Speaker McCarthy

As you know, the impasse among Republicans in the House of Representatives was broken early Saturday morning. After a modern day record of 15 roll call votes, Kevin McCarthy was finally elected speaker of the House.

The breakthrough came after tough negotiations with House conservatives that stretched on into the wee hours of Saturday morning.  

In spite of a relentless barrage of condemnation from Big Media, including from many talking heads at Fox News, 20 conservatives held their ground until they secured significant concessions and reforms from Kevin McCarthy, and quite frankly, the uni-party establishment that runs Washington, D.C.

I believe this debate was a great victory for principled conservatism. 

I won’t bore you with a lot of inside the Beltway mumbo jumbo, but here’s the bottom line: They got guarantees that there will be votes on important issues conservatives care about, such as critical pro-life legislation, border security and term limits. They got a guaranteed number of seats for conservatives on the important Rules Committee, and they secured other important commitments as well.

This admirable effort by Republicans to open up debates and forge a consensus was mocked as “chaos,” “a threat to the Republic,” “a danger to democracy,” etc., etc. 

In reality, it was merely a return to how the House has operated for most of our history until recent years. Sadly, things really went off the rails during the pandemic and got worse after January 6th.

For example, the massive $1.7 trillion omnibus bill that passed last month was approved under proxy voting rules. Hundreds of members were not actually in Washington, D.C. to vote on it in person. That’s over.

The House gallery has been closed off to you, the American people. It was only reopened at the insistence of the new Republican majority.

There hasn’t been an amendment allowed on the House floor to improve legislation in more than six years. That’s going to change as conservatives demanded a more open process.

Many of the conservative establishment critics, particularly those on Fox News, at the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, were saying, “The American people elected a Republican House to get things done,” and this delay was hurting our cause. That’s nonsense. 

The voters who elected this new majority are sick and tired of “business as usual,” and they want specific things done. 

They want to stop spending massive amounts of money we don’t have. They want conservatives to secure the border, protect our liberties and stop the progressive march toward socialism.

Of course, there were good people on both sides of the debate. I understand why some were uncomfortable with what seemed like a very public airing of the GOP’s “dirty laundry.” But I believe the debate was worth having and that it will yield positive results down the road.

Biden’s Border Photo Op

Joe Biden’s trip to the southern border yesterday was a total joke. The streets of El Paso were cleaned up before he arrived, and critics were largely kept away. 

When Biden wanted to score political points during the House speakership debate, he scheduled a trip to Kentucky with Senator Mitch McConnell, pretending to show how bipartisan he is. 

But when Biden went to the southern border, he didn’t ask Texas Senator Ted Cruz or Attorney General Ken Paxton to be there with him. That would have risked a serious debate in public. 

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott met Biden at the airport and handed him a letter describing what a disaster his open border policy has been. It’s not clear if Biden even bothered to read Abbott’s letter. And, as I expected, Biden failed to apologize to the Border Patrol agents he viciously smeared as “racists.”

Meanwhile, so many people are crossing our southern border that it’s hard to nail down exact figures. The numbers are off the charts -- anywhere between three and five million people. 

We don’t know how many illegal aliens have entered our country any more than we fully understand how deeply in debt we are.

But Biden and the media want everyone focused on what happens to the three to five million illegal aliens after they have walked into America. Biden is complaining that Republicans won’t give him more money to help process them. 

That can’t be the focus of this debate. The focus must be how we stop another three to five million people from entering the country.

No To Amnesty

All this misdirection is leading up to a huge battle over another massive amnesty. I suspect that 20 to 25 Senate Republicans will vote for amnesty, as long as there is some money for border security.  That must not happen. 

Unfortunately, Ronald Reagan fell for this Washington trap. Once you go down the road of amnesty coupled with securing the border, the border security can always be undone. But there’s no undoing the amnesty. 

One of the first things Joe Biden did when he took office was order an immediate halt to border wall construction. Now, they’re actually taking down sections of border barriers in some places. 

We must secure the border. 

We must stop illegal immigration. 

We must only accept legal immigrants. 

Any amnesty will just create millions of new liberal voters and serve as a magnet for more illegal immigration as a reward for violating our laws.

Amazing Recovery

Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin continues to recover from his sudden cardiac arrest. In fact, he was released from the University of Cincinnati Medical Center and returned to Buffalo this afternoon. 

Meanwhile, many Americans continue to be amazed and encouraged by how his experience emboldened so many Christians in sports to praise God and urge prayers without shame and embarrassment. 

I was reminded recently about a famous quote by President Abraham Lincoln. He once said, “I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go.  My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for that day.”

Just as the Bills and Bengals players were driven to their knees in prayer for Damar Hamlin, we must continue to pray for a revival of faith in America and for an amazing restoration of our great Judeo-Christian heritage.