Speaker Without a Voice

Successful Republican governance cannot be achieved without a strong Speaker

Now that the United States has reached its debt limit, Republicans and Democrats are preparing for a months-long congressional struggle over spending control. This is the first real test of Kevin McCarthy’s Speakership. Clawing his way through fifteen humiliating rounds of voting, McCarthy now leads a meagre majority and a fractured caucus, after having promised to block any debt ceiling increase that does come with spending limits attached. It is a fight that McCarthy is woefully unprepared for and will not improve the health of his party or the republic.

While Republican politicians have distinguished themselves in the Senate and struck deals with their Democratic colleagues, Republicans in the House continue to look chaotic and confused with little to no idea about how to exercise the levers of power or set out an alternative vision. The House Republicans’ media circus continues to revolve around George Santos, the newly elected Representative for New York’s 3rd congressional district. Scuttling between hiding places around the Capitol, Santos is now subject to multiple legal investigations and has been exposed for making repeated fabrications about almost every aspect of his life.

All this political noise has not been loud enough to mask the fundamental fact that the House Republicans cannot agree on what spending to protect or cut. Some want to target entitlement spending on Medicare and Social Security. Others want to go after the military budget and aid to Ukraine. Everything from abolishing the IRS to slashing green subsidies has been suggested without any overarching consensus. Playing chicken with the Biden administration over the debt ceiling without a plan is reckless in the extreme, especially when the Senate remains under Democratic control. A shutdown or, worse, a default would not be rewarded by voters in two years’ time and nor should it be.

The reasoning behind this brinkmanship on the Republican side is rooted in recent history. Congressional Republicans elected on the Tea Party wave scored a symbolic win by passing the Budget Control Act of 2011 after their debt ceiling standoff with the Obama administration. Even if McCarthy can repeat this feat, he will only be setting up another replay of pre-Trump arguments between establishment orthodoxy and Tea Party dogma. This throwback to the early 2010s will just leave House Republicans further and further away from the issues that matter most to voters.

Where Republican Senators and Governors are leading, House Republicans are going backwards. It makes sense that the GOP’s most talented politicians should seek the Governor’s Mansion or the Senate Chamber. The prestige of these offices and their potential for national recognition make them highly desirable whereas the Speakership has been less alluring for Republicans hoping to make their mark. Only James K. Polk has ever managed to become President after serving as Speaker. But the Speakership and the House has tremendous potential to become a source of Republican renewal.

It is in the nature of the House that it should be a somewhat messy and unpredictable institution. Democracy is after all a very messy and unpredictable force. This does not mean the House should be allowed to descend fully into dysfunction. Republicans must think seriously about how they can lead the House as part of a competent governing coalition. No serious policy agenda can progress without the House and in a divided Washington, the Speaker can still set their party’s priorities. Henry Clay was able to demonstrate this with astonishing success as Speaker, elected six times in the years between 1811 and 1825, setting him on his path to becoming one of the greatest statesmen in American history.

It is out of his experiences of hashing out policies in the House that Clay was able to articulate the defining features of the American System. Clay’s ideas did not emerge pristine from his imagination but were forged in the heat of political battle. Elected to the Speakership on the eve of the War of 1812, Clay established his leadership in the raucous House Chamber through his parliamentary skills as an orator but also as a manager. It was no easy ride as Clay struggled incessantly with the ‘Tertium Quids’, a group of hardline Jeffersonians led by John Randolph. After successfully negotiating the peace treaty with Britain, Clay returned to the Speakership in 1815 and set about the task of reviving the American economy.

The war with Britain uncovered major economic vulnerabilities that needed addressing. In response, President James Madison and Speaker Clay formed a vital partnership to promote a program of economic nationalism. The Tariff of 1816 and the Second Bank of the United States became a reality with Clay’s crucial leadership. Determined to increase funding for internal improvements, Clay also backed the Bonus Bill of 1817 which would have established a permanent fund for infrastructure spending. It was at this point that he exceeded how far Madison was willing to go, who decided to veto the legislation on constitutional grounds, but it signaled where Clay believed the United States should ultimately be heading.

McCarthy is lacking in the essential qualities that made Clay such an effective Speaker. For the time being there is no alternative. But to build a Republican Party that is dedicated to restoring the national economy and protecting the working class, order needs to be restored to the House. The Republican Party cannot be an effective governing force without a strong Speaker. It remains to be seen whether a talented Republican with reverence for the House’s traditions will emerge and provide the principle and discipline that is entirely absent in McCarthy.

This article is part of the American System series edited by David A. Cowan and supported by the Common Good Economics Grant Program. The contents of this publication are solely the responsibility of the authors.

David A. Cowan is a Ph.D. Candidate in history at the University of Cambridge and a former staffer and researcher in the UK Parliament. He has been previously published at American Affairs, Engelsberg Ideas, and National Review.