Republican House Speaker McCarthy has, with patent insincerity, offered a new version of H.R. 1, an energy bill originally designed to padlock America's future to expensive, unreliable and lethal fossil fuels. McCarthy has now harnessed H.R. 1 to the GOP concept that defaulting on America's debts is somehow an exercise in fiscal prudence. This lethal duo, the speaker is betting, can somehow, be sold both to his extremist right-wing fringe – who really want a default and hate clean energy — along with just enough 2024 voters who like clean energy and fear default – if concealed in a cloak of fiscal prudence and pocketbook affordability.
What was once – but no longer resembles – the party of Lincoln has bet its prospects on the premise that the Rail Splitter's memorable aphorism – "you cannot fool all of the people all of the time" – no longer applies.
