There is no question that the conservative House Freedom Caucus was a thorn in the side of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) throughout his brief tenure as speaker as well as before that when he served as the GOP's House Minority Leader.

Now, after the House under new Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) passed yet another temporary continuing resolution to maintain current spending levels and avoid a government shutdown, McCarthy said the blame for that development should fall on the Freedom Caucus, according to The Hill.

The group of conservative lawmakers actually voted against the latest CR, but McCarthy's broader point was that the latest CR wouldn't have been necessary if the Freedom Caucus had been more cooperative and supportive of his prior efforts as speaker to restore the normal appropriations processes and eventually avoid the stopgap omnibus funding measures altogether.

Freedom Caucus to blame for current spending deal

During a Fox Business interview on Monday, host Maria Bartiromo lamented that enough House Republicans had voted along with Democrats to "kick the can down the road" with the CR that extended Democratic-set funding levels until early March and, at least for now, avoided a possible partial shutdown of the government.

McCarthy pushed back and told Bartiromo that she was "asking the wrong person" about the passage of the CR and said, "You really should be asking the Freedom Caucus. They are the ones who have stopped the Republicans from being able to govern."

"What they are doing is they’re locking in the Democratic policies," he continued and referenced prior deals he'd reached that were opposed or scuttled by the Freedom Caucus.

"They’re actually spending more money now than if we go to the debt ceiling numbers," McCarthy said. "That would mean government would spend less, we could put Republican policies in. But they continue to stymie this majority to be able to do anything."

Freedom Caucus is "locking in Pelosi's policies"

"It really comes down to, what’s a true conservative? And I look for Ronald Reagan," the former speaker said. "A conservative is one that can actually govern in a conservative way. But what you’re finding now is, what they’re doing is doing nothing but it locks in Democratic Pelosi policies."

"I don’t think they should continue to move to CRs. They should actually follow the numbers that was in the debt ceiling, which is lower than what they’re spending today," he continued.

"You get to reform it with Republican policies, because you’re in the majority now in the House. You get to move forward and layout and show the American public why they should give you more seats in the House and actually capture the Senate," McCarthy stated.

The former Republican leader went on to add that Freedom Caucus members should be engaged right now in negotiating the remaining appropriations bills over the next month, "because if you don't you're locking in Pelosi's policies, and that is what the Freedom Caucus is doing, and they're actually spending more money."

House Freedom Caucus a perpetual stumbling block for McCarthy

Former Speaker McCarthy is no longer serving in Congress after he abruptly resigned at the end of 2023, just a few months after he was ousted from the speakership by a handful of House Republicans, several of whom are Freedom Caucus members, who joined with Democrats to support a motion to vacate the chair, according to the Associated Press.

Members of the Freedom Caucus had also staunchly opposed or sharply critiqued just about everything McCarthy tried to do as speaker -- including obtaining the gavel in the first place -- and frustrated his efforts to, over time, reimplement normal appropriation bills procedures, by demanding immediate action on conservative policies that lacked sufficient support in the closely split chamber.

The House Freedom Caucus generally prides itself for standing firm on their conservative principles, which is certainly not a bad thing, though there is also wisdom in knowing when to be willing to negotiate and not opposing the achievable good while holding out for the unattainable perfect.