Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Motown is Joe-Town!

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

Democracy cannot function without a free press.

T R E 4 5 O N

We are aware of all internet traditions.

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

It’s not hopeless, and we’re not helpless.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you don’t.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

Israel is using food as a weapon of war. Unforgivable.

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / My Take on the Shutdown Outcome

My Take on the Shutdown Outcome

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This was no win for anybody:

Here is a breakdown of how the vote on the House spending bill went down:

  • 196 Democrats voted to pass the bill

  • 170 Republicans voted to pass the bill

  • 34 Republicansrejected the bill

The debt ceiling was not raised despite Donald Trump’s demand for the cap to increase. The bill is now headed to the Senate, which has until midnight to pass the spending bill.

The bill that passed had a fair amount of important stuff stripped out, most notably the pediatric cancer funding.  But it also did not have the debt ceiling increase included, which was the Republicans’ way of trying to backdoor a cut in entitlements, and it’s what Trump wanted.  President Elon got more out of this than VP Trump.

Jeffries had 0 defections from his caucus in the final vote, which is a demonstration that his bloc is there to save Republicans’ asses if D’s get something for it.

I have to hand it to Ketamine’s Little Boy who Never Grew Up — he timed this one pretty well.  I think next time the Dems will be ready for it.  There’s a case to be made for Dems demanding more concessions on this one.

My main take-away is that Pastor Johnson is on his own the next time his caucus wants to shit can him, unless there’s some kind of major concession that D’s can wring out of him.   (Dems helped him keep his seat the last time his caucus wanted to defenestrate him.)  The January 2025 Speaker election is going to be quite a spectacle.

Reader Interactions

69Comments

  2. 2.

    RepubAnon

    Personally, I’d tell the Republicans “We already negotiated a deal.  If you now refuse to hold up your side of the bargain, why should we ever negotiate with you again?”

  3. 3.

    Baud

    I think the Senate needs to give unanimous consent to act in time. We’ll see if the Senate caucus is unified.

  4. 4.

    Terraformer

    I know it’s baked in, but I don’t think I’ll ever be ready for 4 more years of the daily, wall-to-wall chaos that is on the way

  6. 6.

    Marcopolo

    In addition to the pediatric cancer funding we also lost funding for Baltimore’s Key bridge & an item that would have put restrictions on prescription benefit managers that would lower drug prices.  There was also something about buying from China but not 💯 sure how that worked.  Anyway, don’t suppose the senate has an opportunity to reinstate any of that with the time constraints.  But it is a good thing for all the federal employees who will continue to be paid through the holidays.

  7. 7.

    Another Scott

    Aaron Fritschner@Fritschner
    29m

    The 34 Republicans who voted NAY tonight, also known as Mike Johnson’s list of problems in the Speaker vote two weeks from today. With Massie pledging to vote for someone else and Gaetz’ resignation, assuming all present and voting affirmatively, Johnson can’t lose any more:

    [image]

    Dec 20, 2024 · 11:31 PM UTC

    Melon and Donnie won’t get their bigly tax cuts and slashing of the safety net without a Speaker.  Johnson must be sweating.

    As I said downstairs, I think Fritschner’s take – that this was a victory over them – is a correct one.

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  9. 9.

    moonbat

    Pastor Johnson basically promised Elon and 45 the moon (and no debt ceiling and slashes to Social Security and Medicare) the next time ’round, but there’s absolutely no indication that he can deliver anything. His position is only going to get weaker in the new year with the puniest majority in living memory. He is going to continue to need Dem votes to keep the lights on. Jeffries can wring all sorts of concessions from him if his cards are played right.

  10. 10.

    @mistermix.bsky.social

    @wenchacha:

    Fuck Elon Musk.

    Agree.  I think he blunderfucked his way into a better outcome than he would have had, if the holidays weren’t staring us in the face.  Both R’s and D’s were under immense pressure to get their members home.  The next showdown won’t be around a holiday, I don’t think.

  11. 11.

    kindness

    While the passed bill wasn’t as good for Democrats as the initial bill (which still wasn’t great for Democrats), it’s a swift kick in the huevos to Trump & Musk.  All in all Jeffries did well.

  15. 15.

    Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)

    @Marcopolo: Not that losing the BWI voting bloc matters to Reichwingnuts. But this will wreak havoc with shipping, and trucking and shipping firms will likely have a thing or two to say to the GQP once this gets out.

  16. 16.

    PsiFighter37

    @Another Scott: Knowing the Dems, they will find a reason to bail out Mike Johnson. They should have tossed him overboard when MTG filed the motion to vacate – it was absolutely terrible strategy to save his speakership, solely on the basis of giving Ukraine what turned out to be ~10 months worth of funding (that the Biden administration is apparently not even going to be able to fully use before January 20th). Democrats need to start playing to WIN, not doing the right thing. I’m pretty sure Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid were the only ones on our side who understood the need to wield hard power.

    Too many people think Hakeem Jeffries is the bees knees. He is a machine politician from NY, and given the state of how things are run locally here and have been going the past couple of election cycles, that’s not at all a good thing.

  18. 18.

    Mike S. (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)

    Just Watching Angela Collier’s take down of “Billionaires who want you to know they could have done physics” has made my day as her youtube videos usually do. Her takedown of elon, zuckerberg, gates and others is so delicious. TL::DW “Bro you have a billion dollars, if you want it, just do the thing. Do the work.”

    Bezos is the only one who admits phics was hard at Princeton and so he got out and just made money.

  19. 19.

    eemom

    President Elon got more out of this than VP Trump.

    Can you explain what Prince Apartheid Fuckscum “got” out of it? Not snark, I just don’t understand.

  20. 20.

    @mistermix.bsky.social

    @WTFGhost:

    To be brutal, one could argue that this was a win for Trump, only because it didn’t blow up in his face as it should have.

    I’m not in love with the outcome either.  Trump made a bunch of impotent threats and Elon looks like the boss of him, so it’s not a solid win for him by any means.

    @PsiFighter37:  As a glass is half empty, and there’s a spot on it, kind of guy, I always appreciate someone having a more pessimistic take than me.  I think there are a lot of strategic reasons to for D’s to stop supporting Johnson.  Delay and sand in the gears is what we should be doing from now on, and a change in Speakers with a 2 vote R majority add a hell of a lot of delay to the process.

  22. 22.

    Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)

    @eemom: I think the section making AI deepfake celebrity revenge pr0n got axed. His Xitter dudebros will be happy if that is true, and they’ll keep spending for blue ticks on Xitter as a result.

  23. 23.

    Another Scott

    @Marcopolo:

    Horse’s mouth – 118 page .pdf. Title XII on PDF page 82 seems to cover the FSKey Bridge:

    For an additional amount for the ‘‘Emergency Relief
    10 Program’’ as authorized under section 125 of title 23,
    11 United States Code, $8,086,020,000, to remain available
    12 until expended: Provided, That notwithstanding subsection
    13 (e) of section 120 of title 23, United States Code, for any
    14 obligations made on or after March 26, 2024, for fiscal
    15 year 2024, this fiscal year, and hereafter, the Federal
    16 share for Emergency Relief funds made available under
    17 section 125 of such title to respond to damage caused by
    18 the cargo ship Dali to the Francis Scott Key Bridge lo
    19 cated in Baltimore City and Baltimore and Anne Arundel
    20 Counties, Maryland, including reconstruction of that
    21 bridge and its approaches, shall be 100 percent: Provided
    22 further, That consistent with section 668.105(e) of title
    23 23, Code of Federal Regulations (or a successor regula24 tion), any insurance proceeds, judgments, settlements,
    25 penalties, fines, or other compensation for damages, in

    [ yada, yada, yada ]

    I’m no expert in Federalese, but the money still seems to be there for the feds to pick up 100% of the cost (minus any insurance recovery, etc.).

    Corrections welcome.

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  24. 24.

    Baud

    @eemom:

    Depends what you assume he wanted. If he really wanted no bill to pass until Trump is president, he lost. If you assume he wanted things stripped out of this bill, he got that (for 3 months at least).

  26. 26.

    Harrison Wesley

    I don’t care if Mike Johnson or Big Johnson or Liver-eatin’ Johnson or whothefuckever is Republican speaker. They’re all toads.

  27. 27.

    FDRLincoln

    I’m OK with it this time, since the debt limit thing was a backdoor attempt to cut the safety net.

    But no more deals, and young Dem leaders need to be making the rounds on TV shows, podcasts, social media, hammering simple and clear messages about Republican incompetence and dysfunction

  29. 29.

    @mistermix.bsky.social

    @eemom:

    Can you explain what Prince Apartheid Fuckscum “got” out of it? Not snark, I just don’t understand.

    He got more budget cuts in this bill than the original bill, his stated reasoning for wanting to shut the government down.  He’s making hay on that on X right now. https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1870236798267298044

    Trump got nothing other than what Elon wanted.  He didn’t get the debt ceiling increase, which he wanted only to forestall a fight at the start of his presidency.  Even though he threatened to primary a bunch of R’s they ignored him and voted against everything.  He also looked like someone Elon was leading around on a leash — Trump didn’t want the shutdown in the first place but tried to make the best of it.  Elon also got to show us all who’s in charge.

  30. 30.

    Nukular Biskits

    @@mistermix.bsky.social:

    Republicans (particularly those in the Senate) more than amply demonstrated obstructionism for the sake of obstructionism isn’t an electoral losing strategy.

    I agree with many here that it’s long past time for Democrats to make Trump/Musk a 1/2 term president.

  36. 36.

    Bill Arnold

    @Nukular Biskits:

    long past time for Democrats to make Trump/Musk a 1/2 term president.

    Well, then we’d have a Vance/Thiel presidency.
    Thiel is said to have said that Musk is a fraud.
    Musk is said to have said that Thiel is a sociopath.
    (IIRC)

  37. 37.

    Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)

    @RepubAnon: Isn’t that what we hoped for from Dems 1995-98, 2011-16 and 2022-4? New orchestration, but same old tune, always played flat.

  40. 40.

    lowtechcyclist

    The bill is now headed to the Senate, which has until midnight to pass the spending bill.

    Not really.  There have been a fair number of ‘shutdowns’ that only lasted the weekend, and hardly anyone noticed as long as Federal workers were back at their desks on Monday morning.

    I’m sure the official midnight deadline will focus their minds, but if Biden goes to sleep before they pass it, and doesn’t sign it until after he wakes up tomorrow at 7, the harm done by the theoretical 7-hour shutdown would be infinitesimal.

    There’s a reason the funding for these CRs always runs out on a Friday night or Saturday night.

  41. 41.

    Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)

    @Captain C: We could go back to 1968, or 1921, of you like. The tune hasn’t really changed much even with Atwater’s changing the words.

  45. 45.

    Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)

    @Nukular Biskits: Vance is evil to Felonious Thunk’s stupid. Add to that he’s for sale to the highest Reichwingnut bidder. And putting him in office in 2027 means we can’t get rid of him until 2036: imagine ten years of damage beyond what last-term-DonOld will do.

  46. 46.

    Captain C

    @eemom: He wants Grimes and whatever of his spawn have abandoned him to be forced back under his thumb.  Also to be the absolute ruler of a Mars colony.  And all the free ketamine he can snort.

  48. 48.

    Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)

    @Nukular Biskits: Roughly half the country is convinced the Dems persuaded the Area 51 aliens to share their weather control tech and are sending storms to Red State regions just for sh!ts and giggles.

    I am not especially impressed with my countryvolk.

  52. 52.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @RepubAnon:

    Personally, I’d tell the Republicans “We already negotiated a deal. If you now refuse to hold up your side of the bargain, why should we ever negotiate with you again?”

    Yep. The Republicans have the majority. They can pass any bill they want without a single Democratic vote. It’s entirely up to them to write a bill that they can get their members to pass.

    So what have they, and the rest of the world, learned over this week?

    The proof is left for the student.

  55. 55.

    Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)

    @Nukular Biskits: I am saying that the risk inherent in 25th’ing Cheetolini is real, and must be taken into account. A fit, young puppet is far more likely to survive long enough to do much more damage than the currently-incoming doddering dementia case. IF we unseat Fetid Franco, we need a plan to prevent the Billionaire Fascist Club from making the Hillbilly Effigy the permanent officeholder.

    Vance himself may not be worse. But the puppetmasters don’t change with this transition, and they are the ones we need to stop.

  58. 58.

    Soprano2

    I can’t believe the clusterfuck has already started.

    In OT news, I’m at the Spyres Family Concert “Home for the Holidays”. Where else could you hear the world’s premier baritenor, Michael Spyres, and his three almost equally talented family members in concert for $40 a ticket? I heard them a couple of years ago and was blown away by the performance.  When I saw they were doing a Christmas concert at the Gillioz I had to go!

  59. 59.

    WTFGhost

    @Captain C: Letting him be in charge of a Mars colony would, at least, make one part of the astronauts’ job easier.

    Last duty an astronaut carries out, as best as possible, is, “let the next person know what killed you.”

    In this case, we could just put “Elon Musk was in charge” and wait to see *HOW*.

  60. 60.

    Marcopolo

    @Another Scott: hey, I was just regurgitating what I’d read—which did not mention the key bridge was funded.  But what you posted seems to say it is.  Good news!

  61. 61.

    Starfish (she/her)

    @Nukular Biskits: Vance would be worse. A bunch of egotistical technocrats should not be running the government.

    With a Trump Presidency, there is the possibility that all these folks are incompetent, and Trump loves the drama of firing them every few weeks.

    With Vance, we would get whatever rich folks want, like putting money for health research into longevity research. And then you would get all the people who are rich or like to suck up to rich people saying the ideas are brilliant.

  64. 64.

    pluky

    @eemom: Forget where I read it. The Plan A bill had provisions banning AI deepfakes of real people in ‘salacious’ poses or situations, and making revenge porn posting a federal crime. This would have seriously cramped the online style of EM’s fanbase, and probably require him to do a bit more content moderation.

    All gone in Plan C.

  66. 66.

    catclub

    @Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq): we need a plan to prevent the Billionaire Fascist Club from making the Hillbilly Effigy the permanent officeholder.

     

    I would guess the plan is that Vance has shown negative charisma and negative popularity with random voters. How does he get re-elected?

  68. 68.

    David_C

    The pediatric cancer research bill did pass the Senate – it was originally a separate bill that was held up by Rand Paul, who removed his objection so the bill could pass by 7nsnymous consent.

    https://x.com/igorbobic/status/1870293708882751956

    The OMB does not give guidance to federal workers if there is a budget or CR bill working its way through Congress, so the midnight deadline is arbitrary. This worker is relieved. The pressures did some good. Jeffries did OK.

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