GOP crackpot, Scott Perry (R-PA), was on Fox with Maria Bartiromo, advocating cancelling the State of the Union address because he doesn’t like the way Biden is handling his job. Perry’s out of his gourd. The folks in Dauphin (a minority), Cumberland (a small majority) and York (a sick, deranged majority) counties who voted for him last time, should read an American civics text book before they vote again in November. He won with 53.8% of the vote, just over 25,000 voters in a district with an R+9 partisan lean.
This morning Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries and House Speaker MAGA Mike, are meeting with Biden at the White House to see what to do about the government shutdown that Trump and his allies are precipitating. This is all about MAGA Mike’s weakness and inability to deal with the nihilistic MAGA extremists in his conference, like Perry, who just want to burn it all down.
Yesterday, Jake Sherman, John Bresnahan and Andrew Desiderio reported that “This impasse over government funding is all about House Republicans. Johnson is under pressure from House GOP hardliners who want to string out this fight as long as possible in order to trigger automatic spending cuts. So Johnson is holding out on a number of policy riders. All the other players in these bicameral discussions— Senate Democrats and Republicans, House Democrats and the White House— have pushed for bipartisan deals. But House Republicans won’t go along once again. Johnson, quite frankly, has been hesitant to lead on any issue at all. With the example of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s ouster in mind, Johnson won’t overrule the Freedom Caucus… [H]ardline conservatives [they still refuse to say “fascists” at Punchbowl] don’t operate under the typical incentive structures that govern national politics. And some Republicans suspect Johnson is toying with a shutdown to give himself more space to cut a deal with Democrats. This may be giving him too much credit, however.”
…[C]ongressional leaders had hoped to release text for the first four spending bills by Sunday night. These cover the Agriculture, Energy and Water, MilCon-Va and Transportation-HUD bills, the first tranche of annual appropriations under the “laddered” continuing resolution Johnson demanded last year.
But House GOP [fascists and nihilists] have refused to concede on anything. When Johnson said during a Friday night conference call with members that he wanted to do the first group of bills this week on the floor— meaning he would need Democratic help to pass them under suspension— there was strong pushback from Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) and other hardliners.
During that call, Johnson also said he didn’t want a shutdown but conceded that it may happen. Johnson also acknowledged that Republicans didn’t score any major policy victories in the funding bills either.
As the weekend progressed, the bicameral talks began to stall out. And by Sunday afternoon, as we first reported, it became clear that negotiators wouldn’t be able to release spending bills due to the GOP opposition.
The policy fights: There’s a dispute over hundreds of millions of dollars in WIC funding— Women, Infants and Children— under the Agriculture Department. The department has warned of a possible $1 billion shortfall in the program unless more money is approved, which could put millions of program participants at risk. Conservatives want to keep this funding flat.
Another disagreement involves a Senate provision barring the VA from sending a veteran’s name to the National Instant Criminal Background Checks System— used for gun purchases— when a fiduciary is appointed to oversee that person’s benefits.
There’s also hundreds of millions in spending earmarks that are another problem area, according to Democratic and GOP aides.
Lastly, GOP hardliners are already suggesting that Republicans force Biden to add more money for border security. This comes despite the fact that Johnson and conservative hardliners helped kill a bipartisan Senate border security bill just weeks ago.
With the March 1 deadline [Friday] approaching, Schumer warned senators in a “Dear Colleague” letter Sunday to keep their schedules flexible since no agreement had been reached:
“While we had hoped to have legislation ready this weekend that would give ample time for members to review the text, it is clear now that House Republicans need more time to sort themselves out.”