The teapot tempest on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives will have likely sputtered out by the time this column is in print. If not, Republicans still have two months to beat the record for most time taken to choose a Speaker of the House. Whether it takes another hour or a month, the result will be the same; nothing will change.

Congressman Kevin McCarthy will take possession of the office that he has already moved into. The righteous 20 of the Freedom Caucus, having strutted and fretted their hour upon the stage, will head back to the backbench. CNN analysts will have uttered the word “extremist” the requisite number of times. And, Democrats will have some nice CSPAN footage of the Republican amateur hour for their 2024 campaigns.

Former Congresswoman Liz Cheney has surely enjoyed watching McCarthy scowl, the smudge of Trump’s shoe polish still fresh on his lips, while the populist fringe worked to oust him. No amount of ALL CAPS tweeting by the former president would stop them from turning on McCarthy, their erstwhile cheerleader and benefactor. McCarthy’s PAC had donated some $300,000 to the campaigns of 17 of the 20 members aligned against him. What’s that adage about appeasing the crocodile?

Anyone wondering whether Congresswoman Lauren Boebert would class up her behavior after experiencing a razor-thin reelection bid has an answer. One of the 20 defectors, Boebert, yelled “bullsh**” in response to McCarthy’s speech before the first vote. Even Fox News’ Sean Hannity took the plucky pugilist to task on his show for thinking 20 votes should prevail over 200. Math.

Meanwhile, smug-faced Democrats united behind Representative Hakeem Jeffries, a man who disputed the 2016 election results for a good year before accepting the “so-called” victor. Boebert and several of her cohorts said they didn’t mind if their shenanigans made Jeffries the Speaker. If that happens, they can collaborate on the next election conspiracy theory. Mix it up a little. Russian collusion and rigged voting machines are so last decade.

Once McCarthy has the gavel, Members of Congress will be sworn in as usual. Debates on the border crisis will resume, although no legislation will pass. Republican-led committees will investigate the Biden administration’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Hunter Biden laptop thing. Republicans will speechify about the new 87,000 IRS agents but will lack the power to fire a single one. No government programs will be terminated, and no soon-to-be insolvent entitlements will be reformed. Congress will accomplish one thing; they’ll increase the national debt.

Concessions sought by the 20 defectors — a restoration of the appropriations process, a plan to balance the budget, and regular consideration of amendments to cut spending — will come to naught.

Congress has amassed a $31 trillion federal debt which costs more than a billion dollars a day in interest to finance. That’s going nowhere but up. Corporations, farms, nonprofits, and individuals have come to believe they are entitled to money they have not earned. When Congress borrows and spends, members receive accolades from recipients, fawning attention from the mainstream press, and campaign contributions from lobbyists.

Any member of Congress that suggests cutting the overblown budget is excoriated as a miser who hates children, the poor, and the environment. There is no constitutional obligation to balance the budget, and most Members of Congress feel no duty to try. Yearly debt ceiling debates are charades performed for the tiny percentage of Americans who actually give a damn.

Only when the mounting debt and ever-larger interest payments negatively impact the lives of Americans will anything change. Meanwhile, Americans can practice using the word quadrillion in anticipation of what’s next.

This week’s contested vote will be no different than other flamboyant gestures of no consequence, like government shutdowns and threats to vote against the debt ceiling increase, all sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Krista L. Kafer is a weekly Denver Post columnist. Follow her on Twitter: @kristakafer.