Federal spending will clock in at about $6.4 trillion this year. Meanwhile, in Congress, Republicans are threatening to shut down the government because of a disagreement over next year's level of discretionary spending: $1.47 trillion vs. $1.59 trillion. This means that Republicans are squabbling over a difference of 1.9%.
This is about like agreeing to head over to the dollar store and then, when you get there, having your granddad start yelling about how he wants to go to the 99-cent store instead. Maybe everyone should calm down over this and just pass a damn budget?
All I know is that I'm planning to head to Yellowstone this weekend looking for fall color, because next weekend I might not be able to get in.
Well, TPM is reporting that Punchbowl reported that the Republicans are going so move from saying the shutdown is to cut spending to saying it's all about border security.....
Yeah, I saw that too. So spending was yesterday's reason, the border will be today's reason, rinse and repeat with something else pulled from another orifice, etc. Until at some point one of them will let the real reason slip out: it's just for kicks. Shits and giggles, you know? Make a TikTok, raise some money, get some media time, it's all good.
They want a shutdown because Trump told them to. He didn’t say why, so they have to figure out a reason for themselves. Maybe they’ll close down the government until the theater that threw Boebert out gives her a refund.
Maybe the theater should pay her for the show she put on?
Trump *did* just say why in one of his social-media bleats-- they have to shut down DOJ and stop investigating and prosecuting: "This is also the last chance to defund these political prosecutions against me and other Patriots. They failed on the debt limit, but they must not fail now."
I think Dems would be smart to raise holy hell with this and amplify it in every interview about everything, starting several hours ago. Little puppets on a string, these people are. Amazing how they'll change their "bedrock principles" 180 degrees at the snap of a finger.
The goals of the Republican Party are:
1. Slash taxes on the rich
2. Destroy the planet for short-term profit
3. Preserve straight, white male “Christian” supremacy.
Slashing the discretionary budget to further immiserate the poor is one of the few ways that these despicable thugs can implement goal 3.
For them, it’s not 1.9%. It’s 90%.
(Their billionaire lickspittle “mainstream” colleagues will handle goals 2 and 3 and don’t much care about goal 3.)
These are not the goals, these are the means.
The goal is to keep rich people rich.
Saw that and it seems like the private polling data must have come back negatively against GOP for using the threat of a shutdown as leverage to make unpopular cuts.
98-cent store 🙂 … though granddad always preferred the five-and-dime…
This after creating 3 trillion in additional debt over 10 years under Trump and plotting another un balanced tax cut for corporations if they gain control over the government in 2024.
The money=speech people apparently have purchased themselves a political party….as well as several Supreme Court Justices.
This is about like agreeing to head over to the dollar store and then, when you get there, having your granddad start yelling about how he wants to go to the 99-cent store instead.
Exactly the kind of argument my parents would get into.
Except the fight isn't about money at all.
1.9% is the issue, not the interest. If one side or another gives in on that, a new issue will be invented.
The direct interest is the control of the Republican party.
The 1.9% is just an excuse. The Republicans want to destroy the country. They'd do the same thing over a penny, or they'd make up some problem with the color of the ink.
I'm certainly not going to defend the Republicans -- their priorities are appalling, and as other commenters have pointed already, they are not arguing in good faith anyway -- but in absolute numbers, that difference is $120 billion, or roughly $360 per American. I can think of lots of contexts where that amount would be worth arguing over.
As Everett Dirksen may or may not have said: A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking real money.
"I can think of lots of contexts where that amount would be worth arguing over."
Sure, of course. But worth shutting down the government over?
No, not at all -- shutting down the government wouldn't be justified if it was 5%, or 10%, or whatever is above Kevin's threshold for mockably small and not worth arguing over. But the next time someone wants to spend $120 billion on some project that I think is a waste of money -- a border wall, for example -- I don't want my side to lose the argument "What's the big deal? It's just 1.9%."
Ah, got it.
The problem is where the 1.9% will come from. It won't be taken from the military budget. It won't be taken from any of the things conservatives like. It will be taken from programs for poor people. The programs are already small and when they bear the brunt of the 1.9% spending reductions, real people will be hurt.
But that isn't what they're fighting over. It is just the surface argument. What they're fighting over is holding the economy hostage until they get all of their wish list items. It's standard conservative thinking these days: being a minority and losing elections is no reason why we should not hold power and get everything that goes with it.