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Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Come on, man.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

Petty moves from a petty man.

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Consistently wrong since 2002

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Good News (Maybe): No Shutdown *Just Yet*

Good News (Maybe): No Shutdown *Just Yet*

by | 107 Comments

This post is in: , ,

Why “right now” was important, even to the Tantrum Toddlers Caucus:

Per the Washington Post, “House, Senate pass short-term bill averting government shutdown until March”: [gift link]

Congress on Thursday passed legislation to keep the federal government open into March, approving the third stopgap spending bill in four months as lawmakers struggle to agree on long-term government funding plans.

The bill extends deadlines to March 1 and March 8. Money for roughly 20 percent of the government — including the Transportation Department, some veterans’ assistance, and food and drug safety programs — had been set to expire just after midnight early Saturday. The remainder — which funds the Defense and State departments, among other critical functions — would have expired Feb. 2 without the new extension.

The Senate passed the legislation, 77-18, Thursday afternoon. The House followed suit, 314-108, hours later, after GOP hard-liners launched a last-minute pressure campaign to attach partisan border security measures to the funding package. The votes send the legislation to President Biden to sign into law and avert a partial shutdown ahead of the deadline.

The stopgap spending bill, called a continuing resolution, or CR, is intended to give lawmakers in both chambers time to draft and vote on a full slate of annual spending, or appropriations bills, for the rest of the 2024 fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30…

Lawmakers will have to move faster than appears to pass the 12 appropriations bills. The House and Senate are only in session together six days between Friday and March 1, the first deadline of Thursday’s bill, and 10 days between Friday and March 8, the second deadline.

The deal could exacerbate tensions between the speaker and the House Freedom Caucus, a group of archconservatives who have been a thorn in the side of GOP leadership for nearly a decade…

It’s worth reading the whole thing; the Freedumb Carcass members are big mad with MAGA Mike Johnson (#MotionToVacate has been trending on social media). But apparently the less demented ‘committed’ GOP members have let him know that his kowtowing to MTG and Matt Gaetz are working their last nerve — and there’s more of them, still: people who think of it as a job and not just a form of self-promotion.

So all the usual suspects voted no… but it’s a reminder that the GOP bench is thin & getting thinner:

Remember, jackals with social media accounts — Sharing is caring!

Reader Interactions

107Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    House Democratic Caucus Chair, Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA), said on Wednesday that “extreme House Republicans” are “fundamentally incapable of governing,” as the government faces a looming shutdown.

    Folks were debating in the early morning thread about whether Dems are messaging strongly about Republican governance.

  3. 3.

    H.E.Wolf

    Mousebumples and other postcard writers: online stamp purchase info at the tail end of comments on the previous post.​

  6. 6.

    Caveatimperator

    I suppose it’s fortunate that the House Republicans don’t want to trigger a shutdown for political reasons.

    Yet anyway.

  7. 7.

    Matt McIrvin

    I remember back when the Republicans started doing this, hearing all the libertarians chortling about how people were going to learn that they could get along just fine without a government when it shut down and nothing bad happened.

  8. 8.

    Baud

    @Caveatimperator: To my knowledge, they’ve never shut down in an election year.  It’s unlikely that they’ll want to do it this late in the season. Nothing is certain, however.

  9. 9.

    Starfish

    Grassley was hospitalized with an infection and required antibiotic infusion a few days ago. He is 90 years old.

  11. 11.

    Baud

    Anyone have any suggestions on how to block Twitter posts on a Samsung browser on Android? My ad blockers stopped working.

  12. 12.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Starfish: That’s the weirdest phenomenon, people who want the government destroyed when they literally live on government money in one way or another. There are a lot of them!

  14. 14.

    satby

    As Anne Laurie mentioned yesterday, I too am heartily amused that the measure that keeps the lights on is officially the “Permanent Electronic Duck Stamp Act, as Amended”.

    Tell me that institutional memory and years of experience on a job don’t matter, and I’ll show you the clowns and amateurs of the GQP.

  16. 16.

    ARoomWithAMoose

    @Baud: If you’re using Chrome on android you can shut off javascript, then selectively re-enable it for sites.  The interface for that has gotten better, the little left/right stack on the left of the address bar will get you to the toggle instead of digging through site settings.

    If you’re using firefox on android, noscript works now.

  17. 17.

    zhena gogolia

    I love Shi, but the phrase “This should be the headline” has to be retired. It never will be the headline.

    NYT this morning: “Trump Is Eager To End the Race in Short Order.” Oh, that manly, decisive, Mr. Trump! He sends shivers down Maggie’s leg!

  19. 19.

    Eyeroller

    @Starfish: The good people of Iowa happily voted for a six-year term for an 89-year old with definite signs of cognitive decline, yet ten-years-younger Joe Biden is too old for a four year term.  Huh.

  20. 20.

    Matt McIrvin

    @OzarkHillbilly: Some of it is “MY little corner of the government is the one legit form of spending”; some of it is just not thought through at all.

    In late 20th century science-fiction fandom there were a lot of people who were both “small-government” types and supported gigantic government spending on space projects. They resented the welfare state because the unwashed masses were eating up money that ought to be spent on building space colonies. Good luck with that one, dudes.

    (There were two camps–there was another one that thought it all ought to be privatized and we’d have cities on Mars if the government just “got out of the way”. They got part of their wish, I guess.)

  24. 24.

    Jackie

    @Eyeroller: Grassley, with GQP help, is holding his seat until his MAGA grandson – currently holding a state Rep seat in Iowa – is ready for Iowa’s rethuglican gov to anoint him grampa’s seat.

  26. 26.

    Baud

    @schrodingers_cat: I don’t know about the relative complainosity of different groups. I suppose that you’re more likely to find progressive complainers online, whereas centrist complainers use other outlets.

    But I agree people like to complain more than they like to work to solve.

  27. 27.

    Captain C

    @Baud: Circa 2016:

    Hillary:  [gives speech loaded with details about her plans]

    Media:  [shows an empty podium at a Trump rally]

    Media:  How come Hillary won’t give details of her plans?  Why won’t the media cover her?

    (ETA:  Circa 2024:) I’m guessing it’s not that they’re incapable of learning, rather, they’re not actually here to hunt bears.

  29. 29.

    dmsilev

    @Matt McIrvin: Libertarians evidently have the same grasp on object permanence as your average six month old baby. Past government shutdowns haven’t lead to a mass awakening into Libertopia, they’ve quickly led to mass screeching about not being able to access National Parks and permits for new drugs not getting processed and so on and so forth, and eventual caving by the Republicans (who have caused pretty much all of the shutdowns I can remember).

  30. 30.

    Jackie

    Meanwhile…

    Today, my Administration approved debt cancellation for another 74,000 student loan borrowers across the country, bringing the total number of people who have gotten their debt cancelled under my Administration to over 3.7 million Americans through various actions.

    Of the 74,000 borrowers approved for relief today, nearly 44,000 of them are teachers, nurses, firefighters and other individuals who earned forgiveness after 10 years of public service, and close to 30,000 of them are people who have been in repayment for at least 20 years but never got the relief they earned through income-driven repayment plans. My Administration is able to deliver relief to these borrowers – and millions more – because of fixes we made to broken student loan programs that were preventing borrowers from getting relief they were entitled to under the law.

    Today’s announcement comes on top of all we’ve been able to achieve for students and student loan borrowers in the past few years.  This includes: achieving the largest increases in Pell Grants in over a decade to help families who earn less than roughly $60,000 a year; fixing the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program so that borrowers who go into public service get the debt relief they’re entitled to under the law; and creating the most generous Income-Driven Repayment plan in history – the SAVE plan.  Borrowers can go to studentaid.gov to apply. And, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision on our student debt relief plan, we are continuing to pursue an alternative path to deliver student debt relief to as many borrowers as possible as quickly as possible.

    https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/01/19/statement-by-president-joe-biden-on-nearly-5-billion-in-additional-student-debt-cancellation-for-74000-borrowers/

  31. 31.

    Baud

    @Captain C: Yeah, it’s the modern echo chamber, I guess. I seem to see that a lot with environmentalists, some of whom will know by heart all the ways the administration is imperfect and ignore all the progress.  But I suppose that sort of thing happens across the board.

  32. 32.

    dmsilev

    @satby: Please tell me that in parallel, there was a Temporary Electronic Duck Stamp Act that was passed so that there would at least be a transitional period easing the nation’s ducks away from old-fashioned ink pads.

  33. 33.

    Ken

    The House and Senate are only in session together six days between Friday and March 1

    “[The President] may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them”

    Article II, Section 3.

  35. 35.

    Baud

    @satby:

    Originally enacted in 2013.

    Permanent Electronic Duck Stamp Act

    The Permanent Electronic Duck Stamp Act authorizes the Service to permanently allow any State to provide hunting and conservation stamps for migratory birds (referred to as Federal Duck Stamps) electronically. The electronic stamps would remain valid for 45 days to allow for the physical stamps to arrive in the mail.

  37. 37.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Matt McIrvin: Yep. I remember the first shutdown, which initially was to include parts of the FAA (just a small number of specific offices). Some of my acquaintances were super-mad about that. When I pointed out that THIS is exactly what a shutdown caused, they whined like…well, like the shitty people that they are. “But that stuff is IMPORTANT! Not like the other stuff that is important to other people! They’re just mooches!”

    Years later a shithead MAGA twerp put it best; “But he’s hurting the wrong people!”

    I really hope these assholes get raptured toot sweet.

  38. 38.

    M31

    @Jackie:

    here, let me see if I can fix that up a bit:

    Today, despite Republican obstruction, my Administration approved debt cancellation for another 74,000 student loan borrowers across the country, bringing the total number of people who have gotten their debt cancelled under my Administration, despite Republican obstruction, to over 3.7 million Americans through various actions.

    Of the 74,000 borrowers approved for relief today despite Republican obstruction, , nearly 44,000 of them are teachers, nurses, firefighters and other individuals who earned, despite Republican obstruction, forgiveness after 10 years of public service, and close to 30,000 of them are people who have been in repayment for at least 20 years but never got the relief they earned because of Republican obstruction, through income-driven repayment plans. My Administration is able to deliver relief to these borrowers despite Republican obstruction, – and millions more – because of fixes we made to broken student loan programs, despite Republican obstruction, that were preventing borrowers from getting relief they were entitled to under the law.

  39. 39.

    Eyeroller

    @Jackie: I thought Gramps was supposed to resign shortly after the election and he didn’t do that.  I would assume he intends to serve his full term, since none of these people seem to believe they are mortal.

    It does tend to support the notion that the possible successor might be a factor, though that may not have played much of a role in Feinstein’s last election.

  41. 41.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @Victor Shi

    This should be the headline for every media outlet too: House Democrats save House Republicans & Keep Government Open.

    That won’t happen. The media is fully committed to making sure as few people as possible understand how radical and completely lacking in constructive ideas the Republican Party has become.

    To dare to mention it would be politically incorrect, can’t have that. Funny, they complain they can’t say what they want as they flagrantly lie in public but know people would look askance if they started really touting their views about minorities and the poor.

    If a Democrat were to get ahead of the media and speak the unequivocal truth that Republicans, all their elected officials certainly, are in open rebellion against this country and its best values and have been for at least 15 years, they would be pilloried and the noise machine would do its best to make sure they never work in politics again.

    Saw someone asking overnight why Chuck Schumer can’t point this out and instead touts bipartisanship, this is why.

  42. 42.

    Baud

    @M31: That edit makes little sense. The debt cancelation is purely administrative action. Republicans didn’t obstruct it because they lack the power to obstruct it. Republicans can only obstruct legislation or demand poison pills to enact must-pass legislation.

  43. 43.

    Jackie

    Senate Democrats have launched a new website targeting GQP senate candidates who support anti-abortion and anti-womens health measures.

    The Senate Democrats’ campaign arm launched a website Friday targeting Republicans in battleground states on their past comments on abortion ahead of the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision.

    The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee’s (DSCC) website, called goponabortion.com and first shared with The Hill, highlights past comments made by Senate candidates in Arizona, Florida, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin.

    The DSCC website features excerpts of remarks from Sens. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who both face reelection next year, in addition to a number of Republicans who have declared their candidacies for the Senate or are expected to run.

    This group includes Kari Lake in Arizona; former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), former Rep. Peter Meijer (R-Mich.) and James Craig in Michigan; Tim Sheehy and Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.) in Montana; Sam Brown in Nevada; Bernie Moreno, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose (R) and state Sen. Matt Dolan (R) in Ohio; Dave McCormick in Pennsylvania; and Eric Hovde in Wisconsin.

    The DSCC website also includes some of their remarks in a video compilation.

    https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/4416758-senate-democrats-launch-website-targeting-gop-on-abortion-ahead-of-roe-v-wade-anniversary/

  47. 47.

    H.E.Wolf

    @dmsilev: Please tell me that in parallel, there was a Temporary Electronic Duck Stamp Act that was passed so that there would at least be a transitional period easing the nation’s ducks away from old-fashioned ink pads.

     We had a career US Fish and Wildlife employee in the family, so I learned that the “duck stamp”, established 90 years ago, is a (required) waterfowl hunting permit. Some of the money from sales is used for wildlife conservation. Non-hunters may purchase the “stamp” as an admission pass to national wildlife refuges.

    It’s created each year via an artists’ competition.

    https://www.fws.gov/press-release/2023-09/montana-artist-chuck-black-wins-2023-federal-duck-stamp-art-contest

  48. 48.

    Eolirin

    @Baud: The Republicans on the Supreme Court obstructed the initial attempt which would have done even more.

    And a legislative fix that would have avoided that is impossible because of them in congress.

  50. 50.

    Ken

    @Baud: Then I sincerely hope that he does die a Senator like Feinstein — in a state that’s controlled by the Democrats.

    I also sincerely hope for a flying rainbow unicorn that poops gold bars, which is slightly more likely than Iowa flipping in the next five years.

  53. 53.

    Another Scott

    I think the shutdown drama is over for this FY. Why? Because Biden is giving the SOTU on Thursday March 7. The bomb-throwers in the House aren’t stupid enough to have a shutdown a day later (or a week earlier). Biden would roast them with the fire of 1000 suns, with a huge audience that goes around the press.

    And the GQP knows it.

    They, above all, want to be re-elected. Handing a gift like that to Biden and the Democrats even they aren’t stupid enough to do.

    They’ll get a budget done in the last minute in March. Biden will sign it, and mention the benefits of compromise but say much more needs to be done, and MTG and Boebert and maybe someone else will throw a tantrum during the speech, as always.

    We’ll see.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  54. 54.

    zhena gogolia

    @NotMax: Lincoln Project had a video with Trump, who keeps saying (in Iowa) that corn is “non-liquid gold.” What is liquid gold?

  55. 55.

    jonas

    @Baud: The messaging is fine at its source. It’s more about how it gets relayed through the MSM ecosystem. We don’t have a Fox News or AM talk radio to broadcast pure, distilled propaganda, so where Dem messaging usually crashes against the merciless shoals of obtuseness and bothsiderism is on NPR, CNN, or at the FTFNYT.

  57. 57.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    Republicans are brutalizing immigrants and trans people, making female healthcare impossible, preventing sustainable economic progress, and ensuring all national wealth aggregates to a handful of people.

    But we all know the real problem is the left not demanding the retirement of a Senator they never voted for.

    FWIW, I think it would be lovely is Grassley retires. He’ll just be replaced by a Republican for sure if the voters aren’t the one to do the job.

  62. 62.

    Eolirin

    @Another Scott: We’ll see if they do a motion to vacate or not. If they do it’ll be hard to stop a shutdown. But I also don’t see how they can actually pass a budget.

    We may have continuing resolutions all the way through the election and then a shutdown between Nov and Jan as one final act of spite. 

  63. 63.

    jonas

    @zhena gogolia: What is liquid gold?

    Oil, maybe? Is he (mis)remembering the old Beverly Hillbillies theme song or something? (“Oil, that is. Black gold….Texas tea!”). Who knows what goes on in that head of his. What did David “Half a Fifth of Scotch at the Airport” Brooks call it? A couple of fireflies flitting around in an empty jar

    ETA: Oops, Baud was there first. *Shakes fist in air

  64. 64.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @Steeplejack: Liquid gold is molten gold. It also refers to the experimental fluid sloshing around in Trump’s head in lieu of a brain.

  67. 67.

    Geminid

    @kindness: One was Jake Auchingloss. He represents a Massachusetts district south of Boston. You can probably find out his reasons if you look him up.

    I did not recognize the other one, but I don’t think this vote matters much anyway.

  74. 74.

    Another Scott

    @Eolirin: I haven’t looked closely and don’t remember the details, but even if there’s a motion to vacate the whole House has to approve it.  Qevin got kicked out because all the Democrats joined the bomb-throwers to do it.  I’m not sure the calculus would be exactly the same with Johnson.  Jeffries may be able to extract a prize to keep Johnson in his post, maybe.

    We’ll see.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  76. 76.

    opiejeanne

    @zhena gogolia: Liquid Gold* was a wood treatment product that gave me an asthma attack many years ago. I used the stuff on some pine paneling in our house and had a quick reaction to it, had to use my inhaler.

    *This is probably not what TFG meant but there’s no way to tell what he did mean.

  78. 78.

    zhena gogolia

    @opiejeanne: That can’t be what Trump has in mind. He’s somehow gotten it in his head that most gold is liquid, so if he says corn is NONliquid gold, it’s a bon mot.

  79. 79.

    Brachiator

    @Baud:

    @Caveatimperator:

    To my knowledge, they’ve never shut down in an election year.  It’s unlikely that they’ll want to do it this late in the season. Nothing is certain, however.

    There has also never been a government shutdown in the middle of tax season.

    The IRS is taking some steps to deal with the possibility, but the GOP could severely impact revenue collecting and processing refunds.

  82. 82.

    Steeplejack

    @zhena gogolia:

    I think he’s subconsciously conflating gold with oil in the Beverly Hillbillies way that numerous people have pointed out. And I have used up my Trump word-salad analysis quota for the day.

  88. 88.

    zhena gogolia

    @M31: I think this is probably it — they told him that corn-derived ethanol was liquid gold, but all he can process is a corn cob on his plate next to the overdone steak.

  91. 91.

    Betty

    @Geminid: The other was Mike Quigley. They were protests votes for omitting the funding for Ukraine. They knew their votes would not tank the CRs.

  93. 93.

    catclub

    @Another Scott: The bomb-throwers in the House aren’t stupid enough to have a shutdown a day later

     

    You would think so, but then you meet them, or hear them talking….

  94. 94.

    Anne Laurie

    @H.E.Wolf: We had a career US Fish and Wildlife employee in the family, so I learned that the “duck stamp”, established 90 years ago, is a (required) waterfowl hunting permit. Some of the money from sales is used for wildlife conservation. Non-hunters may purchase the “stamp” as an admission pass to national wildlife refuges.

    It’s created each year via an artists’ competition.

    And it’s a damned fierce competition, because while the Feds don’t pay much, the exposure to the people who want to spend money on wildlife art has made a career for some artists!

  97. 97.

    SFAW

    @dmsilev: ​
     

    and eventual caving by the Republicans (who have caused pretty much all of the shutdowns I can remember).

    Murc’s Law says you’re worng.

  99. 99.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @OzarkHillbilly: @Starfish: ​@Matt McIrvin: ​

    Over the years I have run into way too many of those types.

    As have I. You can tell that they’ve always worked for the government or HEAVILY regulated industries (like utilities) because they follow their criticisms with praise for private industry. If they’d actually worked in the corporate world, they’d know they are absolutely NOT paragons of efficiency or good management. In fact, they’d wonder, as I have, how so many crappy companies stay solvent.

  100. 100.

    satby

    @Baud: FYI about those student loans, influencers are getting the word out:

    2RawTooReal @2RawTooReal

    Seems to me that Charlemagne’s upset that he didn’t get an invite. But wasn’t
    @angela_rye invited too so is she a house N-**# too? Also, it wasn’t only $5 billion worth of student loan debt cancellation so far Biden has canceled $132 billion of students loans

  104. 104.

    mrmoshpotato

    Really sick of this shit.

    Does any other democratic country in the world allow one party of bastards to regularly hold their government hostage like this?

  105. 105.

    artem1s

    blockquote>(#MotionToVacate has been trending on social media
    I’m all for amplifying that trend. I don’t mind the Dems helping to keep the government open. But if the GOP Krazy Khaos Kaucus wants to do another MTV, I think the Dems should accommodate them. The more often they force a turnover of the Speaker gavel the worse they look and the more likely it is those GOPers who need and want federal money in their districts will want the chaos to stop. They know how to stop the chaos. They just need incentive to. I hope the KKKrazies give it to them.

  107. 107.

    Tony G

    @Matt McIrvin: The fact is that, with rare exceptions, the people who live in the states (and in the counties within each state) that are most dependent on government spending, truly believe that they are rugged individualists who don’t depend on anybody.  Willful stupidity among about half the people in the United States.

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