Exit Stage Right -- Digby [View all]
https://digbysblog.net/2025/12/07/exit-stage-right/

Looks like theyre chickening out:
Multiple Republican lawmakers and aides have told me that an exodus of House Republicans is likely in the coming weeksone estimate puts the number as high as 20 new announcementswith most retirements expected from members in safe Republican seats and thus unlikely to imperil the majority (the political environment or Trump could do that). Twenty-three of the 39 House members who have already announced plans to retire or run for other offices are Republicans, on track to easily surpass the number of exits during the last Congress, when 21 Republicans were among the 45 House members who left at the end of their terms.
[
]
Following the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill, the G.O.P. has been aimless and lacking an agenda. Theyre fighting over healthcare, they cant agree on an affordability message (let alone an affordability plan), and many feel an increased, if familiar, lack of respect from the White House. Speaker Mike Johnson isnt helping, as he hands congressional power to the president and makes the Article I branch of government ever more irrelevanta concession that has apparently dawned on many only recently.
Meanwhile, legislative productivity continues to decline. It had already hit a record low last Congress, when just 274 bills were signed into law, the lowest number since GovTrack started keeping tabs in 1973. But this Congress is on course to be less productive still, having so far gotten only 46 bills signed into law.
I really doubt they care about their lack of legislative achievements. They are just hanging at being potted plants. They should have known thats what they signed on for but I guess its getting boring. And many of them have probably made enough contacts to cash in and get in on the Big GOP Grift before Trump finally walks into the sunset.
Also, they loathe Mike Johnson which I think we can all relate to. Good riddance.
The good news is that the Democrats are losing mainly the ancient mariners and opening up their safe blue seats for a new generation which is very necessary.