That’s an interesting thought, and if we take it a step further, AFTER inauguration all federal employees will be required to re-apply for their positions. Boom! Day 1 of Project 2025.
And come with printouts of all of the regulations you’ve enforced or budgets you have cut. If you aren’t prepared to work “hardcore”, don’t bother responding. Everybody report to Ligma & Johnson, our new efficiency experts.
Stranger
The Republicans have put forth a new bill on their own which extends the debt ceiling (so they can blame Biden for it) until January 2027 (so they can blame Democrats for it after they win Congress in the midterms).
It appears to have already been voted down.
The joke will be in them when the gerrymandering fuckery they get up to in the next two years assures that they have a solid majority in both houses after the midterm elections and effectively no political opponents to blame.
Stranger
Traditionally, when Christmas is on a Tuesday, the President gives Christmas Eve off, and when it is on a Thursday, the President gives 12/26 off.
This is only the third time since at least 1960 that any President has given any time off for Christmas Eve when Christmas is on a Wednesday. George W. Bush gave a half-day off in 2002, and Trump gave a full day off in 2019.
They are not going to win Congress in 2026. A lot of damage between now and then. And no relief for the working man. Trump no longer cares. And there will also be no rallies. The only thing he really liked.
It seems the republicans came up with a 116 page CR in record time which includes Trump’s wish of a debt ceiling extension and a bare bones budget which includes emergency disaster relief, farmers support and things like that but cut out all the “pork”(MAGA terminology)
No idea if it’ll get approval of the House.
Oh hell…if it doesn’t pass, Trump will pass all the blame to the democrats.
Edit …I see it has failed to get congressional approval.
Yep. Almost all Democrats and a sizable minority of House Republicans voted against it. Johnson tried to move it under suspension, which would have required 2/3 support. The vote was 174 in favor to 235 against.
At this point, his options are to put the original deal on the floor, where it would probably pass through almost all Democrats and enough Republicans supporting it. Or he can try to jam through his current version on a majority vote. That would take getting it through the Rules Committee (where the FC has the balance of power) and getting almost all Republicans to vote for it (38 Republicans voted against it earlier tonight).
Especially since anything still needs to get through the Senate, we’re almost certainly headed for a shutdown.
Republicans have a two-seat majority going into the next Congress and they’re STILL trying to govern like it’s 1995 and they can pass anything they want with no Democratic votes. Trump’s idea of negotiation is “I get everything I want and you get nothing”, and President Musk is an idiot whose next post on the topic will probably be something like “If we cut the budget by 69% we can easily get 420 votes”.
It’s going to be a long, stupid four years, but at least as long as the Republicans are fighting each other they won’t have
I just think it is important to point out how completely unprecedented it is that a President-Elect who is more than a month away from inauguration (and his “First Buddy” which sounds like a position requiring one wear a goofy sailor’s hat) has essentially plenary control over what legislation Congress considers, much less passes. The ineffectuality of a ‘lame duck’ president is frequently a given (unless their designated successor who intends to carry on the same policies is the victor) but having an uninaugurated President-Elect and his as-yet unappointed advisor and leader of an executive office that doesn’t even yet exist and is named after a meme cryptocurrency as a ‘joke’ is not only absurdist performance art but bears some striking similarities to how a certain mustachioed autocrat led a certain Central European country into a violent fascist regime that sparked a war that spanned three continents and resulted in somewhere on the order of 80 million deaths.
Food for thought. Or, whatever you do with food.
Stranger
Food that gives me that kind of indigestion usually induces vomiting.
Maybe not. His last one was:
So he gets to blame the Democrats for doing exactly what he wants — shutdown.
If the shutdown lasts long enough to stop military pay, Trump won’t like it. So maybe Musk hasn’t thought this through. But maybe he has. The usual first bad shutdown publicity is national parks closing, but few go there in the winter.
The financial institutions mostly used for military direct deposit (USAA, Navy Credit Union) are gearing up to give out zero percent shutdown loans against expected pay. So the hardship factor there is easily exaggerated – not that I will slam the Democrats for bringing it up.
Which is, of course, the same stupid take Republicans run with every time they shut down the government.
The public never falls for it.
That last is a good point. But Trump has a honeymoon halo for a bit yet, while Biden’s approval level is near record lows. Median voters want to give DJT a chance. So Trump, and Musk by extension, can get away, in public opinion, with stuff that would sink them next summer or fall.
Can Republicans use reconciliation to pass a conservative end-the-shutdown continuing resolution in early January, using reconciliation, so there is no filibuster possible, and then put Biden in a position where he has to veto it? I guess the answer to that question is – probably not. But maybe yes.
They’re limited to three reconciliation bills per year. Use one for this and that’s one less item on their actual agenda that they’ll be able to pursue.
Trump doesn’t give a good whore’s fuck about the needs of military servicepeople, who he regards as ‘suckers’, and certainly not National Parks, which don’t have any casinos and prohibit drilling for oil and gas. He can blame the shutdown on Democrats and Biden even though it is 100% his influence, and then sweep in on 21 Jan and ‘sweet talk’ the GOP-led Congress into passing a continuing resolution with an indefinite debt ceiling. Trump does not care about anyone or anything except himself and thus far has managed to avoid any consequences for any of his actions except the brief interregnum where he lost an election and his attempt at election interference and insurrection failed (but also didn’t result in even mild sanctions), so he has zero motivation to care about what anyone thinks at this point.
Stranger
If there remains much spine in the Republican House, this contretemps won’t win Trump a lot of fans. Since the job of Speaker is now impossible, to the extent Musk has been mentioned as a replacement (though not seriously), anyone want to guess how many Speakers there will be over the next four years and one month?
President-elect?
President-eject?
President-neglect?
President-alack?
Not directly, but he cares what people think about him.
He also cares about whether a Trump family member is the next president after himself, and that has to do with public opinion.
Government shutdowns end when public opinion, blaming one political side, becomes too strong to resist. I doubt this is an area where Trump can change the rules. We’ll see.
Federal employee here. I’d prefer that the whole damned shebang get shut down. No military pay, no SS checks. No pay for me OR Congresscritters. Just turn off the lights and lock the doors. But that ain’t gonna happen.
My preference would be that the Dems NOT agree to anything such as raising the debt ceiling now. Let Trump do that on his watch. But realistically, I don’t think it really matters. How much did he suffer for tanking the immigration bill. He’s absolutely Teflon. He can do/say whatever he wants, and then just deny it. Whether there is a shutdown now or not, I doubt it will have any impact on how anyone thinks of Trump and his agenda in the near or distant future.
Going to be an interesting few years…