# Government shutdown December 2024 edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [December 19, 2024, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/government-shutdown-december-2024-edition/1011844 "2024-12-19T02:26:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2024, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/government-shutdown-december-2024-edition/1011844/1 "2024-12-19T02:26:25Z")
The current federal budget will expire at midnight on Friday. In yet another replay of every budget bill this session, Speaker Johnson had to cut a deal that would allow Congress to kick the can down the road a few months that would pass the chamber with both Republican and Democratic votes. Except Trump stuck his big nose in it. He and Vance put out statements opposing the deal as a sellout to Democrats. He’s also insisting the bill include a debt limit increase – which won’t actually be needed until well into next year – because he wants the debt limit increased on Biden’s watch rather than his own. As a result, enough Republicans have defected that the budget agreement can’t pass. If not resolved by Friday, we will have a government shutdown five days before Christmas. ---
**Author:** ![TeroSunbear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terosunbear/32/14748_2.png) [@TeroSunbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TeroSunbear)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2024, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/government-shutdown-december-2024-edition/1011844/2 "2024-12-19T03:47:53Z")
President Musk has no idea. VP Trump has no idea. Except Trump has a hunch Biden got him this time. He can’t win the budget fight and Biden will not raise the debt ceiling. Trump will have to wait. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2024, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/government-shutdown-december-2024-edition/1011844/3 "2024-12-19T04:04:14Z")
> [@flurb](#): > > because he wants the debt limit increased on Biden’s watch rather than his own. So let the government shut down. Let retirees miss a Social Security payment. Let flights be cancelled. It’s time people learn the consequences of their votes. And let Trump take the blame. ---
**Author:** ![DWMarch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwmarch/32/1010_2.png) [@DWMarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWMarch)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2024, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/government-shutdown-december-2024-edition/1011844/4 "2024-12-19T04:11:03Z")
It’s too bad the Republicans in Congress aren’t willing or able to avail themselves of the option to tell Trump to wait his goddamn turn before issuing orders. Telling Elon to fuck right off all the way to Mars should be par for the course. But instead, now that Trumpy Wumpy has had his tantrum, they are going to just let everything they were working on fall apart. Because it will make Biden look bad? Because they don’t want Elon Musk to fund their opponents in primaries? Because Trump’s plan is better?! Why do anything? Why even try to think for yourself? It does not matter how good your idea is, Trump always has a better one. Don’t bother trying to do silly things like run the government. Just let Trump decide what is best, a month before he is sworn in. That’ll work out just fine I’m sure. ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2024, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/government-shutdown-december-2024-edition/1011844/5 "2024-12-19T04:19:26Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > So let the government shut down. Let retirees miss a Social Security payment. Let flights be cancelled. It’s time people learn the consequences of their votes. And let Trump take the blame. Social Security checks will still go out because they’re automatic spending, and planes will still fly because air traffic controllers and TSA security personnel are considered “essential employees” who can be forced to work without pay during a shutdown. Part of the reason why Republicans are so comfortable playing this game is because most voters won’t feel the pain of a shutdown right away. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2024, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/government-shutdown-december-2024-edition/1011844/6 "2024-12-19T04:19:30Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > And let Trump take the blame. There really isn’t a first time for everything. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2024, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/government-shutdown-december-2024-edition/1011844/7 "2024-12-19T04:29:14Z")
> [@flurb](#): > > Part of the reason why Republicans are so comfortable playing this game is because most voters won’t feel the pain of a shutdown right away. You’re right, of course. But I want Americans to feel _pain_ for what they have done. Yes, that includes those of us who voted against stupidity. But ‘we’ (i.e., the morons – the rest of us just have to grit out teeth for what we know is coming) need to understand that stupidity has consequences. ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2024, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/government-shutdown-december-2024-edition/1011844/8 "2024-12-19T04:46:12Z")
I agree with you! I’d love to see a government shutdown mean that the Navy can’t leave port and seniors on Medicare can’t get medical treatment. Not because I’m a sadist, but because if these were the consequences then politicians would make sure that it never happens. But like what we’re about to get with the Trump Administration, the pain won’t happen all at once. It’ll build up over time, and people will only wake up to it (if they do) when things are at a crisis. But you know what they say about boiling a frog. . . ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2024, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/government-shutdown-december-2024-edition/1011844/9 "2024-12-19T04:55:14Z")
I fear that, even if a government shutdown caused pain to Trump’s supporters, there’s no way that they would blame him, or the Republicans in Congress. They’d be told that it’s all the fault of the Democrats, and the Deep State, and they’d believe it. ---
**Author:** ![Ash\_trav511](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/edb3f5/32.png) [@Ash\_trav511](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ash_trav511)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2024, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/government-shutdown-december-2024-edition/1011844/10 "2024-12-19T04:56:31Z")
Frightening to see the power Elon Musk is wielding…he was the one who escalated it even before Trump did and he warned Republican lawmakers they will be primaried. It seems he called Speaker Johnson even before Trump did…and tweeted his followers to swamp the Speaker’s office with phone calls opposing the spending bill. ---
**Author:** ![Ash\_trav511](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/edb3f5/32.png) [@Ash\_trav511](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ash_trav511)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2024, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/government-shutdown-december-2024-edition/1011844/11 "2024-12-19T05:05:54Z")
[https://www.google.com/amp/s/thehill.com/homenews/senate/5047584-bernie-sanders-blasts-elon-musk-spending-deal/amp/](https://www.google.com/amp/s/thehill.com/homenews/senate/5047584-bernie-sanders-blasts-elon-musk-spending-deal/amp/) He is becoming like a super president. Frightening indeed. And republican lawmakers are falling in line as per his wishes. ---
**Author:** ![Ash\_trav511](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/edb3f5/32.png) [@Ash\_trav511](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ash_trav511)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2024, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/government-shutdown-december-2024-edition/1011844/12 "2024-12-19T05:15:08Z")
> > > Elon Musk @elonmusk Not good imo for a civilian wielding such power over lawmakers. ---
**Author:** ![aurora\_maire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aurora_maire/32/328_2.png) [@aurora\_maire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aurora_maire)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2024, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/government-shutdown-december-2024-edition/1011844/13 "2024-12-19T05:28:45Z")
And Vivek weighs in. > First off, “DOGE” doesn’t exist. It’s imaginary! I’ve been amazed how fast these guys have just come in and starting taking over. That this is in no way normal is a clue about what we are in for. Secondly, let’s look at some of what “DOGE” advises should be cut: Renewing the Farm Bill for an extra year: ~$130BN. Disaster relief: $100BN. Stimulus for farmers: $10BN. The Francis Scott Key Bridge replacement: $8BN. It kind of looks like they are fucking over their own people. Way to start strong! And we didn’t need any Pandemic Preparedness and Response anyway. We’ve been there, learned everything. Edit - I see Elon has now claimed victory. From Ash\_Trav511’s link above. > [@](#): > > Your elected representatives have heard you and now the terrible bill is dead. The voice of the people has triumphed! I think it was really just you threatening to primary everyone that doesn’t agree with you, asshole. ---
**Author:** ![Ash\_trav511](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/edb3f5/32.png) [@Ash\_trav511](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ash_trav511)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2024, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/government-shutdown-december-2024-edition/1011844/14 "2024-12-19T05:39:55Z")
> Wow…Elon Musk directing republican lawmakers what to do/not do. Is he the president or Trump (from Jan 20) ? ---
**Author:** ![Ash\_trav511](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/edb3f5/32.png) [@Ash\_trav511](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ash_trav511)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2024, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/government-shutdown-december-2024-edition/1011844/15 "2024-12-19T05:41:29Z")
> [@aurora\_maire](#): > > I think it was really just you threatening to primary everyone that doesn’t agree with you, asshole. Yes he threatened lawmakers will be primaried and he will fund the primary challengers. ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2024, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/government-shutdown-december-2024-edition/1011844/16 "2024-12-19T06:05:54Z")
Honestly, at this point I’d say, “sure, great.” Don’t pass any bills. Shut the government down for a month. No point in delaying what’s coming. If this is what the majority of Americans wanted, then let’s do it. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2024, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/government-shutdown-december-2024-edition/1011844/17 "2024-12-19T06:12:10Z")
The question is what Trump is going to do when he realizes he’s Elmo’s veep. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2024, 8:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/government-shutdown-december-2024-edition/1011844/18 "2024-12-19T08:32:01Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > They’d be told that it’s all the fault of the Democrats, and the Deep State, and they’d believe it Well, of course. If they’d just bent the knee to Trump when they were told to, Trump wouldn’t have flown off the handle and beat his wife shut down the government. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2024, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/government-shutdown-december-2024-edition/1011844/19 "2024-12-19T08:34:41Z")
> [@DWMarch](#): > > It’s too bad the Republicans in Congress aren’t willing or able to avail themselves of the option to tell Trump to wait his goddamn turn before issuing orders. Telling Elon to fuck right off all the way to Mars should be par for the course. Republican legislators heard [“Do Not Obey In Advance”](https://youtu.be/9tocssf3w80?si=vy1Xt6RR-2SeBd9P&t=2m41s) and like the obedient supplicants they are showed oppositional defiance by immediately capitulating with a squeak of dissent. The only bright spot is how frustrated Mike Johnson must be that he’s spent the last several months scuttering around the House like the invertebrate he is trying to put a budget deal together and now the carpet is being yanked out from underneath him, showing how being an obedient little toady is insufficient to avoid being undermined by Trump’s grievance-fueled desire to burn everything to the ground. > [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > So let the government shut down. Let retirees miss a Social Security payment. Let flights be cancelled. It’s time people learn the consequences of their votes. And let Trump take the blame. The GOP is doing this under Biden’s remaining term at Trump’s and Musk’s behest because they can blame the impact upon Biden, even though Biden has no control over passing a budget or continuing resolution except to sign or veto it. Neither Trump nor Republican representatives will be held to account just as they have not over the last umpty-ump government shutdowns. Social Security payments will keep going out and ATCs will keep operating with ‘essential’ government employees just not getting paid (or paid out of discretionary ‘rainy day’ allocations until those run out) which just fucks over civil servants and federal contractors who Trump thinks are useless and Elon Musk wants to fire because neither of them understand how anything actually works. > [@Ash\_trav511](#): > > Frightening to see the power Elon Musk is wielding…he was the one who escalated it even before Trump did and he warned Republican lawmakers they will be primaried. I’ve been warning people for over a decade about [how full of hype-fueled bombastic narcissism Elon Musk is](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-owns-the-iss/688426/36) and more recently [how he aspires to be a fine little fascist with a role as a leading industrialist under the MAGA banner](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/645), and even at that I didn’t imagine the kind of political influence he would garner with Trump and the GOP writ large, backed of course by Peter Thiel, who is also responsible for JD Vance’s unlikely meteoric rise from Trump critic to Chief Lickspittle. People have asked what price would you pay for democracy and freedom, and now we at least have a definitive ceiling in the form of the $277M that Musk invested in winning more of Donald Trump’s affection than he has ever shown to all of his children combined. > [@flurb](#): > > Honestly, at this point I’d say, “sure, great.” Don’t pass any bills. Shut the government down for a month. No point in delaying what’s coming. If this is what the majority of Americans wanted, then let’s do it. Except this doesn’t just impact obstructive Republican House members, if indeed it impacts them at all; it will hurt real people: government employees and contractors who need a paycheck, people who depend on non-obligatory entitlements, schools and other state and local agencies and institutions dependent upon federal funding, and the overall integrity and trust that the majority of Americans already don’t gave in government, all directed by a ‘leader’ (which I use only in the broadest terms) and his unelected industrial backer who is already telling investors of his plans to use his influence to dismantle all competitors in space launch industry because apparently what is good for Musk & Musk Enterprises is good for America. It is corruption in plain view of the kind unseen outside of failing oligarchies, brought home thanks to Fundamentalist religious freaks and giddy Musk fanbois, because what the county really needs is to be run how a Silicon Valley venture capitalist would operate a megachurch. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2024, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/government-shutdown-december-2024-edition/1011844/20 "2024-12-19T08:36:02Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > The question is what Trump is going to do when he realizes he’s Elmo’s veep “Most people have never heard of bills of attainder, we’re going to have to look into that, very powerful, ‘attainder’, it means making people pay!” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/government-shutdown-december-2024-edition/1011844.md?page=2)