'Can House Republicans govern in 2024 — even a little — after the lost year of 2023?'

Mike Johnson (R-LA) surrounded by House Republicans

House Speaker Mike Johnson negotiated a spending deal offering Republicans a chance to show they can govern

(Image credit: Alex Wong / Getty Images)

published January 9, 2024

'The Speaker's deal is an antidote'

The Wall Street Journal editorial board

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) negotiated a spending deal offering Republicans a chance to show they can govern, says The Wall Street Journal editorial board. It would hold fiscal 2024 discretionary spending at $1.59 trillion, "a minor victory by itself" because Senate Democrats "intended to bust that cap" by $14 billion. House Freedom Caucus members denounced "the deal as a sellout," but pitching fits without offering a constructive alternative is a sickness. This deal's "an antidote."

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Donald Trump might be approaching his "high-water mark" in the polls, says Jonathan V. Last in The Bulwark. The former president "is finishing a primary campaign that was mostly a coronation," with his Republican rivals "barely" criticizing him. After this "juggernaut of winning," he'll enter the general election campaign "yet to take a punch." When President Joe Biden starts "hitting Trump where he is softest, and Trump is in everyone's face," he'll lose some support.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin "should go," says Fred Kaplan at Slate. His failure to tell the White House for days he had been hospitalized on Jan. 1 was "no minor lapse." Even his "stand-in" was briefly in the dark. U.S. forces are "on high alert in the Middle East" due to the Israel-Hamas war. If President Joe Biden wanted to "take offensive action, his orders" would go through Austin. Biden needs to know where he is.

Online antisemitism "skyrocketed" in China after Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel, says Josh Rogin in The Washington Post. Despite Beijing's denials, it's unlikely so much hateful content would be on "China's tightly controlled internet" without government approval. It fits with China's "largely pro-Palestinian position" and fuels "the old conspiracy theory that Western democracies are secretly run by a small cabal of Jews," not elections, to "convince its domestic audience that China's system is superior."

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.