Speaker Mike Johnson has a functional majority in the House. It’s just not a Republican majority.
Since claiming the gavel in October, the Louisiana Republican has relied on suspending the House rules, which requires support from two-thirds of the House, to accomplish the most basic tasks of governing — like avoiding shutdowns — with Democratic votes.
This week, he took it a step further, suspending the rules to pass an expansion of the child tax credit and tax breaks for businesses, with a resounding vote of 357-70. This wasn’t an emergency, like averting a debt ceiling catastrophe or keeping the government funded. Instead, it was an affirmative attempt to make law in a divided Congress that has struggled to do much of anything.