Very few Americans believe Congress is doing a good job. Some of them have a simple solution: Throw the bums out and institute term limits. But that creates more problems than it solves.
The 118th Congress put in a lot of late nights, but it doesn’t have a lot to show for it.
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Kevin McCarthy, the only speaker of the House to be ousted, has quit Congress. The ancient Greeks and Romans, as well as Shakespeare, understood the price of ambition like McCarthy’s: humiliation.
Tabulating votes during one of the many ballots held by House Republicans to choose a speaker.
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In the wake of the three-week internal GOP battle to choose a speaker, a scholar of Congress says that what looks like dysfunction is actually something else.
House Republicans applaud as U.S. Rep. Mike Johnson, center, is elected the new speaker of the House on Oct. 25, 2023.
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The problems faced by the House GOP in choosing a new speaker aren’t particular to Republicans. They’re a reflection of larger problems that have afflicted both parties in Congress.
There’s trouble under the U.S. Capitol dome.
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The absence of a speaker of the House − a single individual but the linchpin in Congress − could produce a dangerous crisis in America’s constitutional democracy.
Jim Jordan, center, has been working feverishly to line up support for his speakership.
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
In the 1850s, a fight over the speakership took nearly two months and 133 rounds of voting. But for nearly a century, the majority party in the House has unanimously supported its leader. No longer.
With Patrick McHenry leading the House as speaker pro tempore, spending and legislative options appear limited.
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
Long gridlocked by fighting between the two major political parties, the US House is now split by conflict within the GOP, thanks in part to redistricting practices that boost extremism.
Republican Kevin McCarthy held a press conference after being removed from his post as speaker of the US House of Representatives.
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The breadth of the deals House speaker Kevin McCarthy did to gain the post are now becoming clear.
Kevin McCarthy addresses the media during one of his earliest news conferences as speaker of the House of Representatives.
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The House GOP has announced a slew of investigations, including a review of the conduct of the Department of Justice and its investigations of Donald Trump.
Donald Trump with Republican Kevin McCarthy who is attempting to get elected as speaker of the House of Representatives.
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The Congress that ended on Jan. 3, 2023, had 15 vacancies, a rate unmatched since the 1950s. If that rate continues, whoever leads the now-closely divided House will face trouble.
Given the Labor government’s small majority, the speaker’s role will be especially important in this parliament. The much larger cross-bench will be arguing for a greater voice.
Senior Associate Fellow on the Middle East at RUSI; Associate Professor in Politics & International Relations; Deputy Director of the Centre on US Politics, UCL