CNN’s Jake Tapper isn’t one to mince words and he can be tougher than coffin nails, especially during that time when he helped Florida Governor Ron DeSantis seal his own fate last July. He’s even gone off on former President Donald Trump for inciting bigotry, personal attacks, and promoting goofball conspiracy theories. But what’s really getting to him lately is that the U.S. is lurching toward another government shutdown. Thursday, on his show, The Lead with Jake Tapper, he excoriated lawmakers for stalling until the last minute to fulfill something that is this crucial and one of the most basic constitutional duties — providing enough funding to keep it open — a story he says he’s told “countless times over the past 10 years,” according to Mediaite.
Indeed, we have become so inured to this political action that I think for most of us it’s like “another government shutdown. Hon, what’s on Netflix tonight?” Sometimes it also feels like we’re being held hostage to this and it flat-out shouldn’t be this way.
During the segment, which featured CNN’s chief congressional correspondent Manu Raju, Tapper didn’t hide his frustration over this “staggeringly incompetent and disgraceful” display of political farting around for no good reason. I’m including excerpts from Tapper’s Thursday discussion about the upcoming morass thanks to the U.S. Congress.
“Manu, I can’t believe we’re doing this again. it’s just staggeringly incompetent and disgraceful. all right. moving on!
Raju put the situation in perspective noting Congress was supposed to pass legislation that would prevent a shutdown on October 1, but dropped the ball, merely passing a short-term extension which wound up with Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Ca.), being ousted from his position as House Speaker. Far-right members of Congress were upset that he cut a deal where he was too cooperative with House Democrats. Then, of course, current House Speaker Mike Johnsonstepped in (R-La.) and passed another short-term extension.
Raju noted that Johson said he won’t move on any more short-term extensions, “but guess what? He had to do it. Facing another shutdown deadline.”
“so they’re kicking the can down the road. they’r about to pass it in the house, and then once again have to figure out what to do come february as they run into that early march deadline, jake.”
“You said ‘kicking the can down the road’ — drink!” Tapper said.
But at the close of the interview Tapper, clearly still frustrated noted “Hey, Manu, they get paid whether they accomplish anything or not, right?”
“That’s absolutely right,” Manu said. “they could pass legislation to change that, but i’m not expecting that to happen anytime soon.”
“I was just checking,” Tapper responded. “Most people, when they have jobs where they don’t accomplish anything, they don’t get, they don’t — they get fired.”
Well, we can fire these people, and we should. They are wasting our taxpayer money to sit on their hands. So at voting time, let’s get cracking. We shouldn’t have to be faced with government shutdowns every couple of months. There’s no excuse for this. So let’s give some of these Republican layabouts the chance to look for new jobs.
You can watch the video here.
From where I’m sitting on this side of the pond, it looks very like a bunch of crazies in one branch of the executive are there, not to actually legislate, but to make sure that the other two branches of the executive don’t get to do anything that might, just conceivably, help the American people.
That way, they can claim “The other crowd didn’t do ANYTHING!!” when they go, cap in hand (and dark cash in their pocket) to try to get back and hope to do it all over again.
Simply NOT enough emphasis on the republicons’ responsibility (sorry about that use of the word in any association with republicons) for the entire mess.
It should always be “Only the republicons…” not just “Congress…”
Another reason Trumpinistas hate CNN : they have reporters who are have Scary Brown People and LGBTW folks attractive women with brains and degrees from actually accredited colleges instead of airheads like Megyn Kelly.
“If you can fight…fight. Help each other. Be prepared for anything. Our war has just begun.” Brad Pitt in
World War Z
Better believe this is a war for our survival, and to support a more humane, tolerant, and socially just world.
IF there is a government shutdown, ALL members of Congress should NOT get paid during the shutdown AND they should not collect that money retroactively.
Also, the duration of the shutdown should not count towards there term on office. i.e. A first term congressperson loses that first term. It’s as if they hadn’t been elected. So, need two terms to get some retirement? You just lost one.