Congress Catch-All
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Shutdown anxiety rises on Capitol Hill amid Trump chaos
Washington is growing increasingly worried about the potential for a government shutdown — and what devastation it could bring.“… It’s not just President Donald Trump’s history of leading the country through a 35-day funding lapse that has lawmakers worried about his appetite for another one in March. It’s also that Trump’s actions in his first two weeks back in office are stifling bipartisan negotiations toward a funding deal as the president — and his “government efficiency” chief, Elon Musk — work to bulldoze the federal bureaucracy while freezing billions of dollars Congress already enacted and firing federal workers.
“I don’t think anybody thinks a shutdown is a good thing. But the politics are such that we could certainly stumble into one without meaning to,” House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole, an Oklahoma Republican, said in a brief interview Tuesday.
The new president’s truculent first days in office have created an especially unfavorable climate on Capitol Hill for landing any cross-party accord, whether that’s a “grand funding deal” ahead of the government shutdown deadline or an agreement to lift the debt limit to prevent the U.S. from defaulting on more than $36 trillion in loans in the coming months. …
… Behind closed doors, Cole and Congress’ other three top appropriations are trying to strike a bipartisan deal on the first step toward funding the government by the March 14 deadline: One overall spending total for the military and another for non-defense programs. From there, it usually takes at least a month to negotiate and finalize the dozen individual funding bills.
The clock is ticking fast. …”
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5 Trillion would be fascinating ina 6.3 Trillin dollar budget“… We’re still in the early phase of Hill Republicans’ attempt to pass President Donald Trump’s agenda. Yet it’s fair to say, at this moment, things aren’t going well.
Speaker Mike Johnson and the House Republican committee chairs initially proposed between $500 billion to $700 billion in spending cuts as part of a massive reconciliation package. Yet conservative GOP hardliners rejected that, saying they wanted more. They’re seeking as much as $2 trillion to $5 trillion in cuts.
The House Budget Committee, which was supposed to mark up a budget resolution this week, hasn’t announced any meeting. The conservative hardliners are seemingly unmoveable. As we’ve been reporting all week, the House GOP leadership’s plan is stalled while Senate Republicans are anxious to possibly take over. …”
2/5/25 ☀️ AM:
PRESENTED BY IN THIS EDITION House GOP is in a jam on Trump’s agenda. Here’s how they can get outDOGE-curious Dems dwindle after early Musk movesA strongpunchbowl.news
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Mulberry Heel
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People used to be elected to Congress because they saw it as an exciting place to work and they could help direct the course of the entire nation. We are now electing representatives who care so little for the grubby details of the job that they now spend most of their time trying to get on social media via outrageous statements and comments and now they're not even showing up for basic duties like voting so they can go on television. Nice work if you can get it.
Paine
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Himes and AOC are both right. Most Americans don’t care about USAID, and Dems should focus their visible outrage on other issues. That doesn’t mean Dems shouldn’t use parliamentary maneuvering to block further attempts by Reps to illegally defund USAID and other agencies. Republicans will take the blame for a shutdown.
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First read I thought that said “paramilitary maneuvering” to block defunding. Gotta get my glasses checked.
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We still have a Congress? Could have entirely fooled me. Seems to me we have instantly devolved into a dictatorship.
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Maybe DOGE will cut Congress
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We May Be a Month Away From Republicans Shutting Down a Government They Control
We're 1 Month From a Government Shutdown—The Talks Are a Mess
The U.S. has roughly one month until the government runs out of money, and the talks to avoid that are a mess, writes Philip Elliott.
“… What almost everyone is missing: This country has roughly one month until the government runs out of money, and things like paychecks to troops, food-inspection programs, disaster-reliefpayments, and aid to low-income families could all be caught up in a chaotic game of chicken.
Republicans could keep the lights on all on their own, but probably won’t.
“They control the House, the Senate and the presidency. It’s their government,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters last week, setting up a blame-game preamble. Jeffries is factually correct.
Even still, Republicans may end up needing a bailout from Democratic lawmakers before March 14. That gives Democrats their first real leverage in Trump’s second term, but it’s entirely unclear if they will use it or to what end. While a unified plan has yet to emerge, wisps of fight-ready ambitions are starting to move from the fringes to the mainstream, albeit more slowly than most rank-and-file Democrats would like.
… All the signs are here. The White House says it is charging forward despite federal judges tellingofficials to, at a minimum, pump the brakes. Whether it actually upends the United States’ system of checks and balances in the coming weeks will shape the budget negotiations.
If Trump and Elon Musk continue to treat the spending laws already passed by Congress as mere suggestions, there won’t be much faith that the next spending bills will bind Trump’s team to actually following the orders from Capitol Hill.
… For Democrats in particular, this all makes it harder for them to consider helping Trump’s party look responsible enough to keep the government functioning at the most basic level. …”
I don't get what the debate is for Democrats? Trump always caves. Thune is a newbie. Speaker Johnson is already signaling he's got to have Democrat votes. Democrats should not let a shutdown influence them from demanding everything including walking back the anti-democracy stuff Trump has done. In fact, having to endure a shutdown should be part of the plan.
BlooVooDoo
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Jeffries should offer to help Johnson avoid a shutdown, but only if Johnson instructs the chair of the oversight committee to agree to subpoena Musk and force him to testify before passing a continuing resolution.