News broke earlier today that an agreement has been reached between Congressional leaders including House Speaker Mike Johnson that would avert a government shutdown. In theory. (The WH is on board in case you’re wondering) Speaker Johnson immediately came under fire from House GOPers who want far more cuts in spending, and of course the MAGA craziest of the crazies who want to have another government shutdown. Bear in mind it only takes one person to file a motion to Vacate the Chair and we’re back to where we were last October. Reading an article by The Hill it seems to me at least that there’s not a chance in hell Johnson can deliver, at least not without the help of Democrats. And again bear in mind there are some MAGAs in the House who will want to toss Johnson out which will put Democrats in quite a spot. Then there’s the issue of the supplemental funding to help Ukraine which isn’t part of this. However let’s focus on the main part – funding the government.
One of the issues has been the “top line” amount of funding. Johnson has not just the Appropriations Committee Chair but other committee that have been complaining they can’t work on the individual appropriations bills without that. Under the agreement announced today there IS now a number and the whole framework is fairly close to what was negotiated and passed at the beginning of summer in 2023 with the debt limit deal. (We all saw how that turned out for then Speaker and now ex Congress Critter McCarthy!) Johnson knows he’s got a lot of unhappy campers to deal with. Johnson wasted no time sending out a “Dear Colleagues” letter to his caucus today to try to quell serious resistance from building. I wish him luck. Still, he’s trying to spin things as not a big win, but a win nonetheless:
“While the levels of emergency spending from FY23 will be maintained, no additional emergency funding, or additional no-outlay changes in mandatory programs (CHIMPS), will be included, thus eliminating two of the worst accounting gimmicks included in the FRA framework,” Johnson said. “Unlike other adjustments, which are by nature limited in time or amount, the adjustments described above threatened to become permanent fixtures of the funding baseline as in previous budget agreements. Removing them now could save taxpayers more than $200 billion over the next 10 years.”
Johnson went on to make note of having gotten some concessions on a couple of House GOPer hobby horses, noting there would be an extra $10 billion in cuts to the IRS bringing the total to a $20 billion cut in their funding, as well as cutting $6.1 billion from “the Biden Administration’s continued COVID-era slush funds.” I don’t know about you but I seriously doubt that’s going to satisfy the vast majority of the GOP caucus. Even the ones who know how stupid it would be to, with all the crazy coming up this year and their majority already in deep doo-doo to force a shutdown.
No, instead I think the crazies will be howling through MAGAphones and even the (relatively) normal House GOPers will be tearing into Johnson and this agreement like wolves. They won’t finish reading Johnson’s “Dear Colleague” letter even if they start doing so. Nope, what they are going to focus on is what the Senate and White House have said about this today:
Democrats say the side deal struck between the White House and then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) at the time would have allowed for north of $60 billion in additional funding for non-defense programs.
Democrats and experts say the changes, which included redirecting billions of dollars from funding for the IRS and coronavirus efforts to other non-defense programs, was key to shielding non-defense programs from a significant funding cuts.
However, what will really chap their asses and that of Fox News (and worse outlets) is what President Biden had to say in hid own announcement endorsing the deal:
“It reflects the funding levels that I negotiated with both parties and signed into law last spring. It rejects deep cuts to programs hardworking families count on, and provides a path to passing full-year funding bills that deliver for the American people and are free of any extreme policies,” Biden said.
You don’t think a stream of House Republicans won’t be headed to Fox to express their outrage over Johnson “giving Biden a win?” Speaker Johnson is going to need a full bomb tech get-up covered by a HazMat suit, with full flame-retardant fireman’s gear over all that in the coming week because his fellow Republicans will be firing flaming sh*t bombs at him non-stop. So in the next week or so here’s what to watch for. First, does someone in the GOP caucus file a motion to Vacate the Chair over Johnson’s “McCarthy like betrayal.” Second, and just as important is how quickly Johnson will begin working with Hakeem Jeffries to get Democratic votes. And whether/how THAT will impact those who want a shutdown and would be quite willing to have Johnson removed!
Key leaders might have reached an agreement today but it’s far from a done deal. I’m already worn out just thinking about the week ahead.
With those funding cuts to the IRS, I would love for the Democrats to put out an ad telling people something along the lines of “Is it August already, and you’re still waiting for your refund? Well, thank the Republicans who insisted on cutting funding to the agency that processes your refunds.” And also, something like, “Did you make less than $50,000 last year and you’re facing an audit? Well, thank the Republicans who insisted on cutting funding to the IRS so they can’t go after the multi-millionaires and billionaires to make sure they’re paying their fair share of taxes because auditing those folks requires people with special skills. Auditing folks making $50,000 is pretty easy for almost any IRS agent.”