“Johnson Tries To Climb Out Of Trump’s Trap” the New GOP Normal

Punchbowl News has the best synopsis of the debacle in the last working hours before Xmas that you’re likely to read, especially since the facts of the CR bill being changed, being passed, hanging up in a rules snag, washing out, and every other variable mutate by the hour if not quicker. What. A. Mess. I especially like Punchbowl’s headline, that the House Speaker needs to climb out of the trap that the president-elect of his own party has set for him. That is not confidence inspiring. But then if Moses Mikey doesn’t realize that he’s a pawn and a placeholder for whatever Trump decides to do next, then he truly is a fool and he deserves whatever happens to him. Nobody can be that oblivious.

Speaker Mike Johnson, facing a tidal wave of criticism over his handling of the government funding crisis, thinks he has found his way out of a trap that President-elect Donald Trump set for him.

After holing up in his office all day with a rotating cast of senior House GOP lawmakers, Johnson has settled on a new strategy to fund federal agencies past midnight Friday while still fulfilling Trump’s request to lift the debt limit.

The House plans to vote tonight on a bill that will fund the federal government for three months while also suspending the debt limit until January 2027. That deadline would fall after the next midterm elections.

Here’s the bill. It’s a mere 116 pages. That’s a far cry from the last CR, which ran 1,547 pages.

The GOP-drafted legislation also extends the farm bill for one year, funds a set of expiring health care programs, sets aside $110 billion in disaster aid and wipes the PAYGO scorecard to zero. Most important for farm-state lawmakers – $30 billion in new emergency aid for farmers.

But gone is almost every other provision included in the bipartisan-negotiated CR, which Trump blew up Wednesday. Reforms to pharmacy benefit managers, an overhaul in outbound investment rules and changes to ethanol-based fuels were dropped.

Also not in this bill – a pay raise for members of Congress.

After the bill’s release, Trump backed the measure, saying: “SUCCESS in Washington.”

But House Democrats say their members will vote against this package, so it will probably fail under suspension. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said the new proposal is “not serious.”

“It’s laughable,” Jeffries said. “Extreme MAGA Republicans are driving us to a government shutdown.”

What the next few hours will look like. House Republican leadership is going to put the bill on the floor on suspension of the rules. Any legislation considered in this manner requires a two-thirds majority for passage. With Democrats opposed, the bill will fail.

The GOP leadership will then try to get a rule reported out of the Rules Committee and hold a floor vote under a simple-majority threshold. It’s not clear if the Rules Committee will be able to report a rule, given its rightward membership.

House Democrats predict they will lose only a handful of members. But it might be enough to help Johnson pass the bill. That’s how close this vote will be.

In short, a lot is up in the air.

If this bill fails under a rule, Johnson is in big trouble and the federal government will lurch closer to a shutdown.

How will conservatives vote? The House Freedom Caucus met late this afternoon to discuss the bill. The group’s chair, Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), would not say how he would vote on the bill. Reps. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) and Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) both said they would vote against the bill, citing concerns over the debt limit. Norman is important because he is on the Rules Committee and leadership will need his vote to report a rule.

Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.), the group’s former chair who lost a primary to a Trump-backed challenger, also said he will vote no. So did Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), another Freedom Caucus member who serves on the Rules panel. Trump trashed both men on Truth Social, even calling for a primary challenge to Roy.

What this boils down to is “who knows?” But the trend over on Twit/X now is that this is a terrific bill, the bestest bill, a Trump-ordained bill, and so if Hakeem Jeffries or any Democrat (or God help them any Republican) points out the flaws in the bill, then it’s target on back time.

One thing I’m glad of is that the pay raise to House members is out of the bill. Did you see that thing? A representative presently makes $174,000 which is great money for what is in many ways a part time job. And that’s not to disparage the really hardworking members of Congress who give it their all. There are some of those. But there’s a lot of dead wood, rubber stamp people in Congress. It was proposed that their salary be increased to $243,300 — an incredible increase.

I’m all for pay increases from time to time as expenses go up in the world, but not close to 40%. Come on.

Let’s watch the fireworks tonight. I still don’t know if Moses Mikey is out of the crosshairs. Marge Greene wants Elon to become House Speaker, so there’s that.

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