(Ed. Note: I go into a lot of detail below. The bottom line is Democrats have about 48 hours to convince D senators to clip Elon’s wings. It’s still totally doable. But it has to happen in the next 48 hours.)
We’re now down to the wire with the so-called “continuing resolution” fight. And just to take this out of Congress-speak, this is a temporary spending bill that will keep the government running, such as it is, until Republicans can pass their full budget in the early fall — that’s the one that will slash health care coverage and other safety net spending to give the Elon crowd a massive tax cut. After almost two months of a criminal wilding spree on the republic, interspersed with lots of “cry more!”s and “sucks to be you”s, Republicans now come to Democrats and say: hey, now we need your help to keep going. The bill is essentially a license for Elon to keep the party going right through the fall.
The bill is being billed as a “clean CR” — in other words, just a continuation of the Biden budget. That’s not true. It’s the Biden-era stuff plus new money for a bunch of Trump priorities. What it doesn’t do is lock in the Musk-illegal cuts. What that also means is that it appropriates a bunch of money for stuff Elon has already shut down. So where’s that money go exactly?
Read More
I usually go many years between writing anywhere else but TPM. But I got tempted by the opportunity to write a short item about the hows and the whys of hand tool woodworking. It’s in Playboy of all places (don’t start). It’s part of a package called 25 Things To Do Before the End of the World. You can read it here.
So it looks like at least Roll Call thinks Republicans will be able to pass their continuing resolution through the House without any Democratic votes. Surprising, given the nature of the caucus, but it doesn’t change the big picture since Republicans still need seven Democratic senators to cross over and vote for it in the Senate. The House just released their continuing resolution text. What I hear though is that Senate Democrats simply don’t have their heart in the fight.
Read More
A new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast is live! This week, Kate and Josh discuss Trump’s bizarre economic actions, the response to his joint address to Congress and how slashing the federal government is playing in the courts.
Read More