Untested new leader of US House faces daunting first days
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AFP
AFP
Washington (AFP) – Inexperienced and untested, the new speaker of the US House of Representatives faces a baptism of fire as he contends with a pile-up of deadlines, a razor-thin majority and a raucous right wing that is unlikely to allow him an extended honeymoon period. Mike Johnson — a committed Donald Trump acolyte and an instinctive fiscal and social conservative to his core — almost certainly harbors ambitions to drastically rein in spending and government regulation. But his first days as speaker are brimming with more immediate business, chiefly averting a government shutdown that wi…