All I Want For My Birthday Is A Government Shutdown

.......and not the covid variety.

Every now and then a story comes along that’s so breathtakingly stupid, it shocks even me. I could spend (some may argue have spent) years breaking down the disfunction of the American government, but the entirely predictable battle over the latest continuing resolution is a special case.

First, we should note how remarkable it is that the US Congress is more or less allergic to actually handling perhaps their biggest job — setting and enacting the budget of the country. A shocking 2018 Government Accountability Office report notes “In all but 4 of the last 40 years, Congress has passed continuing resolutions (CR) to keep agencies running between budgets. Without appropriations or a CR, the government may partially shut down.”

Yet every year — or multiple times per year — Congress pretends to be shocked they’re out of time to “negotiate” and simply decides to kick the can down the road for a few months……..when the entire drama plays out again. (The last CR was signed all the way back in late December.)

So even though Donald Trump has won the election and is attempting to enact his transformative policies, Congress is debating passing what is more or less simply the last Biden spending bill. (Personal note, the format of these CRs annoys me to no end, because it’s so difficult to track down the original source of the spending. In December I spent an hour trying to determine the actual rules for Congressional pay and gave up in frustration.)

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This is Major Issue #1. We didn’t elect Donald Trump to simply continue on the spending path of Joe Biden. Congressional Republicans kicked the can down the road after the election because they’d supposedly have their act together by now. But since they don’t have the votes to overcome a Democratic filibuster, today they want to kick that can down the road to September……….when the same exact Congress will be seated.

What do we expect to change from now until September? Are Congressional Democrats suddenly going to be on board for spending cuts made by Literally Hitler? Obviously not — but the GOP is assuring us that in September they’ll FINALLY get around to doing their jobs. (Spoiler alert: they won’t.)

Thus, we end up with spending levels that are nearly identical to the last four years:

Lawmakers said the bill would trim $13 billion in non-defense spending from the levels in the 2024 budget year and increase defense spending by $6 billion, which are rather flat changes for both categories when compared with an overall topline of nearly $1.7 trillion in discretionary spending. The bill does not cover the majority of government spending, including Social Security and Medicare. Funding for those two programs is on autopilot and not regularly reviewed by Congress.

This reminds me of this (now very old) internet video putting President Obama’s proposed budget cuts into perspective:

The US fiscal situation is dire, with a TRILLION DOLLARS of new debt piled on top of the old one about every 100 days. We’re long past trimming quarters-of-pennies out of budgets. We need REAL, meaningful spending cuts to get our fiscal house in order. This (unfortunately) requires Congress to get on board.

Major Issue #2 is the Democrats’ sudden refusal to go along with what was more or less their own budget. After railing against the dangers of a government shutdown for years, Democrats yesterday seemed to be willing to shut down the government and blame it on Trump.

Spot the difference between last February and this week:

The one-month CR Schumer mentions is a pie-in-the-sky gambit from the Democrats to pass a one-month bill and revisit the issue basically immediately. The problem is that although the Democrats are “unified” around this idea, they don’t actually have the votes to pass the one-month bill in the first place. Even AOC sees the idiocy of this plan:

And while yesterday the Democrats were sure the country would blame the shutdown on Republicans, it seems Schumer, at least, is singing a different tune today:

Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters ahead of Schumer's remarks that his office has been in touch with the minority leader's staff, but Democrats haven't made a formal offer. Thune noted that if Democrats want a vote on the 30-day continuing resolution in exchange for helping Republicans reach the 60-vote threshold on the House-passed bill, "they can get that."

The situation is further complicated by the fact that Republicans have 53 votes in the Senate. And while it’s true they need 60 votes to overcome a filibuster…..it’s obviously the Democrats who are putting that filibuster in place to begin with — if Democrats did nothing but vote no, the CR would pass.

“Republicans are to blame for the shutdown because they need Democratic votes because we forced them to need Democratic votes” isn’t exactly a winning message — and experienced politicians should know it. Chuck Schumer does:

Even Hakim Jefferies knows…..though he can’t articulate it very well.

“Next question.”

So ultimately we have Republicans (mostly) enthusiastically supporting Biden’s budget, while Democratic leaders stomp their feet and complain about it…….before ultimately rolling over and voting for it anyway? Day after day of fire and brimstone and the ensuing end of the world……….all for nothing?

Maybe it’s even for the best. One of the saddest facts about government shutdowns is that when they’re over, everybody ends up being paid as if they were working anyway. And as nice as it would be to score a symbolic win with a shutdown, at some point Congress has to step up and start doing the difficult work needed to get our finances back on track.

Along those lines, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) just proposed an amendment that would strip the funding of canceled USAID programs out of the CR. Here are his just-concluded remarks in full:

This seems like a logical first step to cutting spending. If Congress can’t get on board with this…….we’re in for a rough ride.

The current Continuing Resolution stops funding the government at midnight, so there WILL be a vote about the issue today. When that happens, I’ll make an update to the story and link the final vote total.

This doesn’t have to be long-term. Tip me on Ko-fi — no subscription required!

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The continuing resolution has been passed, 54-46. Sleep tight America. Your future is funded for the next 6 months.

Here’s the full voting tally. Senator Jeanne Shaheen was the only true Democrat to vote yes, although Senator Angus King also “crossed” party lines to vote yes. (He’s an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, like Bernie Sanders.)

As expected, Rand Paul was a no vote from the Republican side of the aisle.

Here are the 8 Senators who voted to end the filibuster but ultimately voted no on the bill itself:

Cortez Masto (D-NV)
Durbin (D-IL)
Fetterman (D-PA)
Gillibrand (D-NY)
Hassan (D-NH)
Peters (D-MI)
Schatz (D-HI)
Schumer (D-NY)