Roughly a month to go to Inauguration Day - the official start of Trump 47 - and the ‘Department’ of Government Efficiency racks up their first win. I write with ‘’ around department because, of course it is an ad hoc NGO think tank headed by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy - the DOGE Boys.
Their win was killing a pork-laden “Christmas tree” continuing resolution to fund the government. President-elect Trump helped and can be credited with the assist.
Speaker Mike Johnson is facing a mandatory reelection vote on Jan. 3 and, with that as his prime agenda, had loaded the CR with enough pork to keep most on-board. As such, it met his reelection needs but the “survival in office” of Speaker Johnson isn’t a top-ten Trump priority.
The dilemma of this is, if the crankier House Repubs oust Johnson, it isn’t clear who will or even can do a better job. It’s likely Trump will have to quietly dictate to the GOP House caucus, and hope they’ll follow.
My guess - Johnson continues as Speaker with his wrist slapped, and a few of the hotheads get taken to the woodshed by Trump or Vance. The problem is a too-damn-narrow majority in House seats.
Literally everything hangs on a vote or two. The only way it works is with iron discipline of the sort Speaker Pelosi excelled at, and Republicans have yet to master, if it’s even possible for them.
I fear most won’t get the wordplay in the title. World War I American infantry were nicknamed “dough boys,” DOGE sounds like dough, Vivek and Elon both at least act youthful, so … DOGE boys. Alas, wordplay isn’t so much fun when spelled out.
