Think the House Republicans Want to Keep the Government Open?

With 9 days to go until a government shutdown, House Republicans are bringing a bill to the floor that would defund the ability of regulators to develop consistent climate accounting rules.

Science is real. We have serious challenges. Let's stop wasting our time and get to work. pic.twitter.com/YL4MrQIaqB

— Rep. Sean Casten (@RepCasten) November 8, 2023

UPDATE: The House just passed a continuing resolution (CR) to keep the government open by a vote of 336-95. The bill, which funds parts of the government til the middle of January and the remainder into February, is expected to pass the Senate and receive President Biden’s signature–despite concerns that it is kicking two cans down the road.

Speaker Johnson chose to bypass his far-right members for now. There were more Republican votes against this bill than there were against the previous bill that removed Kevin McCarthy as speaker.

But Johnson is just buying time, and he won’t be able to depend upon Democrats to pass the kinds of cuts he’d like. So unfortunately, I believe the remainder of this post will continue to be relevant. Kindly read on.

Please watch Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL) address his House colleagues last week in the very brief video above. Now there are fewer than four full days to go…

The current plan from Speaker Johnson, a gimmicky “laddered continuing resolution” that retains the current level of spending, will keep the government open til the next rung of the ladder is reached and we face this craziness again. It will require some Democratic votes to pass.

One key question is that if Johnson brings the bill to the House floor knowing he doesn’t have enough Republican votes to pass it, will one or more of the gang of mega-MAGA manipulators do what they did to McCarthy and call for his head? If so, chaos will further damage the People’s House.

My previous post was titled: “The Bluing of America.” I think what we’re seeing on the part of the Republicans is clearly “The Screwing of America.”

I’m endeavoring in my posts to focus more on the positives, but in case some of you are still trying to persuade folks that these radical Republicans are bad in every regard–and most definitely on the economy–I thought I’d give you ammunition from someone who is on the scene.

And I think Casten is fun to read. Please see below.

Some people are saying that the Republicans are just too incompetent to run the government. That’s demonstrably a part of what’s going on, but I fear too many of these purported public servants actually want a government shutdown.

Joe Biden’s economy is doing very well by all recognized standards; it is the strongest of all our allies. I listened to a trio of economic experts–Paul Krugman, Dean Baker, and Stephanie Ruhle on the Talking Feds podcast–expressing astonishment and disbelief that Americans have such wrong-headed notions about our economy.

These folks who deal with the trends and statistics all the time call the current economic data “miraculous,” defying all the expectations, with inflation dropping, jobs abundant, and labor wins extraordinary.

So one way to make it easier for Trump and his mega-MAGA meanies to win next year is to sink this remarkable economy. An extended government shutdown could do just that.

The nihilists-pretending-to-be-legislators know that, and so does Casten. He vented the frustration he shows in that video through a series of tragicomic tweets last week, a few days after he made the remarks the video captures.

I’ve transferred them here in print to spare you all the extraneous twitterizing background.

Casten begins:

“It’s hard to explain how dysfunctional the @HouseGOP is, and the degree to which their own internal divisions are superseding every normal function of government. But I’m going to try with a short story about this week in the house. Thread: (emphasis mine)

“1. First: We operate on a 9/30 fiscal year but the (McCarthy) led house couldn’t agree on how to fund prior to. They tried to just say ‘cut everything by 30%.’ That didn’t pass. So they said ‘let’s just fund at current levels for 45 days.” That cost McCarthy his job.

“2. For context, when Dems had the majority we got all our appropriations done by August 1 so the Senate could finalize and POTUS could sign. @HouseGOP still hasn’t done that.

“3. Also, you may recall this summer the @HouseGOP threatened to default on US debt unless we agreed to future spending rules. A deal was struck that passed the House and was signed into law to do so. The 30% cut was not consistent with that law. (AKA, it was illegal)

“4. By contrast, the straight 45 day continuing resolution that cost McCarthy his job was legal (in the sense that it did not violate the June agreement and bought us time to do so). OBEYING THE LAW WAS A RED-LINE FOR THE @HouseGOP. So they fired McCarthy.

“5. They then used the first 20 days of that 45 day period to fight over a new speaker. Should we pick someone who hates gay people, fought to overturn the election or creeps on his son’s porn? It took a while, but the @HouseGOP said YES to all three.

“6. That leaves a lot of work to do by a party that doesn’t like laws, is at war with itself and an inexperienced leadership team. But off we went. Last week, we were supposed to vote on transportation funding. Rs couldn’t agree so Johnson never brought a bill to the floor.

“7. (This isn’t just a Johnson problem. McCarthy previously chose not to bring an agriculture funding package to the floor because Rs couldn’t agree. Still don’t have a path on that one.)

“8. This week, we were supposed to vote on a funding package for our financial services & general government.Minutes before we were supposed to vote on that yesterday they pulled it on account of internal squabbles too.

“9. Note: ALL of these bills violate the law we passed last June. But having discovered that Ds won’t vote to break the law, they are trying to pass these with all R. Votes. But they’re big mad at each other so even that’s not possible.

“10. Now to the question on the mind of every libertarian troll who’s read this far. ‘If government is going to run out of money and you aren’t even voting on bills to fund it why are you wasting my tax dollars in DC?’ Well, here’s what they did bring up for votes this week:

“11. A bill to prevent the government from using the word ‘latin-x’ – a bill to cut WH press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre’s salary to $1 – a bill to defund the office of gun violence prevention – a bill to eliminate the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau –

“12. A bill to cut SEC Chair Gary Gensler’s salary to $1 – a bill to defund the office of gun violence prevention – a bill to prevent the government from developing greenhouse gas disclosure rules – a bill to eliminate 50% of the budget for the consumer product safety commission.

“13. These things aren’t urgent. They aren’t helpful. And they aren’t going to become law (See: laws require Senate and POTUS approval.) But they keep the idiot wing of the @House GOP from turning on their rookie manager. And waste 435 people’s time on the House floor.

“14. And so now we are 7 days from a shutdown. Still no path to fund. Still no sign of anyone in the @HouseGOP willing to stand up to their extreme fringe. Still no discernible leadership talents from their new Speaker. Right now it’s annoying. But in 8 days, it’s disastrous.

“15. Because if they can’t get their s**t together, 8 days from now soldiers, air traffic controllers, food safety inspectors, IRS agents, border patrol…all go without pay. Some will be furloughed. Food, health, housing assistance. Every government function.

“16. PLEASE @House GOP. Grow up. Stop fighting with your brother and sister in the backseat. Either act like the adults you claim to be or at least have the dignity to go to your room so the adults can babysit your sorry selves. Too much is at stake. /fin”

Not surprisingly, the woefully unprepared, inexperienced, politically and socially radical speaker is seeking to blame President Biden.

Casten used a sports metaphor to inject reality into this picture.

Backup running back for local pee wee football team randomly promoted to starting QB for the NY Giants (worst offense in the league prior to his arrival), sees next week's line and blames the defense.

Time for some self-reflection and personal accountability, Mr. Speaker. https://t.co/3hMSR32YZN

— Sean Casten (@SeanCasten) November 11, 2023

Please share this post with anyone you know who believes the Republicans are good for the economy–or for the efficient running of government–or for democracy.

Annie