Dem
51
GOP
49
The can has been kicked again. For the third time in FY 2023-24, Congress has passed a last-minute bill that will provide short-term funding for the government, and thus avoid a shutdown.
In the Senate, which passed the bill first, the vote was 77-18. All the "nay" votes came from Republicans, so too did all of the non-votes. In the House, the vote was 314-108. All but two of the "nay" votes came from Republicans. The only Democrats to break with their party were Jake Auchincloss (MA) and Mike Quigley (IL); both of them did so in protest of the lack of funding for Ukraine. Once the bill has Joe Biden's signature, half the government will be funded until March 1, while the other half will be funded until March 8. Surely that will be plenty of time for Congress to work something out, right?
Ok, maybe not. While the Democrats are pretty much on the same page, budget-wise, the Republicans continue to cannibalize each other. Obviously, some sizable percentage of GOP members (a.k.a., the "grown ups") backed Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) as he worked to keep the government from shutting down (and to keep the Republican Party from being stuck holding the bag). However, there is also a sizable percentage of the Republican conference that is hopping mad.
Taking the lead in the pitching of fits—and you will surely be stunned to hear this—is the Freedom Caucus. They take the view that Johnson should have added the draconian border bill that was passed by House Republicans earlier this month to the stopgap bill as an amendment. Of course, that ignores the fact that doing that would have made the stopgap bill a non-starter with both the Senate and the White House. In any event, the FCers are warning that they will be throwing many temper tantrums (i.e., tanking routine procedural votes) once Congress returns to work next week.
The right-wing media is also furious. Steve Bannon, who is somehow not yet in prison, called for the FCers to make a motion to vacate the chair right now. Other right-wing commenters and publications are thinking along the same lines.
Ultimately, members of the House Republican Conference face the same two decisions they've faced for weeks. First, will the Freedom Caucus actually move forward with a motion to vacate the chair? They are so unhinged, they might just do it (again). If they do, however, it will potentially create chaos (particularly if the lack of a Speaker throws a wrench into the budget process). That chaos would probably play well with the FCers' constituents, but would otherwise boomerang on the Republican Party. More of a problem for the FCers is that once the chaos was tamed, and once the dust settled, it is nearly impossible that they would end up with a speaker as friendly to their views as Johnson is.
The second decision, of course, belongs to Johnson. If the Freedom Caucus does move to vacate, then he can either go down in flames after 3 (or so) months, or he can work with the Democrats to save his bacon while neutering the FCers. This decision would seem to be a no-brainer to us, and yet Johnson's predecessor chose to fall on his sword because he just couldn't stomach reaching across the aisle. In any event, we're about 3 weeks away from yet another round of "imminent shutdown" talk. (Z)