New House Speaker has troubling track record for governing, votes on labor issues

On the fourth try in more than three weeks, the House’s ruling Republicans elected a new Speaker: Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) who not only denied Joe Biden’s election as president in 2020, but rounded up other Republicans to support a lawsuit to toss out the 2020 election.

The 220-209 party-line vote gave the gavel to a 51-year-old constitutional lawyer who tried to nationalize Florida’s infamous “Don’t say gay” law, on top of prior anti-gay hate stretching back to his days as a state legislator and before. And it cemented the MAGA Donald Trump cult’s control of the GOP, which has a 221-212 majority in the House (with 2 vacancies).

“He is a self-described evangelical Christian who is staunchly anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ rights, anti-union, and anti-immigration,” said historian and author Heather Cox Richardson. “He has close ties to the Israeli Right wing, and he opposes further aid to Ukraine, saying such money would be better spent at home, but he has also called for extensive cuts to domestic spending programs.”

Illinois’ three House Republicans are OK with Johnson for the moment.

“Mike is a family man who understands the importance of advancing conservative policies that promote individual liberty, rein in spending, and secure the border, while also conducting needed oversight of the Biden Administration,” said U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood (16^th Dist.), who refrained from voting against certifying the 2022 Electoral College votes.

Mike Bost (12^th) and Mary Miller (15^th) – both of whom DID vote to deny Biden the votes he won – also celebrated Johnson.

 

Johnson’s record

Johnson has advocated outlawing abortions nationally and has said same-sex relationships should be criminalized. He dismissed climate change and COVID as hoaxes and said vaccines are dangerous, supported expunging the record of Trump’s impeachments, and called for getting rid of no-fault divorces.

The one-time chair of the Republican Study Committee (made up of three-quarters of House Republicans), Johnson has called for trillions of dollars in cuts to Social Security and Medicare

Oct. 26, Johnson told Fox’s Sean Hannity that Biden’s administration is a “failed presidency,” that Biden is “very likely impeachable,” and that he’s skeptical of the need for humanitarian aid to people in Gaza.

Johnson is no friend of workers and unions, either. His lifetime AFL-CIO voting record shows he agrees with the labor federation 10% of the time. Last year, he tallied a zero. (See sidebar.)

Johnson’s attacks on gay Americans, included endorsing Florida’s ban on teachers discussing gays in class, which provoked mass demonstrations and lobbying by the Florida Education Association union.

“Johnson sponsored a national ‘Don’t Say LGBTQ+’ bill in the last session of Congress, legislation that would have defined ‘sexually oriented material’ to include ‘any topic involving gender identity, gender dysphoria, transgenderism, sexual orientation, or related subjects’ and banned discussion of those topics in schools,” the Human Rights Campaign reported. The bill failed. Johnson also tried to push a ban on gender-affirming surgery through the House Judiciary Committee last year, but lost.

Besides his anti-labor record, Johnson’s benefited from several corporations’ contributions despite pledges after January 6 to withhold money from politicians who supported the insurrection, according to investigative reporter Judd Legum of Popular Information, including AT&T, Boeing, Capital One, Chevron, Koch Industries, Verizon and Walmart.

Of course, differences in supporters or political preferences are distinct from threatening the Constitution and the Republic itself, and Johnson is an election denier who led the attempt to overturn the 2020 election as one of more than 100 House Republicans who signed a brief seeking to nullify results in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. He also downplayed the Jan. 6 insurrection as a legitimate protest.

Meanwhile, Congress’ stopgap funding of government expires this month, and the House needs to keep the government running, to keep Ukraine free and Israel safe, and keep tax cheats from doing so.

 

Two early measures Johnson pushed are revealing.

First, he’s leading Republicans to try to gut parts of the Inflation Reduction Act that the League of Conservation Voters said would eliminate “clean-energy programs, reverse drinking water protections, destroy sacred Native American sites, put wildlife in jeopardy and block environmental justice initiatives.”

The scheme also would kill consumer rebates for buying electric appliances (but it hikes spending on nuclear weapons by 8%.)

Next, Johnson rejected in two ways the White House request for more aid to Israel and Ukraine. Johnson divided the countries’ needs for separate votes, and he tied $14.3 billion in aid to Israel to a $14.3 billion cut in funding to the Internal Revenue Service approved last year.

“This bill is a disgrace that will not help Israelis, Palestinians or Ukrainians,” New Jersey Democrat Bill Pascrell, Jr. wrote to his constituents. “I can’t say I’m surprised, but I’m still almost speechless by the audacity of Republicans to use this crisis to help millionaires steal from you.”

Indeed, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says Johnson’s cuts to the IRS, which recovered $38 million in delinquent taxes from 175 high-income taxpayers in a few months, would add $26.8 billion to the national budget deficit.

 

Hypocrisy knows few bounds.

“The new Speaker is a far-Right Christian Nationalist and fervent follower of the thrice-married, sexual abuse Donald Trump,” said commentator Heather Digby Parton in Salon, “and he appears to be ready to push the envelope farther.”

However, he refused to meet with a delegation of Ukrainian religious leaders, including a prominent evangelical figure, visiting Washington to warn Capitol Hill about Russian threats to religious freedom. Also, the Republicans for Ukraine group gives Johnson an “F” for voting to deny funding to them.

Neither of these early measures are likely to pass the Senate, so the proposals are less pragmatic governing than political performing. But by linking his MAGA “credentials” with hopeless but not exactly insane proposals, Johnson may be trying to appease the 18 Republicans from districts Biden won and also the extremist Freedom Caucus. But that seems less like a way to govern than a path of political martyrdom, campaign fundraising, and maybe an even worse MAGA Speaker.

“Unless any deals he makes with the White House and the Senate are tantamount to complete capitulation by the Democrats, Johnson’s MAGA friends are not going to be happy,” Digby said. “There's a very good chance his honeymoon will be over before Christmas.

Practical Republicans and most Democrats must be wondering what the end game might be. In fact, Politico columnist Jonathan Martin reported one Democratic campaign veteran expressing surprise at Republicans agreeing on Johnson given mainstream Americans’ votes in the off-year election.

“Republicans elevated a speaker who tried to overthrow the election and backs an abortion ban – the two issues we won on in 2022.”

 

MJ’s record on labor’s “Legislative Scorecard”

The AFL-CIO compared U.S. lawmakers’ votes on 13 key issues important to workers, and generated a scorecard of the performance of each member of Congress.

U.S. Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) from Louisiana’s 4^th District and now Speaker of the House “earned” a zero for 2022 (the last legislative session completed). His lifetime score is the same as the average House Republican: 10%.

Here are the dates, the measures and Johnson’s votes.

*Dec. 23, 2022: The Omnibus Act of 2023

This package provides an increase in non-defense discretionary funding and critical investments in Medicaid, education, children's health and worker protection programs. [Johnson voted against working people] Wrong

*Dec. 15, 2022: VA Employee Fairness Act

This bill provides the same collective bargaining rights to tens of thousands of frontline employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs. [Johnson voted against working people] Wrong

 *Dec. 6, 2022: Veteran Service Recognition Act

This bill would provide vital protections for noncitizen veterans who’ve served our country with honor. [Johnson voted against working people] Wrong

*Nov. 30, 2022: Rail Workers Sick Leave

Unlike many workers, railroad employees aren’t guaranteed a single paid sick day. This resolution would have provided for seven days of sick leave for rail workers.     [Johnson voted against working people] Wrong

*Sept. 21, 2022:  Presidential Election Reform Act

The Presidential Election Reform Act (H.R. 8873) would help ensure that the electoral votes tallied by Congress accurately reflect each state’s public vote for President.        [Johnson voted against working people] Wrong

*Aug. 12, 2022: Inflation Reduction Act

This made historic investments in domestic energy production and manufacturing, and, among other reforms, provides much needed progress to our tax system, which has allowed the mega-rich and the biggest corporations to illegally pay far too little for far too long. [Johnson voted against working people] Wrong*July 28, 2022: CHIPS and Science Act

The CHIPS Act of 2022 invests $52 billion for domestic semiconductor funding.          [Johnson voted against working people] Wrong

*July 14, 2022: National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023 (Amendment #454)

This amendment prohibits the Executive Branch from moving competitive service positions to excepted service without the agreement of Congress and prevents the politicization of civil service jobs. [Johnson voted against working people] Wrong

*July 13, 2022: National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023 (Amendment #3)

This amendment establishes a contracting preference for contractors who commit to remaining neutral in organizing campaigns. [Johnson voted against working people] Wrong

*May 12, 2022: Rights for the Transportation Security Administration Workforce Act

The Act would provide TSA officers with the same statutory rights to union representation, due process and fair pay as most other federal workers. [Johnson voted against working people] Wrong

*March 17, 2022: FAIR Act

The AFL-CIO opposed the vote for the Fitzgerald Amendment to the FAIR Act as it was a blatantly anti-union amendment that sought to undermine union workers by voiding their negotiated dispute resolution procedures. [Johnson voted against working people] Wrong

*March 3, 2022: Honoring Our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act of 2021

The PACT Act addresses a number of VA health-care issues, including extending VA health-care eligibility for issues tied to exposures decades ago. [Johnson voted against working people] Wrong

*Feb. 8, 2022: Postal Service Reform Act

This bill would bring financial stability to the Postal Service by eliminating the mandate that the Postal Service pre-fund its retiree health care benefits Dec. ades in advance (a requirement asked of no other public or private agency) and by adopting private-sector best practices by maximizing the integration of postal annuitants into Medicare. [Johnson voted against working people] Wrong

 

Mark Gruenberg of Press Associates Union News Service commented, “We have a dysfunctional democracy, as various think-tanks are increasingly pointing out.

“Dysfunction does workers no good,” he continued. “Congress ground to a halt, and it did for three weeks. And if gridlock continues – and there’s every sign it will due to GOP divisions – key programs for workers, from job safety and health inspections to labor law enforcement to making sure the skies are safe to sending Medicare and Social Security checks out the door, will be either stopped or endangered.

 “More importantly,” Gruenberg added. “our constitutional rights, including free speech, a free press and –as the spinoff of those and other constitutional provisions – the right to organize, enshrined in the 1935 National Labor Relations Act, will be in danger, too. From the rabid Right wing, they already are.”