No government shutdown for now
Congress approved another stopgap measure to avoid a shutdown:
The United States Senate passed a continuing resolution late Wednesday night that will, at least for now, avoid a government shutdown. The bill passed by a margin of 87–11, with 10 Republicans and one Democrat voting no. Republican Senators John Cornyn (TX) and Tim Scott (SC) were absent for the vote. …
…[T]he House of Representatives [had already] approved the measure 336 to 95, with 209 Democrats and 127 Republicans voting in favor of it, giving new House Speaker Mike Johnson (LA) his first big win.
So you might ask: what’s the difference between this and Kevin McCarthy? The difference may be this:
Newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., proposed a plan on Saturday creating two separate deadlines for funding different parts of the government to set up more targeted goals to work toward in an effort to prevent Congress from lumping all 12 spending bills into a massive “omnibus” package.
Bills concerning military construction and Veterans Affairs; Agriculture; Energy and Water; Transportation and Housing and Urban Development must be worked out by Jan. 19 while the remaining eight appropriations bills must be decided upon by Feb. 2.
The reality is that the Democrats control the Senate, and although the GOP controls the House it’s by a very slim margin and split between the more conservative and the more GOPe wings of the party. Although we might wish for a magic wand, there’s no getting around those facts. The only way around the situation is to elect more conservatives to Congress, although maybe that would require a magic wand, too.
Constitutionally, all- ALL- financial bills must originate in the House. The solution to our problem is in simply refusing to bring any such bills to the floor. The Speaker is the right man for this. Democrat concessions must be made.
Yes, Biden and the Federal Reserve can, I suppose, end-run this by printing money. But with a $33 trillion deficit already, and marginally funded entitlements, they can only go so far before the abyss opens up.
No, only bills for “raising revenue” must originate in the House. The Internal Revenue Code is already the law, and Congress doesn’t need to re-enact it. What they are talking about now is spending bills, and they can originate in either house.
The split funding deadline distinction between McCarthy and Johnson is much too fine for me. Seens like more of the same to me. (Not that I have a problem with that: the established order has been very good to me.)
Here’s an interesting bipartisan, bicameral proposal that’s trying to get traction. Patterned after successful efforts in multiple states it keeps the government going, keeps Congress in town and in session and on the spending bill(s) until agreement is reached ending shutdown theater and must-pass bloated omnibus bills.
https://thefederalist.com/2023/11/16/how-congress-can-do-away-with-spendy-government-shutdown-theater-for-good/
Not much was (at least me) known about Speaker Johnson.
Here’s an interview with Jordan Peterson just a week or so before the 2022 election, long before he was elevated to the leader of House. He was chairman of the Republican Study Committee, which works on legislative proposals for the Republicans, so he was well known among his colleagues.
Oil, Inflation, and the Way Forward | Congressman Mike Johnson | EP 309
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrVQTNpSwIk
He’s a policy wonk– evident by the ” The Conservative Playbook for a Republican Led Congress”, a hefty 324-page guide for just the most important problems facing America.
“The playbook in your hand combines the above-described work of our four other RSC policy task forces and includes here more than 400 carefully-considered policy recommendations that will help solve our nation’s biggest problems and preserve and expand liberty, opportunity and security for all Americans.”
https://mikejohnson.house.gov/uploadedfiles/conservative_playbook.pdf
I hope Speaker Johnson can get a handle on the profligate spending habit of Washington, but perusing this handbook strikes me that small government conservatism is officially dead and buried.
We are (OK, have been) in the era of big government conservatism. I think Reagan’s admonition that government isn’t the solution, but the problem has been lost on the Republican party.
Is big government conservatism just creeping socialism versus big government leftism which is trying hard to socialize everything?
Don’t worry, be happy. Matt Gaetz will fix it, again.
But Cicero, what about “a pen and a phone”?
And thanks, crasey!
No More “Rolling Over Today To Fight Tomorrow”
https://nationalfile.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/HFC-CR.png
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has just revealed that he doesn’t get it.
He seeks compromise with an opposition entirely unwilling to do so, even in the slightest.
An opposition that will only ‘settle’ for surrender.
His initial behavior indicates a fundamental failure to grasp the reality he faces.
In fairness, he leads a party deep in schism between its leadership and its base.
So no matter what he does, real compromise, even within his own party is not possible.
Capitulation is not compromise and when compromise is not possible, only confrontation or surrender remain.
Had he a deeper understanding of the reality he faces, he would understand that the principled path forward is not one of compromise but of confrontation.
If Johnson continues to seek compromise, he is embracing surrender both to the Democrats and to his collaborationist party members.
The principled path forward is to tell his membership that while he is Speaker, there will only be single issue funding bills sent to the Senate.
If House committees refuse to issue single funding bills, they will not be brought to the floor.
If the House fails to pass single funding bills, then so be it.
If the Senate votes down those bills, then so be it.
If Biden vetoes those bills, then so be it.
If those opposed to singular funding of the Military, Education, Social Security, Homeland Security, etc. insist that it is all at once or none at all, so be it.
Johnson must stand for what is right or be seen to give in to what is wrong.
It still applies; when a leader can’t take the heat, they must get out of ‘the kitchen’.
We are losing this fight and we are losing because we refuse to fully commit to the fight.
We understandably fear that such a fight might well destroy what we are fighting for but what we fail to understand is that if we do not fight, there will be nothing left for which to fight.
We would not fight when we had a real chance of winning. Now the day has come when we must fight with all the odds against us and only a slim chance of winning.
If we once again shy from the fight, in the not too distant future we will face a simple choice; fight when there’s no chance of winning or accept enslavement.
Make no mistake, we are facing tyranny and the totalitarian left will settle for nothing less than the enslavement of our minds, bodies and souls.
“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever.”
It has ever been so.
Yes. But let’s add that R Congress spent for a roughly half-Trillion dollar Palace to be built for the Anti-Constitutional and anti-Rule of Law FIB.
UNTIL I’m dead, whatever comes, I will lament this, as I seethe. Traitors.
}}} No government shutdown for now
Well, that’s a relief!!
I mean, who would spy on me, take my money and give it to inappropriate causes, and encourage criminals to attempt to prey on me, if the government was shut down?
Crasey:
There’s that one-word problem in it.
How Congress can…
Remember, the opposite of Congress is Progress.
—-
BrianE:
…has been lost on the Republican party.
No, just its elected representatives, and the RINOs who infest it.
😀
“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever.”
Indeed, and it should never be forgotten; but I believe the epigram has been updated.
(Not to worry, though: just replace “boot” with “Birkenstock”….)
R or D does not really matter. I think the American people are so hooked on government spending nothing will stop it. We are for the European style social democracy. In my 63 years I have heard so many, many words and no action. “Getting a handle on profligate spending.” Profligate spending is where votes come from.
Profli-Gate.
(The—ongoing—scandal that is bankrupting America…while enriching many of those whose solemn responsibility it is to protect and defend her…)