I checked out of this entire thing, frankly – I’m a partisan Republican hack, albeit a loyal one, so there are times when it’s best for everybody if I smile, nod, and step out of the fracas – but since Nancy Pelosi is so bound and determined to wreck Christmas if that’s what it takes to make her feel relevant again… fine. We’ll go with that, then. I’ll toss in my three cents’* worth. There are three things that the House GOP should do, if we can’t get this stupid Cromnibus bill passed:
- Do a continuing resolution. For the next month only. Not a week, not ten months: just for the rest of the year. As Allahpundit notes here, this would suit us best anyway.
- Starting in 2015, no more omnibus bills. We fund each department by itself, send in the bills by themselves, and let President Obama decide which parts of the government need to be shut down in order to make him feel relevant again.
- Shrug whenever anybody complains about #1 and #2. Take it up with Nancy Pelosi, who is clinging to this cause because she doesn’t want to retire like a sensible three-time-rejected leader. Take it up with Harry Reid, who deliberately refused to do his job in the first place. Take it up with Barack Obama, because he lied to all of you** when he said that he knew how to run things and lead people. But don’t take it up with the GOP, because we are pretty much done with all of this.
There. Problem solved… what’s that? “What if the government shuts down, Moe?” Well, bless the Democrats’ hearts… what if it does? We just had an election, remember? – And, as I recall, the American populace was so upset at us over the last one that they punished us by giving us a dozen more seats in the House – and nine more in the Senate. Oh, yea, indeed, how terrifying would it be to have a shutdown at this very moment in the political cycle***…
Moe Lane (crosspost)
PS: Full disclosure: my wife works for the Department of Defense. So I’m potentially arguing against my own economic interest, here.
*Inflation.
**Yes, he lied to me, too. Difference is, I never believed Barack Obama in the first place.
***Especially since the President at this moment is probably almost as petulantly upset at Congressional Democrats as he is towards the GOP.
Great Minds Think Alike re: three cents.
Yep. Too bad common sense has just about gone extinct.
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Mew
Alas, they passed the damned thing .. with a little Dem help.
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Mew
They passed it, however my understanding is that DHS only has funding through February, while I would have preferred it be until mid-January (considering how the Federal Government is over the holidays and nothing gets done), but the status quo is that if no bill gets passed to fund DHS, only DHS would be affected, there would be no shutdown.
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Btw, the bill might not make it through the Senate, if that happens then we get what we want and the Dems are the ones getting the blame for their tantrum.
So they passed it. They should now quickly pass a clean CR through January and quickly leave town. Leave the Senate with a choice, but no going back for another round or emergency CR.