I think we aren’t really enjoying the true flavor of this vote. Allow me to enlighten.

McCarthy had added new rules to the budget process under Rule XXI related to the budget. It creates a “cut-as-you-go” system as opposed to the old “pay-as-you-go” system. This new rule change makes it fifty times more difficult to get an actual budget passed, I won’t go into details as it’s a lot to cover.

Now we arrive to H.Res. 10515, Trump’s amended American Relief Act. Now no part of this bill follows House Rule X or XXI on the budget except Division C (via H.Res. 8774), Division F (via H.Res. 8752), Division G (via H.Res. 8998), Division J (via H.Res. 8580), and Division K (via H.Res. 8771).

Side note for those wondering, the US budget has 12 regular appropriations (because the original theory was that you could pass one per month as opposed to a 1,500 page omnibus bill. I’m sure we can all see how wonderful that theory is working out) that are required that are labeled Division A, Division B, … Division L. Sometimes budgets include Division M and more letters past that like Division AA, BB, CC and so on, those are called “supplemental appropriations”. But the A through L are (in alphabetic order):

A - Agriculture, rural development, FDA, and related agencies
B - Commerce, justice, science, and related agencies
C - The Department of Defense
D - Energy and water development of the United States and related agencies
E - Financial services and general government appropriations
F - The Department Of Homeland Security
G - The Department of the Interior, environment, and related agencies
H - The Department of Labor, HHS, and Education, and related agencies
I - The Legislative Branch Appropriations
J - Military construction, VA, and related agencies
K - The Department of State, Foreign operations, and related agencies
L - Transportation, HUD, and related agencies

SO. Here’s the really tasty part. Because of McCarthy’s strange ass rules on the budget. The House has to “suspend the rules” in order to approve this bill (because the other seven divisions that haven’t follow the rules). That means it’s not just a simple majority, but a ⅔ majority is required. Even if every Republican did vote “yea”, they still needed 63 Democrats to sign on and they got only two. And they had to do this because McCarthy fucked them over with the rule change that the House Freedom Caucus asked for.

Had the House Freedom Caucus not asked for this “cut-as-you-go” system, Republicans wouldn’t have needed the Democrats in the vote. That’s what I think is amazing.

And the thing is, what was different between the Trump amendment and the original is, I detail in my comment here..

Literally this failure is so much on the Republicans for getting played at their own fucking game here. Maybe on January 3rd, they’ll adopt better rules. But who knows, there might be another fight over Speaker again. I would find it hilarious if the Democrats forward a continuation of the rules of the House just to keep McCarthy’s strange ass shit in there out of spite.

For those not in the know, the US House makes new rules every two years (which is when a new session of Congress starts, the next session is the 119th session for those wondering). Most times they just forward the standing rules of the previous session, but every so often a speaker of the house gets “Creative” and it’s always a fun show watching unintended consequences. McCarthy’s rule changes have not yet disappointed.