Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

This really is a full service blog.

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Second rate reporter says what?

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

When I was faster i was always behind.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

Come on, man.

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Tuesday Night Open Thread: Government Shutdown Temporarily Averted

Tuesday Night Open Thread: Government Shutdown Temporarily Averted

by | 65 Comments

This post is in: , , ,

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies. Per CBS News:

The House on Tuesday passed a two-step plan from Speaker Mike Johnson to fund federal agencies into the new year, sending the legislation to the Senate days before the approaching deadline to avert a government shutdown.

The short-term measure cleared the House in a 336 to 95 vote. Known as a continuing resolution, it received substantial support from House Democrats, who helped ensure its passage over the objections of dozens of Republicans. The bill is the first major piece of legislation the House has approved since Johnson became speaker.

The plan, which Johnson unveiled Saturday, extends federal funding at current levels for one group of agencies and programs through Jan. 19, and a second batch through Feb. 2. Johnson argued the extension will allow lawmakers to avoid a massive end-of-year spending bill while negotiations over spending levels continue…

The resolution’s passage in the House all but eliminates the threat of a shutdown on Saturday, when most government funding expires. The Senate is expected to quickly approve the bill, which would allow President Biden to sign it into law before the deadline.

The House suspended its rules to pass the plan, raising the threshold for passage to two-thirds of the House. That meant Johnson, who was elected to lead the House just three weeks ago, had to rely on votes from dozens of Democratic lawmakers. Uncertainty about the bill’s fate was cleared up just before the vote on its passage, when Democratic leaders said in a joint statement they support it.

“We have consistently made clear that a government shutdown would hurt the economy, our national security and everyday Americans during a very fragile time and must be avoided,” they said. “To that end, House Democrats have repeatedly articulated that any continuing resolution must be set at the fiscal year 2023 spending level, be devoid of harmful cuts and free of extreme right-wing policy riders. The continuing resolution before the House today meets that criteria and we will support it.”…

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday that Johnson’s two-step plan is “untested,” but added that the White House’s goal is to “take the best path forward for the American people.” Mr. Biden separately has declined to say whether he would veto the short-term measure if it were sent to his desk, but he would have no incentive to shut down the government rather than extend current funding levels…

More details at the link.

Reader Interactions

65Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    The Republicans haven’t shut down the government in an election year. Probably why Dems were on board.  The closer we get to the election, the less leverage they have.

  2. 2.

    TriassicSands

    The two-tiered funding plan sounds suspiciously like a plan to have two partial shutdowns instead of one total shutdown. I haven’t been able to read the details yet, so I don’t know if there is anything to prevent that.

  4. 4.

    hells littlest angel

    “House lawmakers are poised to pass new Speaker Mike Johnson’s bill to avert a government shutdown, punting the GOP’s spending fight to the next Speaker”

     

    Hi-yo! [rimshot]

  5. 5.

    dmsilev

    I think Johnson gets one freebie from the Freedom Caucus because he’s Their Guy. But just the one. January will be fun, especially since it’ll be right around the time that (presumably) Trump will be winning the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary.

  6. 6.

    Scout211

    It’s a start.  But this ancient “hold” rule in the Senate is just shameful.

    Senate Panel Advances Possible End Run Around Tuberville

    The Senate Rules Committee approved a resolution Tuesday that would allow the chamber to circumvent Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s military holds.
    Senate Democrats on the panel outvoted their GOP counterparts 9-7.

    “The resolution, which is a standing order for this Congress only, allows nominations favorably approved by the Armed Services Committee to be voted on as a group on the Senate floor with some exceptions,” Rules Committee Chairwoman Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said. “That would be for the eight members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and 11 commanders of a combatant command.”

    Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who sits on the Rules Committee, has signaled he would bring the resolution up for a floor vote shortly after it passed the panel unless Tuberville drops his holds on his own or is persuaded to do so by his Republican colleagues.
    . . .
    “The idea of blocking confirmation of military officers in order to make a political statement, no matter how deeply felt, has long been considered — long been considered — unthinkable,” Schumer said during the committee’s business meeting. “There’s been a lot of negativity and dysfunction in the Senate these days, but Sen. Tuberville has single handedly brought the Senate to a new low.”

  7. 7.

    dmsilev

    @Baud: Another thing to note is that primary filing deadlines for various states are starting to pass by the wayside, meaning that Reps running for reelection can buck the far-right loons without necessarily risking a primary challenger.  Might make a difference for a few of them.

  8. 8.

    dmsilev

    @Scout211: Can they add a special “Sense of the Senate” resolution to stuff “Coach” into a locker? I feel confident it would get at least 60 votes.

  9. 9.

    Mai Naem mobile

    I’m wondering why White Chocolate Chip NutJob Roy doesn’t run for Speaker? He’s always got big words to say. He’s a rep from Texas. That alone should help him get a bunch of votes. He worked for Ted Cruz. That should bring along all the freedumb caucus votes. It’s only a matter of time before Gaetz releases some damaging info on Mikey and Mikey will be toast.

  13. 13.

    Frankensteinbeck

    Like Tim Miller said, the pattern of a GOP controlled House continues unbroken.  Say all kinds of shit, put up crazy performative bills, then at the last minute pass status quo funding with some meaningless fig leaf.

    Since there are only two parts, the schedule is only two weeks apart, and I can’t imagine Biden and the other Dems voting for a half bill, this is just another fig leaf.  A whole staggered list going on months would have worried me, but this ain’t it.

  16. 16.

    BlueGuitarist

    Someone sent me this cogent Twitter thread from earlier today by David Roberts @drvolts, which I thought juicers would appreciate, link below

    David Roberts:
    If you’re on the right, shitting on Dems is how you demonstrate the shared hatreds that make you part of the tribe.
    If you’re on the center-left, shitting on Dems is how you demonstrate the above-it-all independence that earns the admiration of peers.
    If you’re on the left …
    shitting on Dems is how you demonstrate the moral & ideological purity that are the price of membership.
    If you’re in the media, shitting on Dems is how you fight off accusations of bias & establish your “objectivity.”
    There is no faction in US politics — barely even elected Dems! — for whom praising Dems is socially advantageous. There’s no approbation waiting, no repetitional boost, for anyone. It is, from almost every vantage point, uncool.  (Just try it on Twitter to see for yourself.)
    Thus we get today’s information environment, which responds to a transition from four years of violent irrational madness & mass death to three years of relative scandal-free sanity & economic recovery with … unrelenting, top-to-bottom negativity.
    https://twitter.com/drvolts/status/1724544162836759022

  17. 17.

    TriassicSands

    @Scout211:

    Thank goodness for Tubby Tumorville. His concern for fetuses that he won’t care about at all once they are born is so touching.

  18. 18.

    Captain C

    @dmsilev: Put him in one of those Clockwork Orange Ludovico setups and force him to watch every bad play that Auburn had against Alabama under his coaching regime.

  19. 19.

    Gvg

    I have the impression we have to confirm officers above a certain rank because of something in the Constitution, is that correct? Because it’s ridiculous, really. Congress should be confirming the heads of services and Secretary of Defense, not every general or admiral or what not. I know our founders feared a military junta greatly, but they didn’t invision how big our country and service would grow, and how petty and useless it is for Congress with little real military experience to oversee all of these posts.

    if it’s the constitution we’ll have to live with it for now, if it’s tradition or interpretation we need to modernize. The fact that it became customary to just rubber stamp most of the appointments proves the custom needs modernization. This is aside from Senator stupid coach.

  22. 22.

    Mai Naem mobile

    @dmsilev: i have no idea. I don’t hear people saying crap about him like Jordan, MTG or Gaetz. He actually scares me. He doesn’t come across as dumb as Jordan.

  24. 24.

    raven

    @Gvg:

     

    Commissioned officers of the eight uniformed services of the U.S.—the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, Coast Guard, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Corps, and Public Health Service Commissioned Corps—are all officers of the U.S. Under current law, the Senate does not require the commissions of all military officers to be confirmed; however, anyone being first promoted to major in the Regular Army, Marine Corps, Air Force, or Space Force, or lieutenant commander in the Regular Navy, does require such confirmation. Additionally, military officers promoted in the Reserves to colonel (or captain in the Navy) also require Senate confirmation. This results in hundreds of promotions that annually must be confirmed by the Senate, though these are typically confirmed en masse without individual hearings

  26. 26.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Gvg: All officers, from butterbars on up, are technically appointed by the President.  Thus, technically, they need to be confirmed by the Senate.  Because our military is so large, at some point senior enough officers must be confirmed by the Senate.  The PAB held up a promotion list to O-6 (full Colonel, Navy Captain) to spite one man: Alexander Vindman.

  27. 27.

    dmsilev

    @Mai Naem mobile: To me, Jordan didn’t really come off as stupid, but rather as an arrogant jerk. And ‘too big an asshole for the House GOP to stomach’ is quite the challenge. But apparently he was up to it.

  28. 28.

    Redshift

    @dmsilev:

    Another thing to note is that primary filing deadlines for various states are starting to pass by the wayside, meaning that Reps running for reelection can buck the far-right loons without necessarily risking a primary challenger. Might make a difference for a few of them.

    I think it’s just the presidential primary filing deadlines that are starting to pass. The congressional primary deadlines (and primaries) are later in most states, so unfortunately lots of them will continue to be driven for a while yet by the threat of even more wingnutty challengers.

  31. 31.

    H.E.Wolf

    From Electoral-Vote.com, way back in September, from their Q&A Saturday blog post:

    Q: Regarding the Tuberville situation, are majors and lieutenant commanders really important enough to require Senate attention? Correct me if I’m wrong, but the requirement that promotions to these ranks be approved by the Senate is statutory, right? Might there be enough appetite (in both houses of Congress; including enough to break a filibuster) to lift the review requirement a few levels to the flag officer ranks? I’m not familiar with the rank breakdown of the armed services, but I’d think that would reduce the promotion backlog by an order of magnitude or more.

    (V) & (Z) answer: Officers with the rank of major or higher are considered to be officers of the United States. That means that they, like the president, or the Secretary of Commerce, or the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, exercise some portion of the sovereign power of the United States, and are entitled to enter into agreements on behalf of the national government. A military officer might negotiate a treaty or sign a contract to provide provisions for the troops. A U.S. Attorney might negotiate a plea deal. The Secretary of Commerce might negotiate a trade agreement. All are wielding the sovereign power of the United States. This is a pretty important thing, and the Congress is not eager to degrade its significance.

    In addition, the U.S. currently has about 1,000 flag officers. If you assume that each of them spends 10 years at their current rank (which is surely WAY high), that would be 100 flag-officer promotions a year. On top of that would be appointments to specialized tasks and commands, like Chair of the Joint Chiefs, Commander of WESTPAC, superintendent of the United States Naval Academy, etc. So, trimming the majors and lieutenant colonels and colonels (and lieutenant commanders and commanders and captains) from the list would not suddenly make the task manageable under normal order. They’d still need to use the unanimous consent shortcut.

    Link: https://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2023/Items/Sep09-1.html [at about the halfway mark]

  32. 32.

    Scout211

    @SWMBO: Did they fund Ukraine?

    Its my understanding that all spending was kept at the same level. Most of the news outlets are reporting that the additional funds that Biden requested for Ukraine and Israel were not in this continuing resolution.

  34. 34.

    Scout211

    @dmsilev: Looks like about ten states will be past the filing deadline by first week of Feb (I.e. the second half of this CR expiring).

    So the Q-Anon Shaman has filed in plenty of time. Link

    Jacob Chansley, the Arizona man who gained notoriety as the “QAnon Shaman” who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, filed paperwork to run for Congress as a Libertarian candidate in the battleground state’s 8th Congressional District.

  36. 36.

    WaterGirl

    Anne Laurie, this was so good that I had to make it a rotating tag.

    Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

    Bonus, it’s evergreen!

  39. 39.

    dnfree

    On the PBS Newshour tonight, Lisa DesJardins reported that PBS has a new poll out that most Americans think Congress should “compromise” instead of stand on principle. It also showed that the percentage of Americans that would blame Biden and Democrats for a shutdown is almost as high as the percentage that would blame Republicans. So….some message isn’t getting across.

  40. 40.

    Ken

    @hells littlest angel: Yeah, I caught that too, and wasn’t sure if it was some mis-typing or bad phrasing by Houle, or a dig.

    Also, in the CBS coverage, I don’t see why they said “the objections of dozens of Republicans” when 93 is a perfectly cromulent number. Also, if I were looking for an approximation for 93, I would say “nearly a hundred” — “dozens” to me has the sense of about 30 or 40.

  41. 41.

    mrmoshpotato

    @dmsilev:

    It doesn’t count until and unless someone beats someone else with a cane. 

    So Herman Cain gets exhumed, and someone gets beaten with a corpse?

  42. 42.

    Ken

    @West of the Rockies: Too early to start the Mike Johnson (metaphorical) death watch?

    I hope not, I started the pool in the earlier thread. I called dibs on 2 days (Thursday, that is), figuring that the Freedom Caucus would want to spoil his Thanksgiving.

  44. 44.

    Captain C

    @Scout211: So, the northwestern part of the Valley of the Sun, going up to New River and including Peoria, Sun City, and Sun City West.  Went 96+% for Debbie Lesko in ’22 with only write-in opposition.  No idea what’s happening there D- or R-wise in ’24.

  45. 45.

    randy khan

    The House Republican obsession with passing individual spending bills is quite something.  The omnibus bills aren’t particularly good or bad as a concept, and in practical terms they include fully negotiated appropriations for all of the agencies, just like the individual bills.  And while of course it would be great if Congress went back to the way it did things 30 years ago, this year illustrates why that’s never going to happen, and the bunch that was obsessed with “regular order” couldn’t manage to come up with bills that could pass even the House by September 30.  But they still insist they must do it the way they want, not the way that works.

  49. 49.

    Scout211

    @Gin & Tonic: I thought you couldn’t run for office in Arizona if you were a convicted felon.

    You can run for congress as a felon.  Arizona lets you have your voting rights back after you serve your time if you are convicted of only one felony.

    From a local news outlet in Arizona: Link

    The AP reported that while the Constitution does not bar felons from running for Congress, Arizona law prevents them from voting in elections until they complete their sentence and have the right restored.

  50. 50.

    Redshift

    @randy khan: They don’t want to learn enough about policy to have informed disagreements, and they’re all in favor of real corruption, so instead the obsess about process and bray about how not doing things the same as 200 years go is somehow corrupt.

    I run into their followers on comment sections occasionally, and their certainty that pork can be “hidden” in omnibus bills and CRs but not in thousands of pages of regular appropriations bills is bizarre.

  51. 51.

    Burnspbesq

    @Captain C:

    Put him in one of those Clockwork Orange Ludovico setups and force him to watch every bad play that Auburn had against Alabama under his coaching regime.

    Not unless you repeal the Eighth Amendment. That’s the paradigm case of cruel and unusual punishment.

  52. 52.

    dmsilev

    @Burnspbesq: I think he gets one pass, because even the most fervent of the loons remembers how stupid they all looked during the interim after McCarthy was ousted. But, that memory will fade soon enough, and whatever tolerance they have for apostasy will fade with it. If the next round of this circus goes the same way, yeah I think someone will have a go at ousting Johnson.

  53. 53.

    sdhays

    @randy khan: They’re obsessed with a process that they don’t (want to) understand. You have to be really invested in crafting legislation that can pass both Houses of Congress and get a Presidential signature, and generally bought into the idea that what the government does is important for the good of the nation and needs to be funded responsibly.

    The current Republicans in Congress by and large are either too lazy for any of that or are basically nihilists. It’s all a lot of very unexciting work that their rabid voters won’t appreciate, even if it literally keeps them personally alive and employed. So when push comes to shove, they crib from the last time someone put in the actual work, do a lot of performative pouting and whining, and adjourn for the holidays.

  54. 54.

    Matt McIrvin

    @randy khan: Remember when the big libertarian idea was to have all laws sunset after some number of years, so they’d all have to be passed again? Can you imagine? We’d have no laws at all.

  56. 56.

    JaySinWA

    @dmsilev: CNN had an article claiming that even the no votes were okay with Johnson “because he never lied to them”. He did have majority of R votes in favor, so technically back to Hastert rule, maybe. Less of them only putting forward stuff they had the votes for alone.

    The hard cases will tire of all the “losing” sometime and decide to try and take revenge, but today is not that day, nor tomorrow, probably. Sometime after Turkey day would be my guess, probably after New Years when it is once again no budget with a default in view.

  57. 57.

    sdhays

    @dmsilev: I’m curious just how much McQarthy was kicked out because he disappointed the Freedumb Caucus and how much of it was our Qevin just being really shitty. He apparently physically assaulted a Republican colleague today. The guy he assaulted claims to have voted to remove McQarthy in the first place because McQarthy mocked him over his performative “praying” – something that, while justified, was just stupid and unnecessary. If you can’t humor dipshits braying about “God” guiding their votes, you don’t have any business being in House Republican leadership.

    It’s possible that Johnson can ride it out just by not being such a dick to everyone (even though most of them deserved to be treated with contempt).

    Personally, I hope he’s forced to resign from Congress and lawyer up after his criming comes to light under the new spotlight he chose for himself rather getting defenestrated by his lunatic buddies.

  58. 58.

    JaySinWA

    @sdhays: Well, McCarthy was kind of special in that he managed to anger enough D’s that they refused to sit on the couch and let him slink by without enough R votes to sink him.

    93 R’s can’t oust Johnson alone. I don’t know what the D strategy should be if R’s move to vacate

    ETA Of course the mounting R on R violence might get him. They may regret removing the Magnetometers.

  60. 60.

    sdhays

    @JaySinWA: Democrats shouldn’t prop up anyone who doesn’t offer them anything. McQarthy had options, he just preferred spending his time burning all of his bridges. I’m inclined to believe the “at least he didn’t lie to us” line from the Republicans this time – it’s clear McQarthy liked to lie, was nevertheless incompetent at it, and also lacked the power (and the ability to wield power) to paper over his lies.

    He was just a really shitty leader, which made him a great example of Republican leadership in practice.

  62. 62.

    JaySinWA

    @sdhays: I’m not suggesting that D’s would or should vote to retain the Speaker, just that they had the option of sitting out the motion to vacate and didn’t, they actively helped throw McCarthy overboard. It was probably the right thing to do then. I just don’t know if it would be good if or when the next vote comes up.

  65. 65.

    Roberto el oso

    I’ve read that the Shaman buffalo hat buffoon has pretty much recanted any remorse he had at his trial, so evidently his sentence wasn’t long enough.

Comments are closed.