Rep. Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., announced Monday that she will not hold any committee positions or caucus with Republicans in the upcoming legislative session, preferring instead to spend her time working with the quasi-governmental panel Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. plan to lead, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
“I will remain a registered Republican, but will not serve on any committees or participate in the caucus until I see Republican leadership in Congress,” Spartz wrote on X, after Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., had told Ramaswamy “Count me in!”
“I don’t need to be involved in circuses,” Spartz added. “I would rather spend more of my time helping @DOGE and @RepThomasMassie save our Republic as mandated by the American people.”
Her post followed another in which she argued that Republicans must make the $2 trillion in deep cuts demanded by Musk, cuts that he has admitted are likely to impose “hardships” on Americans. She also released a statement that discussed “helping President Trump, his appointees and DOGE fulfill their promises through reconciliation.”
One wonders how Spartz’s decision could affect the already slim majority in the House of Representatives in the coming legislative session and whether her refusal to cooperate could create even more headaches for the Speaker of the House of Representatives , Mike Johnson. (Politico, citing two anonymous sources “with direct knowledge of the matter,” reported that Spartz’s decision may have been a result of her not having secured the position on the committee she sought.)
Anyway, this do seem mainly a boon for the appearance of legitimacy for Musk and Ramaswamy’s group. There is also no reason to believe that the Department of Government Efficiency will be any less circus-like than the Republican Party-led Congress. Even if the Republican caucus is a circus, which is the circus that Sparta’s voters elected her to run.
But her decision is consistent with my theory that Trump and his allies in Washington are devising ways to minimize Congress’s authority and diminish its reputation so that executives Trump puts in charge can make all the important decisions.
You can see signs of this in Musk and Ramaswamy’s insistence that Trump can use sequestration to withhold funds for spending approved by Congress. And in conservatives’ push for Trump to use recess appointments to sidestep the Senate’s duty to confirm his Cabinet picks. I think Spartaz’s announcement is yet another way MAGA allies are working to shift power from Congress to Trump and his inner circle in the executive branch.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
