Democrats will try again with a roll call vote on a new bill Dec. 28, when the House also plans a vote to override Trump’s veto on the National Defense Authorization Act. https://t.co/vg1jR2ZVnj
— Bloomberg Government (@BGOV) December 24, 2020
But now you can say Merry Christmas again!!!1!!…
… Republicans on Thursday objected to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer‘s attempt to replace the $600 payments in the latest pandemic relief legislation with the $2,000 payments Trump said he wants. Democrats will try again Dec. 28, with a similar new bill that will be put to a full vote on the House floor.
“House and Senate Democrats have repeatedly fought for bigger checks for the American people, which House and Senate Republicans have repeatedly rejected – first, during our negotiations when they said that they would not go above $600 and now, with this act of callousness on the Floor,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement Thursday.
The standoff over stimulus payments comes after months of intense negotiations finally yielded a compromise to inject $900 billion into the U.S. economy — including forgivable loans for small businesses, supplemental unemployment benefits, support for renters facing eviction and funds for vaccine distribution. Those measures were combined with $1.4 trillion in annual government spending, and now the entire package is in limbo.
Trump hasn’t explicitly said he would veto the legislation, which Congress finished processing Thursday after it passed both chambers on Monday. The White House did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The bill will be flown to Florida, where Trump is spending Christmas at his private Mar-a-Lago club, according to a person familiar with the matter.
If the president doesn’t sign the bill by Monday night, the government — now operating under temporary funding — would begin a partial shutdown starting on Tuesday. The House may attempt to pass another stopgap funding measure on Monday if Trump hasn’t acted…
The House will reconvene Monday to vote on the Cash Act, a bill introduced by Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal to increase stimulus checks to $2,000. Democrats will have a video conference call before the vote to discuss Congress’s pandemic response, according to a person briefed on the plan…
Trump’s conflict with Congress further escalated this week with his veto Wednesday of the National Defense Authorization Act, which passed both chambers by large bipartisan margins earlier this month. The House plans to vote to override Trump’s veto Monday, with the Senate following suit on Tuesday. It would be the first time Congress overrules Trump.
.@SpeakerPelosi has zero [email protected] left to give??????
And I’m here for it ?? pic.twitter.com/jm5tWyTyy0
— Christopher??Merry Christmas (@cwebbonline) December 23, 2020
Can you blame her?
ALurkSupreme
Fuck these people and merry Christmas.
NotMax
“Those people don’t know how to handle money. They’ll just waste it on fripperies like food or rent.”
//
Baud
@ALurkSupreme:
Are you saying “Fuck these people” and “Fuck Merry Christmas” or “Fuck these people” and “Merry Christmas.”
SiubhanDuinne
“His little hands.”
?
dmsilev
A special holiday ‘go fuck yourself’ to the various Republicans who voted for the defense authorization bill and have already announced that they plan to vote to sustain Trump’s veto.
danielx
And congressional Republicans are feeling all boo faced because Trump pulled the rug out from under them.
Fuck them.
ETA: Rand Paul once again confirms he is the world’s second biggest asshole, after Fat Bastard.
NotMax
See: pipe dream.
What venial sin did NYC commit to merit this?
Felanius Kootea
His hair, his little hands… Why am I laughing so hard as I imagine Pelosi saying this?
Baud
@NotMax:
Donald Trump and Rudy Guliani.
tom
Larry Summers is a twit.
AnotherBruce
I think I’m going to hear this all night. His hair by his little hands and his feet. Other than this, he’s just a puff of rancid smoke. Have I ever mentioned that I love Nancy?
zhena gogolia
@Felanius Kootea:
And it’s great that Baier had to read it.
cckids
@SiubhanDuinne:
Yesss. And the mention of his hair. Chef’s kiss, Madam Speaker.
AnotherBruce
@Felanius Kootea: She is saying this. She has never left Trump without his balls in a vice.
Benw
Happy Christmas Eve! I hope everyone has a merry and safe Christmas, even those not celebrating.
Steeplejack
I’m in the bunker for the duration—through Christmas, maybe through the whole weekend and into next week. I went to the super Giant to pick up a few things, ended up getting more than that, under the “Well, as long as I’m here . . .” doctrine, and now I am very well provisioned. Had a bacon cheeseburger and onion rings that I brought home from my local pub, and I’m finishing the lager I washed it down with.
It was dark and rainy in my corner of NoVA this afternoon, but the roads and the supermarket were busy. Combination of work week ending and Christmas Eve. It feels good to be tucked up in my rooms in Threadkill Lane, listening to the soft whooshing of the occasional car driving on the wet street. “An afternoon of rain, and lamps lighted against the gray.” (Ray Bradbury, The October Country)
I guess this is a good time to bring out my favorite non-Christmas Christmas/holiday song: the Trade Winds, “New York’s a Lonely Town.” Gotta be the sleigh bells; imprinted on me at an early age.
Leroy Anderson, “Sleigh Ride.”
ETA: Troubling amount of whip cracking in that version. ?
West of the Rockies
I don’t see how Republicans come out of this looking like anything but greasy shit birds.
Felanius Kootea
@zhena gogolia: Yes!
Baud
@West of the Rockies:
That’s how they went into this.
jeffreyw
jl
I heard a news interview this morning with some supposed inside dope from WH flunkies. The bottom line was that Trump is furious with Congressional GOP and McConnell for balking at his idea for one last try at overturning the election. Trump wants mass objections in the Senate to the electoral vote count to see if that can gin up some desperate last ditch scheme to replace swing state Biden slates.
And… willingness to vote for override of the defense bill… and… not going along with Trump’s every single whim on the combo covid relief/spending bill.
So, he’s acting out, thinking of forcing government shut down, punishing Congressional GOP any way he can.
I’d be interested about what others have heard about Trump’s motives.
I’m glad the House Democrats are jumping on Trump’s proposal to increase the relief checks. There are other more efficient ways to help people in need that would get a lot more bang for the buck and help more people. But if this is the best that can be done, good to get 1000 percent behind it and try to get GOP to, for just this one time, do something besides decimate and fleece the mass of the US population.
randy khan
Just came home from a parking lot (that is, parked in our cars) Christmas Eve service in the rain. It was surreal but kind of sweet. And speaking of sweet, I came home to find a FedEx package with a pie a friend made for us. It was not unexpected, but still very nice, and much appreciated because we usually see her regularly and it’s now been almost a year since our last time together. Also, her pies are extremely good.
randy khan
@jl:
In theory, this is true. In practice, though, it’s hard to come up an easily-administered, quickly-implemented program that will get meaningfully more money in the hands of people who need it. And even a lot of the people who don’t need it will spend it, which will be good for the economy.
debbie
@jeffreyw:
DeSantis is also the governor who is making frontline healthcare workers wait to receive vaccines after every 65-and-older Floridian has been vaccinated. Seems ass backwards to me.
raven
@jl: I’ve heard he’s a motherfucking asshole.
jl
Some data coming in that GOP plan to punish those high taxing commie blue state governments may backfire. Most blue state revenue recovering from covid epidemic damage more quickly and completely than red states. Relatively high income professionals and high skilled manufacturing and industry doing much better than rest of the population. States with progressive tax systems getting more revenue than expected. Blue states with large health care, more high tech transportation systems, etc. will benefit more from the targeted public relief in the bill.
Both blue and red state governments will be seriously damaged if no broad relief arrives soon. But blue states better prepared to get through without complete collapse than red states.
See Paul Krugman’s twitter over last few days for more info and links.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@jl:
…I guess Trump doesn’t think this would end very poorly for him
jl
@randy khan: I agree, but something is better than almost nothing for the average person. So, go strong for what is best hope, even if still too small and too slow.
Edit: sorry, I think I misunderstood your comment a little. As for better alternative approaches, I was talking about a better world in the future, which I hope we get soon under Biden. So, I think we agree on best course for now. Go for what Trump says he wants.
p.a.
The Democrats rightly want a ‘big tent’ party, but I don’t want it big enough for Larry fucking Summers.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@jeffreyw:
Every time I find myself agreeing with Bill Fucking Kristol, I mentally play “The World’s Turned Upside Down” because that’s where we’re at.
And it turns out I mentally play that song a helluva lot more than I would have ever imagined.
Ten Bears
I think folks are missing the tree for the forest. We’re being trolled again, all of us: left, right, dead skunks. He’s gone to Florida on holiday, taking the combined omnibus appropriations / covid relief bill sent over to him from the senate in his pocket. If he just doesn’t sign it and send it back – a pocket veto, everything shuts down Tuesday.
All this sturm and drang about $600 v 2000 is another of his grand distractions. Upon vetoing the Defense Appropriations bill, he boarded a plane to Florida, if not Jeff Epstein’s pedo island, with the omnibus Government Appropriations bill as well as the completely separate though voted on together Covid Relief bill in his pocket.
He has no intention of signing anything, everything shuts down Tuesday.
SiubhanDuinne
@West of the Rockies:
If it looks like a greasy shit bird, and obstructs like a greasy shit bird, and votes like a greasy shit bird….
SiubhanDuinne
@West of the Rockies:
If it looks like a greasy shit bird, and obstructs like a greasy shit bird, and votes like a greasy shit bird….
zhena gogolia
@Steeplejack:
You make this sound very cozy. That cheeseburger in particular.
We’re probably going to lose power overnight, so I made our brisket with cranberries today for tomorrow’s consuming à deux. I hope the outage isn’t more than a couple of days, because we forgot to get the generator propane tanks filled up.
Or best of all, I hope we don’t lose power at all, but I guess that’s utopian.
Dopey-o
Any list of the GOP fools who plan screw the troops for Xmas? I want names. I have already given my 2 MAGAt senators and 1 rep an earful for their Scrooge-like vote to kill the $2,000 relief checks to suffering Americans. My Monday schedule is wide open.
Steeplejack
@raven:
Maybe worse than L.B.J.
NotMax
@p.a.
Am all for the big tent but draw the line at open admittance to those not potty trained.
:)
jl
@Ten Bears: That is what I feared when I heard the gossip that he may shut down the government. Trump keeps the office, but effectively quits being president and shuts down the whole federal government with a month to go.
Unless the Congressional GOP suddenly snaps to obey his every whim, but that isn’t going to happen.
randy khan
@jl:
Yeah. Don’t give him a chance to change his mind.
zhena gogolia
@raven:
Yeah, trying to figure out his motives is really not something I’m too interested in any more.
randy khan
@Ten Bears:
I hope you’re wrong, but I won’t say you are.
Still, the best play for the Dems is to push through the $2,000 payment in the House and, if it doesn’t get done, hang the failure around the Senate Republicans’ necks.
Catherine D.
@tom: Larry effing Summers should stay home and play with his “math is hard” Barbie.
Steeplejack
@zhena gogolia:
Maybe it depends on if you get rain or snow? We got a lot of rain here; the temp is 57°.
Baud
@randy khan:
Dems are used to government shutdowns by Republicans. Innocent people will be hurt, but it’s not going to do anything except help us in GA.
Mike in NC
@Felanius Kootea: It’s gonna be great to never see another clip of Trump at one of his stupid hate rallies, with that stupid smirk on his face, moving his bloated body to the Village People and pumping his little fists.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Georgia Secretary of State Voices Support for GOP Push to End No-Excuse Absentee Voting
What a piece of shit
trollhattan
@SiubhanDuinne:
NMFTG Nancy is Best Nancy.
Splitting Image
@dmsilev:
It’s worth documenting right now that this is the future of Republican intransigence in the Senate if the Democrats successfully eliminate the filibuster.
It used to be that you could count on the G.O.P. to provide 60 votes for cloture in the Senate and 49 to pass the legislation. From now on, it will be 85 votes for cloture and 66 to over-ride the Presidential veto. Since this will involve more Republicans voting for a bill before they vote to kill it, the New York Times will describe this as a return to the bipartisanship of yore.
mrmoshpotato
Merry Christmas to these murderous motherfuckers!
Oh wait. No. Fuck ’em!
Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all jackals big and small!
raven
@Steeplejack: By far
geg6
@Steeplejack:
Was 50 and raining here all day. But the front is about to hit us and we have a winter storm warning. Rain will turn to snow in the next few hours, tonight’s low is supposed to be in the teens and they predict 4-6 inches by the time it stops tomorrow afternoon. Definite white Christmas here. Hope they can get the road crews out and they can make a big payday with holiday pay.
NotMax
@mrmoshpotato
Shouldn’t that by now be jackalx?
:)
Kattails
@randy khan: wait. Fedex got a PIE to you intact? HOW? Or did you mean a Fedex package and a pie, separate entities.
Also, fuck the fucking GOP. Pond scum.
zhena gogolia
@Steeplejack:
No, it’s definitely rain, but it’s the wind that is the big problem.
NotMax
“God smite you, every one.”
– Tiny Tim 2020
.
Mike in NC
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I never imagined that I’d become a fan of conservative Never Trump pundits like George Will, Jennifer Rubin, Bill Kristol, S. E. Cupp, and even Jonah Goldberg.
trollhattan
If you wish to get your Trump Rage-O-Meter spun up to 11, read the Lemieux LGM post on Trump’s execution orgy and specifically the story of Lisa Montgomery, soon to be killed. Donald Trump is a psychopath who has surrounded himself with people of the same stripe.
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax:
And possibly electric and gas bills if those aren’t covered under rent! The moochers!
trollhattan
@Mike in NC:
While I welcome any bouts of sanity from that crew, Ruben is the only member who I believe has truly changed her political and social viewpoint. The others all still worship Reagan, and that’s a problem going forward come January.
ETA They have the power to prove me wrong, which I’ll celebrate. I have lots of practice being wrong.
Steeplejack
@geg6:
You got me running to check my weather page. It’s actually clearing up here in the DMV (DC-MD-VA). All my alerts are for various types of flooding: flash floods, coastal floods, “area” floods ?, plain old floods. Gonna be cold on Saturday (35°), but that’s about it.
trollhattan
@NotMax: [golf clap]
Steeplejack
@zhena gogolia:
I knew you were getting wind. I thought it might be worse with snow and ice freezing on the lines. Good luck! ?
mrmoshpotato
@West of the Rockies:
Are you talking about this year, or some other year going all the way back to 1980?
raven
Get me through December,
WaterGirl
@Catherine D.:
I love that.
SiubhanDuinne
@Steeplejack:
Our high tomorrow (north Atlanta suburbs) is forecast to be 30° (low of 19°). This child will not be going anywhere.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@jl:
Yeah, but he’s shrill.
Frankensteinbeck
@Ten Bears:
No, it’s not. Trump does not do grand distractions. Trump flings shit and howls like a monkey with diarrhea. Every glob of shit distracts from the glob before it, but that’s just a side effect of him being so vile.
However, him fucking off to Florida and never signing anything again and just letting the shut down stretch until Biden takes office? Yes, entirely plausible. Because he’s a shit flinging monkey. It will be a purely id decision, laziness and spite, based entirely on how he feels at each specific moment he is reminded of the budget.
debbie
@trollhattan:
I think that was more Barr than Trump.
Felanius Kootea
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): But we all knew this would happen. Watch Republicans who control state legislatures use every trick in the book to disenfranchise any areas they think are Dem-leaning. I hope we are able to fight back effectively. Expecting Dem voters to stand on line for 23 hours while Republicans breeze in and out of voting centers in 5 minutes is not my idea of a well-functioning democracy.
Delk
But Paul Manafort says that history will record that trump accomplished more in 4 years than any of his modern-day predecessors. Cheating on the golf course is an accomplishment?
Roger Moore
@Ten Bears:
A pocket veto won’t work. For him to be able to pocket veto something, Congress has to be officially out of session. It’s not enough for them to be on recess; they have to have ended their session. They aren’t going to do that; they’ll keep having pro forma sessions, both so they have someone to officially receive a veto message and to keep Trump from making recess appointments. So if Trump wants to kill it he has to actually veto it.
Steeplejack
I happened upon a nice “Snow Jazz” channel on YouTube. Maybe you like.
Baud
@Roger Moore:
Congress automatically adjourns when the new Congress starts on Jan 4.
mrmoshpotato
Is this serious? Seems too back-asswards, counterproductive, and idiotic even for DeSerialKiller.
Felanius Kootea
@Delk: Yes, we can acknowledge that he accomplished more to dismantle US democracy in four years than any of his predecessors, because that wasn’t their goal for being in office.
Steeplejack
@SiubhanDuinne:
Brr! ? That’s frigid for Atlanta. Stay in and stay warm.
trollhattan
@debbie:
Two peas in a pod and I doubt it’s Barr’s initiative, but he’s quite happy to help orchestrate it. Am thinking of Trump’s full-page ad demanding execution of the Central Park five or seven or hundred or however many it supposedly was. He is VERY pro-execution and having lost the election, is afraid of missing out.
Iran better watch their Iran asses, Trump’s not done with his to-dos.
NotMax
@Roger Moore
Karmicly enough, if Congress is in session – whether pro forma or no – and a bill is not signed (or vetoed) within 10 days after transmittal to the president it becomes law without a signature.
trollhattan
@mrmoshpotato:
It’s that, like, all but a hundred or so Floridians?
“Please drive forward to the inoculation station and for the last time, cancel your left-turn signals.”
Mike in NC
Fat Bastard doubled the fee to join his shitty private club in Florida after Putin put him in the White House. Now that he’s been booted from office, what are the odds the fee goes back down? I’m going to guess “zero”.
eclare
@raven: That was beautiful and so timely.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Felanius Kootea:
Granted. The next time the GOP have a trifecta in swing states like WI, MI, and PA, etc, they’re going to change how electoral votes are allocated such as by gerrymandered congressional districts instead of the actual popular vote
J R in WV
It rained hard all day here in SW W Va. I went out really early to get my errands done before the temps plunge, which have started already. The Freezing drizzle is over, and snow is sticking outside. Low expected around 15 degrees F.
NOAA is calling for 4-8 inches of snow.
Glad we have a generator plumbed into the natural gas line!! Would hate to have to remember to order propane!
Frankensteinbeck
@Mike in NC:
Turn it around. What are the odds any of the people who were going there to influence the president will visit any of his properties ever again? I’m going to guess “zero.”
Mike in NC
@Delk: A survey of 1000 people by USA Today found that 50% of them declared Trump “a failed president” even though he has a few weeks left to disgrace himself even further.
Mike in NC
@mrmoshpotato: Our friends in Tampa call him Governor Deathsantis.
Mike in NC
@trollhattan: As we’ve been reminded for four years, with Trump the cruelty is the whole point. He’s a murderous psychopath.
Frankensteinbeck
@trollhattan:
Iran better watch their Iran asses
Prisoners on death row can’t fight back. The only time I can imagine Trump starting a war with Iran is maybe on the last day or two, if he thinks he’ll be gone before anything that can happen that will make him look bad. Even then, I think he’s been burned too badly by the cable news reactions to his very few military stunts. They’ve averaged around “Just HOW stupid was this action, Dave?”
Ian
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
The other day we had a thread where Kristol was predicting that the Orange menace was going to do something extremely awful on Dec 24, based on his “inside sources”.
The day passes by as just another shitshow in the world of 2020, and the foreseer of the prophesy seems to have forgotten this was his doomsday
Edmund Dantes
@Baud: and Rand Paul had been making noises that he will pull a trick that will force the bill past that date so new congress has to start over.
debbie
@trollhattan:
Very true, though I’d have thought Trump would have tweeted or bleated about it as yet another wonderful accomplishment. //
Ruckus
@danielx:
Rand has been playing the part of second biggest asshole so long he’s forgotten that he was supposed to be playing second biggest asshole and just assumed the title of second biggest asshole belongs to him. I see no reason to upset the second biggest asshole by arguing with him that he’s the second biggest asshole.
Ian
@Splitting Image:
I’m not sure where you got that from.
Ruckus
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Never forget that shitforbrains is a fucking moron, in every meaning of that word.
Jay
@Frankensteinbeck:
Pretty sure that any orderz that Douchmonkey issues to the Military to stir up shit with Iran will wind up in the round file.
Sawdi Arabia and Israel can only do pinpricks, with out the US Military.
Miss Bianca
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
I am so with you on this. Every word!
catclub
That will only happen if the networks stop covering them, Cause I think he will continue to do them. I also think he will start charging admission.
Also pay bathrooms at the venues.
catclub
Not in terms of numbers of old voters versus numbers of healthcare workers.
brantl
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: The idiot who almost single handedly gave us Sarah Freaking Palin, aka Snowbilly Snooki.