Although Rep. Mike Johnson was a relative unknown when he took the House speakership, one of the few things that’s quickly become apparent is how closely aligned he is with the MAGA wing of the party. He’s made that obvious in his first major legislative action: an aid package for Israel that advances far-right priorities, including antipathy for the IRS and aversion to Ukraine funding.
As various reports have documented, Johnson was one of the House members who previously voted to overturn the 2020 election results, and has long espoused hardline positions opposing LGBTQ rights and abortion rights. He’s also, as the Israel bill demonstrates, willing to continue advancing the goals of the party’s right flank.
Johnson’s Israel aid package contains $14.3 billion in support for Israel amid its ongoing war with Hamas. But it does not contain new money for the war in Ukraine, border security funding, and security aid for Taiwan. President Joe Biden, Democratic Senate leaders, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell wanted to fund all those priorities in a single legislative package, and they’ve opposed decoupling them. (Johnson has stated that he’s not against more money for Ukraine, but that he’d rather tackle that question in a separate package unrelated to Israel.)
The bill passed the House on Thursday night. Democrats overwhelmingly opposed the bill, though 12 staunch allies of Israel voted for it. Republicans nearly unanimously supported it. But the measure is dead on arrival in the Senate, amid opposition from leaders of both parties, and from the White House.
As well as decoupling aid to Ukraine and Taiwan from support for Israel, the House bill would also cut funding allocated to the IRS through the Inflation Reduction Act. Additionally, Johnson’s bill does not contain humanitarian aid for Gaza, which Biden has also requested.
Several of these provisions echo longstanding conservative demands.
For months, the GOP has steadily begun to…
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