Live from the Chaos-Monkey Cage: The politics of government shutdowns are always puzzling to me. The way that the Constitution mandates that the system must work—revenue bills must originate in the House—is that the first step must be that Speaker Mike Johnson has to pass a bill through the House. Only then can Schumer and his Senate majority block action, an only after that can Biden block action via veto. If Johnson had passed something, then Trump and Vance could say “it is Schumer and Biden who are holding up aid to our farmers and disaster relief”. But that is not where we are—where we are is that given his lack of control over his own caucus, Speaker Johnson needs to attract Democratic votes in order to pass anything.
If I were Mitch McConnell right now, I would get together with Schumer and pass a debt-ceiling increase through the Senate today on the grounds that this is what Trump wants and throw that over to the House, just to demonstrate to Trump that his words may have unexpected consequences. But that depends on how many f***s McConnell (and Thune) still have to give. And if I were Johnson, I would put a funding bill plus debt-ceiling increase up for a vote today as well, for the same reason. But that would require a Mike Johnson much more willing to think backwards and forwards in time—think up and down the strategy and decision tree—than I believe that he is:
Brian Buetler: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯: ‘Donald Trump is trying to shut down the government, and Republicans may not be able to elect a speaker before January 6…. Elon Musk front-ran Donald Trump to torpedo a temporary spending bill the bipartisan congressional leadership wrote together. He seems to have done this based on nonsense he read on X. Vice President-elect Donald Trump and Assistant to the Vice President-elect JD Vance issued a bizarre joint statement <x.com/JDVance/status/18…> falling in line with President-elect Musk. The ad hoc Republican position seems to be that the only acceptable deal is a clean extension of current funding levels combined with an untimely increase in the debt limit, so that the Musk-Trump-Vance administration doesn’t have to deal with it. Government shuts down Friday without a deal… <offmessage.net/p/ama-th…>
& here is the Trump-Vance statement:
The most foolish and inept thing ever done by Congressional Republicans was allowing our country to hit the debt ceiling in 2025. It was a mistake and is now something that must be addressed.
Meanwhile, Congress is considering a spending bill that would give sweetheart provisions for government censors and for Liz Cheney. The bill would make it easier to hide the records of the corrupt January 6 committee—which accomplished nothing for the American people and hid security failures that happened that day. This bill would also give Congress a pay increase while many Americans are struggling this Christmas.
Increasing the debt ceiling is not great but we’d rather do it on Biden’s watch. If Democrats won’t cooperate on the debt ceiling now, what makes anyone think they would do it in June during our administration? Let’s have this debate now. And we should pass a streamlined spending bill that doesn’t give Chuck Schumer and the Democrats everything they want.
Republicans want to support our farmers, pay for disaster relief, and set our country up for success in 2025. The only way to do that is with a temporary funding bill WITHOUT DEMOCRAT GIVEAWAYS combined with an increase in the debt ceiling. Anything else is a betrayal of our country.
Republicans must GET SMART and TOUGH. If Democrats threaten to shut down the government unless we give them everything they want, then CALL THEIR BLUFF. It is Schumer and Biden who are holding up aid to our farmers and disaster relief.
THIS CHAOS WOULD NOT BE HAPPENING IF WE HAD A REAL PRESIDENT. WE WILL IN 32 DAYS!
