House Freedom Caucus Republicans have temporarily halted their blockade of the House floor, ending for now a nearly weeklong shutdown of business in the chamber. The small group of rebels was pledging to block all significant legislation from passing until Speaker Kevin McCarthy agreed to their demands.
The group is upset that McCarthy compromised in the debt-limit deal, and more broadly with their party’s leadership — because that’s the whole point of the Freedom Caucus, to claim that they alone are true conservatives and everyone else are RINOs (Republicans in name only) who sell out the party.
Indeed, it was clear from the start that Freedom Caucus members would oppose whatever deal McCarthy struck to kept the government from defaulting on its debt. The big question was whether McCarthy would accept moving forward without their support and whether a sufficient number of House Republicans would back him with their votes against claims of selling out. That McCarthy and a majority of the Republican conference did so is very much to their credit.
