In case you haven’t been watching, the Angry Children’s Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives is screwing around with the country’s budget again.
When we last left the sandbox, the Congress was coming up fast on yet another budget deadline, Fiscal 2025 beginning as it does on October 5. Speaker Mike Johnson had scheduled a vote on a funding measure for Wednesday. But, as always, Speaker Moses is the tool of the Angry Children’s Caucus. Almost a dozen of them announced they would vote against it.
(The Democrats are opposed to the measure because it contains not only a wish list of right-wing spending cuts but also a provision that would require proof of citizenship to vote, despite the fact that it is already illegal for non-citizens to vote. This was a treat tossed to the former president*. All of which means the thing is dead in the Senate, and the president has already said he’d veto it if it came to his desk.)
As always, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was the spokesclown for the Angry Children’s Caucus. From The Hill:
Greene is one of several Republicans opposed to Johnson’s plan. She didn’t confirm that she would vote against the government funding plan, but at least six others said they would, which could potentially tank the effort. “For everyone to stand in there and say that we have to vote for this but in order to vote for it, you have to vote for a continuing resolution that continues the Biden administration’s budget that pays for the Green New Deal, that pays for all these horrific things that people are sick of, it is absurd,” Greene said.
So, on Wednesday afternoon, Speaker Moses pulled the vote. An emptier suit, you cannot find anywhere. From The Washington Post:
Congress must pass new funding legislation before Sept. 30 or crucial agencies and services will shutter. Johnson had been trying to pass a financing bill backed only by his narrow GOP majority in the House to gain leverage in negotiations with the Democratic-led Senate and White House. That bill would extend government funding to March 28 and would add unrelated new requirements that voters show proof of citizenship before registering for federal elections.
But infighting within the Republican conference—more of the same conflicts that have brewed there for more than a year—sank Johnson’s plan. Trump on Tuesday had urged Republicans to force a shutdown if they can’t secure the new registration requirements, which Democrats oppose and which elections officials say are unnecessary...The speaker said earlier in the week that he had “no fallback position” if Republicans rejected his approach.
I’m not one to pry, but maybe hitching your entire wagon to El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago wasn’t the best idea y’all ever had.
