Kevin McCarthy Made A Secret Deal That Is A Threat To Democracy

Kevin McCarthy made a secret agreement that got him the speakership, but it also poses a threat to the nation and democracy.

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House Republicans Talk About Democracy While Kevin McCarthy Makes Secret Deals

The loss of transparency in the actions of the government is a profound threat to democracy. When Donald Trump was president, he launched an assault on the mechanisms that helped to shine a light on the activities of the executive branch. The daily press briefing vanished. There were no more readouts of presidential calls with foreign leaders.

Information about what was happening in the White House dripped out through leaks from anonymous sources to the media. Even Trump’s refusal to release his medical records and tax returns was an assault on previous norms and transparency expectations.

In Congress, when Republicans were last in charge of the House and Senate oversight was weakened. Trump witnesses were allowed to lie during hearings with no accountability, and worst of all, the Trump tax cuts for the wealthy were written behind closed doors out of the sight of the American people.

It is being reported that Kevin McCarthy made a secret deal to get to be Speaker of the House.

According to Punchbowl News:

The rules package was at the center of McCarthy’s fight for the speakership. The 55-page document lays out the GOP priorities for the next two years and the procedures Republicans will use to run the chamber.

However, there’s also a secret three-page addendum that McCarthy and his allies hashed out during several days of grueling negotiations with the House Freedom Caucus. This pact includes the most controversial concessions McCarthy made in order to become speaker – three seats on the Rules Committee for conservatives, freezing spending at FY2022 levels, a debt-ceiling strategy, coveted committee assignments and more.

The secret three-page document is not in the publicly released 55 pages of rules, and we’ll discuss below why that is a danger to democracy.