What world are these people living in?
Congress is currently scrambling to come up with a plan to fund the government past tomorrow, when money from the current agreement is set to run out.
And we know how effective Congress is at getting things done, so surely they’ll come up with something that’s in the best interest of the American people, right?
Just kidding, they unveiled a 1,500 page bill that gives themselves a pay raise and has billions of dollars of wasteful spending.
The Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, has already announced that the proposed agreement negotiated by members from both parties in the House of Representatives and the United States Senate will not be coming to the floor for a vote after backlash from not only President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, but from American people who were furious that the government would try to sneak all kinds of extra spending into a bill that they know members will feel pressured to vote for in order to prevent a government shutdown.
But hey, that’s just how our government works.
Congress is now forced to go back to the drawing board, with Republicans hoping to pass a “clean” spending bill that keeps funding levels in place for a couple of months as they fight over everything else. But Democrats want to pass a bill that contains funding for…well, everything, all at once.
And it’s no secret why lawmakers prefer these “omnibus” bills to standalone legislation. It’s easier to get something in there that the other side doesn’t agree with if you package it into something that everybody agrees on. But that seems like a pretty shitty way of governing.
Anyway, off my soapbox.
As we head towards a possible government shutdown, lawmakers are sounding the alarm about what that would mean for the American people.
And while the prospect of the government shutting down may sound scary to some people (or exciting, depending on which side of the aisle you’re on), it’s not exactly unprecedented. We last had a 35-day shutdown back in 2019, and…well, pretty much nothing happened. The only thing I remember about it was that strip clubs were offering jobs to government employees who were out of work, which honestly sounds like a better use of their time than working for the government anyway.
But if you listen to some of these politicians, apparently the world’s going to collapse if the government shuts down for a few days.
Earlier today, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries issued a dire warning to Americans about how terrible things would be in the event of a government shutdown. And according to the Democrat leader, apparently you won’t even be able to visit your family for Christmas if that happens?
“Holiday travel will be impacted. The ability of everyday Americans to visit their family, their friends, their loved ones, will be impacted.”
Excuse me? How would a government shutdown affect whether I’m able to go visit my family for Christmas?
In case you aren’t aware, a shutdown doesn’t mean that all government employees just immediately stop working. Essential employees would still continue to work – and that includes employees like air traffic controllers and TSA Agents.
Sure, some of them may call out because they’re not getting paid during the time the government’s shut down. But according to the government’s pay schedule, the first missed payday wouldn’t come until the week of December 29, so even then these employees wouldn’t feel the effects of the shutdown until after the holiday.
Seems like the only people who wouldn’t be able to spend the holidays with their families are the members of Congress who would be forced to work over the holidays to get a deal passed.
It’s clearly just a scare tactic, trying to get Americans to pressure their representatives to agree to a bill just to keep the government open.
But do these people really think that Americans believe they won’t be able to visit their families if the government’s shut down? Because I’m pretty sure most people don’t think the government is that important to begin with…
