Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has announced the U.S. debt ceiling is likely to be reached mid-January, while Joe Biden is still in office.  President Trump tells congress to deal with the issue now.

First, here’s Secretary Yellen:

WASHINGTON, Dec 27 (Reuters) – The U.S. Treasury Department may need to take “extraordinary measures” by as early as Jan. 14 to prevent the United States from defaulting on its debt, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told lawmakers in a letter on Friday.

Yellen urged lawmakers in the U.S. Congress to act “to protect the full faith and credit of the United States.”

U.S. debt is expected to decrease by about $54 billion on Jan. 2 “due to a scheduled redemption of nonmarketable securities held by a federal trust fund associated with Medicare payments,” she added.

She said: “Treasury currently expects to reach the new limit between January 14 and January 23, at which time it will be necessary for Treasury to start taking extraordinary measures.”

Under a 2023 budget deal, Congress suspended the debt ceiling until Jan. 1, 2025. The U.S. Treasury will be able to pay its bills for several more months, but Congress will have to address the issue at some point next year. (more)

The Biden spending is already baked into the proverbial cake. Congress will have to raise the debt ceiling limit and President Trump is urging them to do it now, before he takes office.

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Various media outlets are saying approximately 10 republican senators are in opposition to the nomination of Matt Gaetz for various DeceptiCon reasons.  More than likely the same ones who supported AG Merrick Garland, I digress.

Into this mix of squishy spinelessness comes former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy who has an axe to grind against his former nemesis.

WASHINGTON DC – Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy does not believe outgoing Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) will be confirmed as attorney general by the Senate after President-elect Donald Trump selected him as his nominee on Wednesday.

Some of Trump’s picks for his Cabinet, including Gaetz for attorney general and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence, have garnered strong reactions on Capitol Hill and in the wider political world. McCarthy, whose speakership was ended by a successful motion to vacate filed by Gaetz in October 2023, told Bloomberg he believes Trump’s nominees are good, except for Gaetz.

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When I said in 2020 that House Republican representatives were generally focused on who gets the larger pieces of the cake during the office birthday party, many people just couldn’t fathom it.

With all the crisis, corruption, manipulation of government institutions, DOJ/FBI targeting and jaw-dropping weaponization that was stunningly evident, a large number of readers could not bring themselves to realize almost all House Republicans just didn’t care.  Fortunately, a lot more awakening has happened in the past four years, and I think people are now more willing to accept the reality of just how bad it is in Republican ranks.

If there was just one article this month, I would like to suggest everyone read THIS ONE IN POLITICO.   There’s no paywall; everyone can read it, and the context of it is, unfortunately, exactly as I would describe it myself.   I have witnessed first-hand, exactly what the article covers.

On the day after the Mar-a-Lago raid in 2022, the FBI raided the home of Pennsylvania Representative Scott Perry. {DETAILS}  Factually, there were a series of coordinated FBI raids and targeted inquisitions that were intentionally timed to trigger immediately after the August ’22 Trump raid.

What most people do not know was that President Trump’s former Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows essentially set up Scott Perry.   After the DOJ framed the J6 events as a “national security threat,” Mark Meadows was essentially a walking FISA virus.  Meadows sent Perry text messages via an encrypted Signal app, however, Signal was cooperating with the DOJ/FBI to give all communication to the targeting units of a weaponized surveillance state.

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Before watching this short statement by former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy {Direct Rumble Link}, let me remind everyone of the baseline truth.

Democrats want power; Republicans want money.  Threaten Democrats power, they get vicious.  Threaten Republicans money, they get vicious.  Democrats use money to get power; Republicans use power to get money.  The ideology of the democrats drives their donor activity.  The donor activity drives the republican ideology. 

This is the core and essential difference between both wings of the DC UniParty, two wings of the same vulture.  This is the truth of the thing. Underline it, put it on Post-It notes, remind yourself of this baseline in all review of both parties.  This is the core motive behind everything!

To hammer this point home, listen to this soundbite from Kevin McCarthy speaking at Oxford University, U.K. WATCH:

Why does Kevin McCarthy only see rich white republicans? Because Kevin McCarthy only sees rich, white republicans.

Get it?

The MAGA base is invisible to Republicans.

The MAGA base is the most diverse coalition in U.S. political history. MAGA cuts across all races, national origin, color and creed definitions. MAGA is a massive cross section of every American segment. MAGA is pure American! The republican party cannot see it, because the republican party cannot see it.

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Former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy announced in a Wall Street Journal op-ed [SEE HERE] that he is leaving congress at the end of this year and will not seek reelection.

This announcement follows significant sunlight upon the GOPe wing of the DC Uniparty, as the big ugly battle between the voting base and the detached professional Republican apparatus rages on. Based on policy advocacy and votes registered, there are approximately 100 establishment GOP House Republicans, who represent DC interests, and approximately 100 Republicans in the House who honor the representative wishes of their constituents. It is a pretty even split.

Despite that 50/50 reality, the pragmatic conservative base, the America-First MAGA movement, is in far better shape than ever before. Having slightly more than half of the Republican House representing the people is significantly more than in the past 20 years. Thanks to the sunlight provided by Donald Trump, we have made progress. Here’s McCarthy’s announcement.

(Via Wall Street Journal) – I’m an optimist. How could I not be? I’m the son of a firefighter. For 17 years I’ve served in the same congressional seat—the same office in which I was once denied an internship. Only in America.

I helped lead Republicans to a House majority—twice. We got more Republican women, veterans and minorities elected to Congress at one time than ever before. I remained cheerfully persistent when elected speaker because I knew what we could accomplish.

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This is, well, too full of smiles to adequately describe.   Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz delivered a resoundingly honest speech to the Republican attendees at the Florida Freedom Summit on Saturday.   It is well worth the time to watch, as prompted.

Look, I’m still on the fence with this guy, but his brutal confrontation of the GOPe is some of the funniest and best components of the BIG UGLY so far.   The guy has been put through the wringer, hit from every angle, ridiculed by both the left and right, and yet he’s standing there snarking brutal one-liners in their faces while sipping their tears.

It’s so much fun to watch him go full wolverine, and yet so brutal in its abject honesty; quite frankly, it makes him very easy to like. WATCH:

I mean, seriously.  Think about it.  He took down the Speaker of the House…. 😂

He’s a rebel with a cause. Give em’ hell kid!  

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Louisiana Republican Mike Johnson won the vote and has become Speaker of the House of Representatives.  This is a huge shift in momentum for the MAGA base, for common sense pragmatic voters, and for the overall direction of our national body politic.

Speaker Johnson delivered a humble, gracious and fantastic speech after the vote.  WATCH:

WASHINGTON DC – The fourth-term Louisianan sailed to victory with 220 votes, more than the 215 he needed to be elected speaker on the House floor. The final vote on the first ballot was 220-209.

Johnson’s win marked a stunning turnaround after more than three weeks of chaotic limbo in the House following the ouster of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy and the demise of three other failed speaker candidates. He did not lose a single GOP vote from lawmakers who were present; Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) is in Israel and did not attend the balloting.

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This is deep weeds inside baseball, but boy howdy does it tell a story. Representative Matt Gaetz (MAGA, FL) goes through the details of yesterday’s House republican conference assembly as they select a Speaker nominee.

What Gaetz reveals in detail is how Kevin McCarthy has been working the conference to undermine any other Speaker candidate so that McCarthy would be renominated as the only possible alternative. The insight and details are really interesting. This is a must watch.

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The slate is set for a Monday evening conference in the Republican House of Representatives as nine GOP politicians have registered by the deadline today to put their names in the nomination process.   After the conference meets on Monday night, there will be a secret ballot vote on Tuesday.

The absolute worst-case scenario is Tom Emmer (R-MN) who has just received the endorsement of Kevin McCarthy.  Emmer wants to abolish the electoral college for presidential races in favor of a national popular vote. Unfortunately, Emmer likely carries around 70 automatic votes from the professionally Republican caucus.

On the opposite side of that spectrum is Byron Donalds (R-FL) who is pure MAGA and also running for the job.

WASHINGTON DC – The House GOP’s enormous speaker field is officially set, with nine Republicans seeking to somehow unify their splintered party after almost three weeks without a leader.

It’s the most crowded field since former Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s fall 19 days ago. The latest round of candidates includes current GOP leaders — like Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) and Vice Chair Mike Johnson (R-La.) — as well as more surprising rank and file members like Reps. Jack Bergman (R-Mich.). Another last-minute addition, Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Ala.), who serves as GOP policy chair, raised eyebrows on Sunday.

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After a lengthy and often combative GOP conference earlier today, Jim Jordan’s office has announced there will be a 3rd vote for House Speaker Friday at 10:00am.

“The House will vote Friday at 10 a.m. on a third speaker ballot, according to Jordan’s spokesman.” {link}

The UniParty Republicans had earlier floated an interim proposal to grant temporary House Speaker Patrick McHenry with additional authorities which would gain Democratic vote support.  The concept was to get the House through a round of funding for Israel and Ukraine aid and avoiding a shutdown, until January.  However, that effort fell short as the non UniParty Republicans would not agree to the plan.

Jordan spoke briefly about that issue following the conference meeting.  WATCH (46 secs):

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(Via Politico) – […] Republicans are split. Jordan, for now, isn’t ready to call it quits, and some of his backers are gearing up for trench warfare.

“I can tell you, nobody in our conference can get to 217 on two rounds, and three legislative days. So I think he deserves more time,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), a Jordan ally, told reporters. “I’m in favor of trying. For Jordan, I would go at least another week.”

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