Around September 30, 2023, the government had a big decision to make before 12:01 a.m. that morning. The bill was if they voted to give more aid to Ukraine during the Ukraine-Russia war. At the last minute, the house speaker; Kevin McCarthy, decided to do a partial government shutdown.

What is a government shutdown? 

Each year congress must pass spending bills before Oct. 1, if they don’t do it beforehand then the government would run out of spending money. If the government doesn’t do it then loss of money and all government functions must stop.

The effects of a government shutdown are major as it could affect the lives of millions of Americans. The first one is that all federal employees would be asked to work without pay which could affect the economy massively as a result. Social services & education services could come to a halt without funding. And service members wouldn’t get a paycheck.

Who is Kevin McCarthy?

Kevin McCarthy is now the former House speaker who led the decision to make a short-term spending deal to avert a government shutdown. The reason why this choice has been so controversial is the suspicions behind the decision itself.  

This all started when Florida congressman Matt Gaetz accused Kevin McCarthy of making a deal with President Biden since the vote heavily relied on Democratic votes. But the intentions behind Matt Gaetz raised many eyebrows wondering if this was a genuine accusation or a part of their long-term drama. 

Either way, the vote was 216 to 210 to remove Kevin McCarthy from the position of House speaker just days after the bill was passed. Now the removal of the house speaker is the first time in U.S. History.  This is why many Americans are concerned about how this will affect the future days coming after the removal.

What happens now?

Since the house speaker was removed they will now hold an election for the next house speaker with a lot of Republican candidates. But until then they will have a temporary house speaker. 

The temporary house speaker is picked when the House speaker creates a list of clerk members to act in their position when they’re not able to. In this case, Patrick McHenry topped that list and he will now act in that position under house rules.

The government is under heavy pressure since the election will be soon on its way to selecting the next House speaker