With far-Right Numpties demanding a government shutdown unless all history since 1964 is erased, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has hit upon an argument that just might motivate the clodpate caucus to think twice: There’s no telling how long a government shutdown would last, so if they don’t pass a temporary funding bill, Congress would be closed too. And if that happened, Republicans wouldn’t be able to pursue the endless hearings, investigations, and armpit-snufflings needed to impeach Joe Biden and restore Donald Trump to the presidency.
Here’s live footage from members of the rightwing House Freedom Caucus as McCarthy explained the dilemma, courtesy of C-SPANiel:
The New York Times reports (Seattle Times reprint) that McCarthy floated this brainstorm over the weekend on Fox News, where he said a shutdown would get in the way of all the poop-sniffing that the House must do to finally get Biden and his crime family, and to bite them real good on the ankle. This is, we’re told, a reflection of McCarthy’s “growing desperation” to talk wingers into approving a continuing resolution to fund the government past September 30, the end of the fiscal year.
Just in case any of our readers are looking like that sweet Spaniel up there at the words “continuing resolution,” here’s our perennial explainer on how government shutdowns differ from debt ceiling fights, since we also had one of those in June.
Whew. The Times ‘splains that McCarthy
appears to be hoping that the conservative desire to investigate and possibly charge [Biden] with high crimes and misdemeanors — particularly amid the multiple criminal cases against former President Donald Trump — might outweigh their resistance to voting in favor of federal spending.
“If we shut down, all the government shuts it down — investigation and everything else,” McCarthy said about the prospect of funding running out Sept. 30. “It hurts the American public.”
In the interview, he called impeachment a “natural step forward” from the many inquiries Republicans have pursued against the president, but he sidestepped a question about whether he had the votes to do so given the deep divisions among GOP lawmakers about such a course.
Also too, the article helpfully points out that it would likely be illegal for Rs to continue widdling and sniffing around Biden during an actual shutdown, even if they said it was on their own time, as patriotic volunteers. Beyond that, the optics wouldn’t be great, what with it being a “politically charged spectacle” while government employees are furloughed, with agencies closed, and a skeleton crew of essential workers doing air traffic control and border patrolling and the like, without pay.
Big surprise: The wingnuts McCarthy aimed his pitch at don’t believe a government shutdown would mean they have to turn right around and not go to Impeachment Disneyland.
“It’s not as if the investigators won’t be considered necessary or essential personnel,” said Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., who noted that as speaker, McCarthy would have authority to determine which parts of the House continue to operate. “He is the one who decides how much of the House we shut down.”
Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., Buck’s fellow member of the hard-right Freedom Caucus, also dismissed the idea that the arch-conservative Republicans insisting on deeper reductions in spending would be persuaded to relent by the threat of slowing the inquiries.
“We are not going to be distracted by shiny objects, saying if you don’t get this continuing resolution passed, we won’t be able to pursue the impeachment inquiry,” Rosendale said in a Monday interview on Fox News. “That’s nonsense.”
Rosendale then cut the interview short so he could lunge after a bit of bright ribbon attached to a small card reading “Joe’s Emails!” in glitter pen.
Rightwing House members have made clear to McCarthy that they must shut down the government if they can’t repeal all legislation Joe Biden has ever had on his desk, or at least eliminate all funding for the DOJ’s prosecution of Donald Trump. The Times notes that McCarthy could always ask Democrats to vote on a temporary spending bill, but then of course his own caucus would skin and eat him, likely without pausing to cook him even a little bit.
Considering that this is the same crowd that voted down its own bills to punish McCarthy for not defaulting on the debt, we’d recommend that nobody schedule any visits to the Smithsonian, national parks, or most government agencies in October. Social Security checks will still go out, but you didn’t really need that Small Business Administration loan for a few months, did you?
[NYT via Seattle Times]
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One of the things about Joe Biden that I really like is that he made the Presidency boring again. I don't want Entertainment government. I just want a boring ass government that works and does the things it has to do and makes lives better for everyone.
So I really don't understand the folks who continue to insist on voting for a fucking clown show every two years instead of voting for "maybe I won't get everything I want, but at least they'll bring stuff home to my state and make things a little better."
Nothing can be done right now, but next time Dems control Congress, they really should add a provision to the next budget they pass that provides that if a new budget is not voted on when the current one lapses, an automatic continuing resolution will kick in until such time as a new budget is passed. It is madness to let Republicans keep pulling this stunt, over and fucking over.