Today's top stories in US news, politics, government, and world affairs:
The betting market on Kalshi is in a frenzy this week, as Americans place wagers on whether the government in Washington will shut down before the end of the year. As things stand now, the government is set for a partial shutdown as of 12:01 AM on Saturday unless Republicans and Democrats in Congress come to an agreement to keep the government running. The core issue in negotiations right now is whether Congress will raise the debt ceiling. And while President Donald Trump has come out in favor of a new deal struck with House Republicans, will any House Democrats vote for the deal, which allows a few Republican House members to vote no? Will Senator Schumer take up the new bill and can it pass in the Senate? And will President Joe Biden sign the bill? Moreover, what is the debt ceiling? Who has been holding up negotiations? And what will happen if the government shuts down? I answer all these questions and more in this video.
If anyone has had a rough week in the political world, it certainly is House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson. As a refresher, Speaker Mike Johnson first came to power almost by accident. It was October of last year, and the House of Representatives was thrown into chaos when now disgraced former Congressman Matt Gaetz led a successful coup to oust then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy. The issue? The Republican caucus didn't have a consensus candidate to replace McCarthy who could win a majority of votes. Then finally, after 3 weeks of infighting and dysfunction, Mike Johnson of Louiaisia was elected the new House Speaker. This background is crucial in understanding how we’ve arrived at this current moment. Given this history, it’s no wonder that Johnson finds himself on the brink of finding himself ousted from the position of Speaker in the new Congress. Tensions had already been boiling within the Republican caucus to look to replace Johnson What lit everything on fire was what happened this week, when hard-line MAGA republicans revolted over Johnson working with Senate Democrats to forge a compromise spending deal to keep the government from shutting down. So when will we know if Mike Johnson will be ousted? The new Congress is to be sworn in on at noon on January 3rd, and the first thing the Congress will do is elect a speaker At that point any member of the 435 can nominate a candidate to become Speaker, and then the full house will vote until a candidate receives a majority of votes Will the next speaker be Musk? Will it stay Johnson? Or will a new member emerge? We’ll see for ourselves in just 2 weeks
If you have ever thought about running for office, or would like to learn more about the process, I wrote the book Political Gladiators which gives you a step-by-step guide on exactly how to do so. I first ran for office when I was 18 years old as a senior in high school. I ran for our district’s school board of education. I was senior class president, and wanted to give voice to the student body on a school board where not a single member was under 50 years old. And I thought it was insanely wrong that our Superintendent was making half a million dollars - the highest paid Superintendent in the entire state. So I decided to launch my campaign in the fall of my senior year. And we won - on May 15th, 2012, I became the youngest elected official in the history of New York State. Given the degree of difficulty of running for office, when I first launched my campaign I wanted to read a guide on how to do it. The issue was that one didn’t exist. So I created one, interviewing 35 young elected officials from across the country. If you’re interested in running for office, or just learning more about the process, my book Political Gladiators is for you.
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