Republicans recently held the economy hostage over the debt ceiling, and while President Joe Biden prevented a devastating default, Republicans aren’t done trying to screw over the nation.
Last week, the MAGA House majority finally returned to work and focused on some important business — no, not just petty attempts to censure Rep. Adam Schiff. Republican leadership announced that the band of bunglers will pursue appropriations bills, which fund government programs and agencies, with less spending than the top-line numbers they agreed to in the debt ceiling deal with the White House. That was barely a month ago, and they’re already reneging. The Devil treats the deals he makes more honorably.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy argues that the numbers he negotiated with the White House are simply a cap and “you can always do less,” which I think was the mantra on The Flash film set. Thursday, the House Appropriations Committee voted along party lines to limit non-defense spending to 2022 budget levels. But what about that debt ceiling deal? Committee chair Kay Granger insists it only “set a top-line spending cap — a ceiling, not a floor.”
The House Appropriations Committee voted 33 to 27 last Thursday along party lines to adopt a discretionary spending level of $1.47 trillion for fiscal year 2024. That’s about $120 billion below the $1.59 trillion set out in the debt ceiling bill and would slash spending for the environment, public assistance, and foreign aid.
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Rosa DeLauro, ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, said House Republicans have already “walked away from this deal.” She added, “It is a prelude to a shutdown — what they are engineering.”
But … but they are such trustworthy people!
So, we might get through this summer, but we could endure another needless budget showdown in the fall that could result in a government shutdown … again.
Democrats are obviously very disappointed in their Republican colleagues. Rep. Steny Hoyer said, “Do you think any of us would have made a deal if we thought your ’22 number was the deal? What kind of deal is that? What kind of respect for yourselves is that?”
Some House Republicans have warned leadership against catering to the party’s far-right asshole wing. Rep. Steve Womack said, “I think we’ve just got to be really careful not to allow, you know, a small portion of our conference to continually be chipping away at previously agreed upon issues. That top-line number was agreed to in the [debt-ceiling bill]. They may not like it. They voiced their displeasure last week. They kind of shut the House down, but we’ve got work to do. We need to be doing it.”
Senate Republicans are also rolling their eyes. Susan Collins, ranking Republican on the appropriations committee, said she was concerned “surprised” by the House’s move. Shelley Moore Capito, sounding like a common honest person, said, “I feel we struck an agreement that we will write to those numbers.” Lisa Murkowski pointed out that House Republicans lowballing the numbers could derail at least 12 separate budget deals. “It’s not going to be easy, given what we’re seeing out of the House right now,” she added. In other words, what’s with these people?
Sen. John Kennedy told Semafor: “If you propose a compromise you need to tell the truth and tell people exactly what the compromise is. I can tell you that senators are tired of getting the compromise, voting for it or even not voting for it, and finding out later that wasn’t the truth.”
When Sen. Foghorn Leghorn is a voice of (relative) reason, you can sense that Senate Republicans might not mind an end to the House Republican reign of terror. These fools can’t govern.
[Associated Press / Reuters / Semafor]
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