Tag Archives: Continuing resolution (CR)

What Happens Next

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The Senate has voted to end the government shutdown. CNBC posted an article on Monday (updated Tuesday) explaining what happens next.

The article reports:

  • The Senate passed a bill to end the U.S. government shutdown.
  • House Speaker Mike Johnson called for House members to travel to Washington, D.C., so that they can vote as soon as possible on the deal.
  • To end the shutdown, the House needs to pass the Senate bill, and then President Donald Trump must sign it into law.

There are some grumblings among more liberal Democrats that they will try to stop the bill in the House, but I don’t think they will succeed.

The article notes:

House members were told that votes on the deal could begin by 4 p.m. ET on Wednesday.

Before the Senate vote, Johnson refused to commit to the deal’s key guarantee to Democrats: that Congress will hold a separate vote in December on potentially extending enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies. That vote would be on a bill of the Democrats’ choosing, according to the Senate agreement.

“I’m not committing to it or not committing to it,” Johnson, R-La., said Monday on CNN.

Those subsidies, which are due to expire at the end of December, help reduce the cost of individual health insurance plans for more than 20 million Americans.

What the article fails to mention is that the subsidies go to the insurance companies rather than to the people buying the insurance. The insurance companies have no incentive to lower premiums or cut costs. The impact of the subsidies going to the insurance companies on the price of insurance is similar to what happened to college tuition when the government got involved in the student loan program. When you take away incentive to lower prices, prices do not get lowered.

The article concludes:

The Senate deal would fund the government through the end of January; reverse all shutdown-related layoffs of federal employees; and guarantee that all federal workers will be paid their normal salaries during the shutdown.

The deal also includes provisions for a bipartisan budget process and prevents the White House from using continuing resolutions to fund the government.

CRs have been repeatedly used to avoid government shutdowns, but are controversial because they frequently avoid lawmakers having to make decisions about long-term funding of the government that a normal budget would resolve.

The deal would also fund, through September, the SNAP program, which helps feed 42 million Americans through food stamps.

Under a federal law passed in 2019, government employees who are furloughed during a shutdown must be paid for the time they were out of work at their standard rate of pay “at the earliest date possible, regardless of scheduled pay dates.”

Not All Democrats Support The Government Shutdown

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On Monday, The Daily Caller posted an article about one union that is not supporting the current Schumer Shutdown.

The article reports:

Senate Democrats were dealt a severe blow on Monday morning when the country’s largest federal workers union called for a swift end to the government shutdown.

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), a union representing more than 800,000 government workers, released an open letter calling on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and his caucus to vote for a House-passed bipartisan spending bill to reopen the government. Schumer and a majority of Democrats have voted against a clean funding measure to reopen the government a dozen times — and will vote on a spending bill to end the shutdown for a 13th time as soon as Tuesday.

“It’s time to pass a clean continuing resolution and end this shutdown today,” AFGE national president Everett Kelley said in a statement. “No half measures, and no gamesmanship. Put every single federal worker back on the job with full back pay — today.”

The article notes:

Monday marks Day 27 of the government shutdown that continues to stretch on despite mounting financial distress for Americans who receive federal paychecks or depend on federal food aid programs, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

Congress has passed 36 continuing resolutions to fund the government rather than following the regular budget process since January 2009. During the Biden administration Congress passed 13 continuing resolutions. Trump derangement syndrome is about to cost people their food stamps and government checks.

The article concludes:

Senate Democrats, however, show few signs of relenting from their hardball tactics that have kept the government shuttered for one of the longest durations in American history. Schumer continues to demand an extension of expiring Obamacare subsidies — in addition to a bevy of costly left-wing priorities — in exchange for reopening the government.

Just three Democratic caucus members have crossed party lines to vote for the bipartisan spending measure. Republicans must get buy-in from an additional five Democrats in order to clear the Senate’s 60-vote threshold for government funding bills and end the shutdown.

Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul has consistently voted against the bipartisan funding measure, arguing the bill does not do enough to cut spending.

A spokesperson for Schumer did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

There Is Nothing Quite So Immortal As A Government Subsidy

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One of the reasons the Democrats are refusing to approve an continuing resolution to keep the government open is that they want to restore the spending that got eliminated in the Big Beautiful Bill. That spending includes a continuation of some of the money that was supposed to be temporary spending due to Covid. Just for the record, Congress has passed 36 continuing resolutions to fund the government rather than following the regular budget process since the senator took office in January 2009 (source here). So why is this continuing resolution different? It isn’t. However, the current politics of the Democrat party is different. The government shutdown is the result of the battle between the sane and insane elements of the Democrat party. The insane element is the socialist wing that keeps moving farther left. The sane wing is the old-school Democrat wing that will occasionally bend in order to keep things moving forward.

On Tuesday, Breitbart reported:

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) rejected a one-year extension of Obamacare subsidies, which Breitbart News has reported that Democrats essentially shut down the government over.

The Hill reported that while Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-VA) is advocating for legislation that would “extend enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credit” until the end of 2026, Jeffries criticized Republicans for thinking “Democrats are going to go along with a one-year extension” of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies:

Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-Va.) is pushing legislation to extend enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits, which expire on Jan. 1, through the end of 2026. The proposal has bipartisan support, and some political observers view it as a launching pad for securing a deal to reopen the government.

Jeffries, though, has other ideas, saying a one-year extension is “a non-starter.” He emphasized that President Trump and Republicans had adopted a permanent extension of tax cuts for the country’s wealthiest people earlier in the year. With that in mind, he’s demanding a similarly permanent extension of the enhanced ACA subsidies, which overwhelmingly help working class people.

Actually, if you really wanted to help working class people, you would get rid of the subsidies, let Obamacare die, and get the government out of healthcare. That would help everyone.

The article concludes:

While Democrats argue that “the loss of enhanced subsidies will result in the widespread loss of Americans’ health care,” Michael Cannon, the director of health policy studies for the Cato Institute explained that the enhanced subsidies “subsidize people making from $129,000 all the way up to $600,000 per year.”

Cannon described them as “Obamacare subsidies for the wealthy.”

Pulling An Ace Out Of A Hole

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The one thing that the Congressional Democrats are really great at doing is not understanding the consequences of their actions. They do not understand that many of today’s Republicans are not as willing to roll over and play dead as their former Congressional members. The attempt to blackmail Americans by planning to shut down the government if budget cuts are not restored may not work out the way Senator Schumer wants it to.

On Thursday, Ed Morrissey posted the following at Hot Air:

The deadline for a government shutdown is fast approaching, and Schumer tried to play hardball this week. He and Hakeem Jeffries demanded a meeting with Trump to negotiate, which Trump initially accepted, but canceled after the pair demanded a massive list of concessions before the meeting took place. Schumer then told the press that Trump was “chicken” and that any shutdown would be his fault — even though the House had already passed the clean CR that Schumer had demanded when Joe Biden was president-ish.

On Thursday, The Wall Street Journal reported:

The White House’s budget office directed federal agencies to draw up plans to permanently reduce their workforces if there is a government shutdown next week, raising the specter of mass firings on top of the customary furloughs during a lapse in funding. 

The new memo sent by Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought sharply raises the stakes for funding talks and increases the pressure on Senate Democrats, who are demanding that Republicans restore hundreds of billions of dollars in healthcare spending as a condition of their support for keeping the government funded.

…The OMB memo instructs agencies to design reduction-in-force plans for employees who work for programs that have no current funding and have no outside funding source, and that are “not consistent with the President’s priorities.” This would be in addition to any temporary furloughs that happen during a government shutdown. 

The memo from Vought says that any cuts made after the funding deadline would be permanent.

Never play checkers with someone who plays three-dimensional chess!

Extortion Or Negotiation?

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On Friday, The Daily Caller posted an article about the ongoing budget negotiations in Congress. The House of Representatives has passed a Continuing Resolution (CR) which represents a ‘clean bill’ which generally continues things as they are rather than adding additional items. Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer of New York is demanding some major Democrat additions to the CR that represent Democrat priorities in order to pass the CR (which needs 60 votes in the Senate). If the CR does not pass, the government shuts down.

The Daily Caller reports:

House Speaker Mike Johnson rejected Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York’s demand that Congress allocate $500 million for certain media outlets Friday, saying, “We’re not doing that.”

The House of Representatives passed both a short-term funding measure and a resolution honoring assassinated Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk on Friday. Democrats have demanded that the stopgap funding measure add over $1 trillion in funding for various priorities, including reversing the rescission of funds for public broadcasting.

…“He (Senator Schumer) also wants to make sure, he wants to reinstate health care to be provided free by American taxpayers for illegal aliens. We’re not going to do that either,” Johnson continued. “He also wants to add $500 million to prop up left-leaning media organizations. We’re not doing that either.”

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has identified $206 billion in savings since President Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20, despite drawing fire from Democrats over various cuts it identified, including the closure of the United States Agency for International Development.

A CR is not really the answer to America’s financial problem. We need to get back to the legal budget process. The Congressional Budget Process is supposed to involve individual budget requests for each area of the government. Those requests are to be passed individually. We have not correctly followed that procedure since 2008. It is time to get back to the way the law is written.

Stumbling Toward A Government Shutdown

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On Friday, Breitbart reported that the House of Representatives had passed the Continuing Resolution (CR) and passed it on to the Senate. The CR would keep the government funded until November 21. There are two bills proposed in the Senate to keep the government open–one by the Democrats and one by the Republicans. Both bills are expected to fail because 60 votes are needed to pass either one. Personally, I think the possibility of a shutdown depends on whether or not the Democrats think the media will join them in blaming the Republicans. If the Democrats believe that they will be blamed for the shutdown, there won’t be a shutdown.

The article reports:

Now the bill moves on to the Senate where it faces strong headwinds.

The Senate is expected to vote on two bills: first, a Democrat alternative to the CR that is a non-starter for Republican majorities in the House and the Senate as well as the Republican White House, followed by the House-passed CR. This two-step approach is designed to give appropriators more time to reach a bipartisan deal.

Both bills are likely to fail, with the Senate expected to recess afterward until September 29 — hours before the deadline of October 1.

The short-term CR expires November 21, using a tactic often employed by Congressional leaders to schedule must-pass votes before Thanksgiving or Christmas to encourage recalcitrant members to vote yes and return home for the holidays.

I have hope that someday Congress will get back to the budget process the law requires them to follow.

When Groucho Marx Gets It Right

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The video below is from the 1932 Groucho Marx movie “Horse Feathers.” It perfectly illustrates the situation described below the video.

On Wednesday, The Daily Caller posted an article about discussions currently going on in Congress about passing a Continuing Resolution (CR) to keep the government funded until November 21.

The article reports:

Democrats are pledging to vote against a GOP stopgap funding bill and plunge the country into a partial government shutdown, but have struggled to express what they dislike within the spending measure they are lining up to oppose.

The Daily Caller News Foundation (DCNF) spoke to 10 Democrats on Wednesday who railed against the seven-week funding bill — despite a majority of their caucus voting to extend government funding levels through short-term continuing resolutions (CRs) more than a dozen times when former President Joe Biden was in office. None could point to a specific provision within the 91-page bill they oppose.

“I’m not supporting the partisan CR,” Democratic California Sen. Adam Schiff told the DCNF on Wednesday as he made his way to an elevator following a Senate vote.

The DCNF then asked Schiff which provisions he opposed within the CR.

Schiff replied “Uh —” before letting the elevator doors close.

Speaker Mike Johnson unveiled a short-term CR on Tuesday to fund the government through Nov. 21. The measure would fund the government at current levels while providing for additional security assistance for all three branches of government in the aftermath of TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk’s assassination. The speaker could put the bill on the floor as early as Friday morning.

The article notes:

GOP leaders have argued they see no reason to negotiate on a “clean” short-term funding measure that has no partisan policy riders attached. They have also made clear that the CR will not be held hostage to Democrats’ demands for a healthcare policy bill.

“Republicans have deliberately chosen to keep this CR clean to ensure that there can be no possible reason for Democrats to object to funding the government,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said on the Senate floor Wednesday. “There really is no possible way to call this a partisan CR with a straight face.”

Some Democrats have appeared to boil down their opposition to the CR to their animosity toward the president. Trump said Republicans should not work with Democrats to fund the government during a “Fox & Friends” interview on Monday.

“Donald Trump said he doesn’t want to work with us,” Democratic Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz told reporters in the Capitol on Wednesday. “And so if he doesn’t want to work with us then I wish him the best.”

The above statement can be translated as “Donald Trump is not doing things our way!”

Were the Democrats willing to work with the Republicans when the Republicans were in the minority? Elections have consequences. If this shutdown happens, it will be on the backs of the Democrats despite the media’s efforts to portray it otherwise.

This Might Be Part Of The Problem

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On Tuesday, Breitbart posted an article about the recently passed Continuing Resolution (CR). The article might explain part of the reason we are having so much trouble bringing down the federal deficit.

The article reports:

Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) revealed on The Alex Marlow Show that one Republican lawmaker bristled about how the stop-gap spending did not have any earmarks, including his own.

Perry spoked to Breitbart News Editor-in-Chief Marlow as the House passed the stop-gap spending bill, otherwise known as a continuing resolution (CR), that freezes government spending for six months.

The Pennsylvania conservative argued that the advancement of the CR is a victory in itself, as it blocked congressional leadership from advancing an omnibus spending bill.

“What’s different and the context about this is that we didn’t get our appropriations done, but our leadership wanted to do an omnibus. They wanted that four corners deal. The CR is not the four corners deal. They don’t want the CR; they’ve been forced into it by people like me and quite honestly, the president,” Perry said.

The former Freedom Caucus chairman also cheered the CR’s lack of earmarks.

“There are no earmarks in this thing,” he said.

I am not a fan of CR’s (although I believe this one is necessary), but I am a fan of no earmarks.

The article concludes:

“I had a Republican member complaining to me at a meeting this morning. He’s grumbling, well I guess I have to vote for this, but you know, my earmarks aren’t it. I’m thinking, you’re talking to the guy, brother,” Perry said.

“I’m not into that,” he said.

The Keystone State conservative also noted that America has not seen a normal congressional appropriations process. He said that the last time Congress went through the “normal” appropriations process was in 1996.

“We have to find a new way to do business,” he argued.

No, you have to go back to the old way of doing business–the “normal” appropriations process.

A Very Logical Argument

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On Sunday, Ed Morrissey at Hot Air posted an article about the Continuing Resolution (CR) now working its way through Congress.

The article reports:

What’s the argument for opposing the new CR being introduced by Speaker Mike Johnson this week? Other than being a continuing resolution, of course, which stink on ice. Congress has gotten into a bad habit over the past 20 years of failing to budget normally and properly. This year is no different, but in that same sense, this CR is both a necessity and better than all of the alternatives. This has been dysfunctional all along, but this isn’t a time to amplify it.

First off, we’re stuck with the CR process. That ship sailed last year, when Democrats controlled the Senate, Joe Biden was president (ostensibly), and House Republicans spent the year forming circular firing squads. Yes, we could write an entirely new budget instead of a CR for FY2024-25, but we’re nearly halfway through that fiscal year already. We’d have to start that process nearly from scratch too, which means we’d still need a CR to get enough time to work on it. That would take another couple of months at least under regular order — meaning the proper committee process, etc — by which time the rest of the fiscal year would be closer to a fiscal quarter. 

What would we gain from that process? We’d be unlikely to move the needle much at all on spending, and create even more time for splits to emerge in the House Republican caucus with less time to resolve them. That effort is better applied to the FY2025-26 budget, where real opportunities exist for capturing significant spending cuts through DOGE. 

He makes a very good point. Let’s get past the CR and get on with the work of finding fraud and waste in government spending. Let’s end the foreign campaign contributions funded through ActBlue, and let’s end the campaign donations and other donations made to Congressmen (and women) from companies who have legislation before Congress. Let’s look at how much the pharmaceutical industry has donated to Congress in recent years and see how that relates to legislation passed.

Let’s be done with the CR and move on to better things.

About That Farm Bill

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On Friday, Breitbart posted an article about the ‘Farm Bill.’ Evidently the Farm Bill is not about farms–it’s about food stamps.

The article reports:

The bulk of the Farm Bill is funding for food stamps, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) said Thursday during an interview on Breitbart News Daily.

Sen. Johnson walked through some of the issues with the original 1,537-page continuing resolution (CR) negotiated by Speaker Johnson, which is full of pork. One of the stumbling blocks for some is the inclusion of the Farm Bill in the spending deal, but the senator said it is not what it seems.

“It’s a food stamp bill,” Johnson revealed. “80 percent of the Farm Bill is funding for food stamps, and Obama dramatically increased eligibility.”

The article notes:

“It used to be in prosperous times, maybe 6 percent of the population was on food stamps. Then [the] recessions, go up to 12 [percent] 13 [percent], pretty well stuck at that higher limit nowadays, because we pay people not to work,” Johnson said.

“Let’s be honest, we pay people not to work,” he said, noting that the U.S. welfare program is very generous.

“People don’t pay taxes on them [welfare benefits]. We have a huge transfer of wealth from working Americans to people who don’t work. And we’re a compassionate society. We want to help people who can’t help themselves. We want to help people help themselves, but we created a far too large dependent class. That’s got to end,” he said. “We need to get people off the couch. They’ve got to enter the workforce and grow our economy.”

Let’s put work requirements back in order to receive any kind of public assistance. We can exclude the elderly and those with young children, but let’s put people back to work.

The Illusion Of Power vs. Authentic Power

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One of the things I have observed in my lifetime is that often people who claim or cling to ‘powerful’ titles don’t actually have much power. It seems to me that the people not concerned with titles or telling people how powerful they are tend to be the people who actually accomplish things.

We remember 2008 when Barack Obama invented the title “Office of the President-Elect.” There is nothing in the U.S. Constitution that creates that office, but by 2008 the press had pretty much destroyed President Bush, so there was a power vacuum that Barack Obama was able to step into. He had no actual power, but he had the title he made up.

Contrast that picture with what has happened since the 2024 presidential election. President Trump has not claimed any title other than President-elect, yet world leaders and American influencers have made their way to Mar-a-Lago. Preparations are being made for a new sheriff in town, and some people are running for cover. That was illustrated in the “CR” bill that was not a actually a CR bill. That bill, which was going to be voted on this Friday, has been pulled. The bill was pulled because of pressure exerted by President Trump, Elon Musk, and American voters. Our voices are finally being heard.

Some of the things hidden in the 1500-page bill that the swamp hoped no one would read were money for “American music tourism,” “consumer safety standards for certain types of batteries,” a pay raise for Congress, and a one-year extension of the State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC). (source here)

There is also one provision in the bill to block investigations into bad behavior by Congress (source here):

Congressional leadership slipped a provision into the stopgap spending bill that would bar or stymie investigations into Congress.

Tucked within the stopgap spending bill is a provision that has enflamed controversy amongst many conservatives on and off Capitol Hill.

The provision, titled “Treatment of electronic services provided for House offices,” sounds vague but could could stop or limit investigations into Congress.

Part of the section states:

Upon a motion made promptly by a House office or provider for a House office, a court of competent jurisdiction shall quash or modify any legal process directed to the provider for a House office if compliance with the legal process would require the disclosure of House data of the House office.

INFORMATION REGARDING IMPLICATIONS OF USING PROVIDERS.—The Office of the Chief Administrative Officer, in consultation with the House Office of General Counsel, shall provide information regarding the potential constitutional implications and the potential impact on privileges that may be asserted to each House office that commissions or uses a provider of electronic communication service or remote computing service. [Emphasis added]

“A new provision in the latest CR lets Congress block subpoenas for House data, including emails, potentially preventing any investigation into the J6 Committee,” Benny Johnson, a conservative activist, wrote on X.

The swamp creatures are trying to protect themselves. I hope it doesn’t work.