We may not be able to find anyone interested in a peace deal in Ukraine, but at least we seem to have reached one inside of the House majority. Last week, we discussed the “revolt” of less than a dozen Freedom Caucus members who managed to shut down business in the lower chamber. They were protesting the debt ceiling increase worked out between Speaker McCarthy and the President. Now, after a reportedly “productive” meeting between those members and the Speaker, it seems that we’re getting back to regular order. That’s a positive sign since there are still a number of GOP-sponsored bills awaiting action. (AP)

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy appeared Monday to have resolved, for now, an impasse with some of the more conservative members of his caucus who had brought the chamber to a standstill last week.

McCarthy met with nearly a dozen lawmakers in his office in an effort to quell a revolt and jumpstart various priorities that had stalled last week amid the GOP infighting. He called it a productive meeting where “everybody’s attitude was, ‘How do we find where we all work together?’” McCarthy promised more meetings with last week’s holdouts and a focus on reducing federal spending in the weeks ahead.

It sounds like this “truce” may be temporary. “The two Matts” (Gaetz and Rosendale) are agreeing to go along with the program this week. But they came out of the meeting saying that they need to continue seeing “progress” from McCarthy every week or the floor will be shut down again. By “progress” they are talking about additional spending cuts wherever they may be found.

That will eventually become a tough hill to climb. The caucus is currently talking about cuts to the budgets of various federal boards and commissions. But that’s really nickels and dimes compared to the military budget and our massive entitlement programs. Sooner or later they will run out of things to trim.

But that’s the danger that McCarthy was always going to be facing. And the same thing would have happened to anyone else who wound up with the gavel unless they were a member of the Freedom Caucus themself. By failing to win a significant majority in the midterms, we were left in a position where ten Republicans are able to control the entire House agenda and shut down the legislative branch if they don’t get their way.

Some of the Freedom Caucus members’ demands may also prove to be a bridge too far. Over at the Wall Street Journal, Natalie Andrews reports that Matt Gaetz is looking for more than he got out of the most recent meeting. It sounds like he’s angling for a position as a sort of “Shadow Speaker.”

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R., Fla.) told reporters Monday that the “floor will be functioning this week,” but said he wanted what he termed a “power sharing” agreement with McCarthy renegotiated so that Republicans don’t rely on Democrats to pass future legislation.

“It has to be renegotiated in a way so that what happened on this debt-limit vote would never happen again,” he told reporters.

I’m not sure how wild McCarthy will be about anything involving a “power-sharing” agreement. That’s not how the office of the Speaker traditionally functions. Then again, he may not have any other choice.

It’s not that I oppose the goals of the Freedom Caucus. I fully agree with their objectives, particularly when it comes to reducing spending and decreasing the national debt. But the way to accomplish that is by winning more elections and building a more resilient majority, not by holding a virtual gun to the Speaker’s head every other week. There are other priorities to be addressed as well. Unfortunately, we’ll likely be stuck with this situation all the way through January 2025. And it will be even worse if we manage to blow that election as well.