Daily Broadside | It’s Time for the Funding Theater The Government Puts on Every Year

Every year we seem to approach a funding crisis when it comes to the government and this year is no exception. From my preferred news source, The Epoch Times:

Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) told reporters on Sept. 6 that he isn’t concerned about the possibility of a federal government shutdown, because he’s already “convinced it’s going to happen” since Congress is deadlocked on a new budget.

The North Dakota Republican also said the dire prospect of a federal budget deficit of $2 trillion or more, according to a Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CFRB) projection, doesn’t surprise him, either.

“Spending keeps going up, and so do regulations and bad, bad regulatory policy and enforcement policies,” he said. “And [Democrats] talked about they want tax increases, all of which would weigh heavy heavily on an economy that’s already struggling.”

More failure theatre from our rulers in Washington, D.C., who are raising the alarm about a government shut-down.

You know what I say?

Shut it down.

SHUT. IT. DOWN.

Close the doors. Send the Congresscritters home. Enough of this BS.

In order to be elected as speaker, Mr. McCarthy promised, among much else, a return to pre-COVID-19 pandemic spending levels and to get the House back to regular order on the budget. That means approving 13 major appropriations bills and avoiding temporary special measures such as continuing resolutions (CR) that maintain current spending levels for a set period of time or a monstrous omnibus spending bill that requires thousands of pages and gets only up or down votes in both chambers.

But, as Congress returns from its August recess, the House has approved just one major appropriation bill, funding the Department of Defense (DOD), and has sent it to the Senate. The remaining dozen spending bills are ready for floor votes, but with only 12 actual legislative work days before the Sept. 30 end of the fiscal year, getting passage on all of them looks doubtful.

Consequently, Mr. McCarthy is expected to offer a short-term CR to buy time for the House to act into October and possibly November. But going the CR route angers members of the House Freedom Caucus (HFC), the 42 most principled conservative representatives who have vowed an end to business-as-usual budgeting in the nation’s capital.

The frustration is palpable among HFC members, both because of the daunting political challenges of achieving long-term spending reforms and the immensity of a federal budget, most of which is consumed by spending made mandatory by prior Congresses.

I hope the HFC continues to be an irritant to McCarthy and the rest of Congress, but I have my doubts.

And looky here. The gubmint just found another $1 BILLION to give to Ukraine, that sinkhole of tax money that is leading us to WWIII. The government is driving us into bankruptcy.

The majority of Americans think we NEED government or somehow the country won’t work. And you know what? They may be right.

And if they’re right, then something is wrong.