Greene noted of the effect of a House of Representatives "on the verge of chaos" that risks putting House Republicans "weakened and dangerously fractured."