Congress Averts Shutdown With Stopgap Short-Term Continuing Resolution

It seems to me that I have been writing this same headline multiple times for at least two decades. It is not a functional democracy which repeatedly engages in brinksmanship at the end of the federal fiscal year every September 30. This is supposed to be the easy part.

I looked it up, the last time Congress completed all appropriations bills on time was in 1996.

The Hill reports, House sends bill to Biden to avert government shutdown at midnight:

The House on Thursday passed legislation to prevent a government shutdown with only hours to spare before the midnight deadline, albeit without any measure to avert a debt default [on October 18].

Don’t strain yourselves!

Lawmakers voted 254-175 to send the bill, which keeps the federal government funded through Dec. 3, to President Biden for his signature. Thirty-four Republicans voted with all Democrats in support of the bill.

Arizona Delegation – Yeah: Gallego, Grijalva, Kirkpatrick, O”Halleran, Stanton; Nay: Biggs, Gosar, Schweikert. Not Voting: Lesko.

So the Seditious Party Congressmen who voted not to certify the election results on January 6 just voted not to fund the government, even on a short term basis, to cause economic chaos and harm American citizens. Why are these seditious conspirators still in office? They should have been expelled from office by now and facing criminal prosecution.

The House last week passed the same bill along party lines, but with a provision that suspended the debt limit until mid-December of next year.

The Senate failed to advance the original House-passed bill on Monday due to the Sedition Party’s insistence that they will not vote to prevent a debt default – in violation of their Constitutional duty – which Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has said could happen after Oct. 18 if Congress doesn’t act in time.

Faced with the prospect of a government shutdown amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Democrats ultimately opted to detach the debt limit suspension from the government funding bill.

The Senate voted 65-35 earlier Thursday afternoon to send the stopgap government funding bill back to the House without any provision to address the debt limit.

Arizona Senators Kelly and Sinema voted Yeah.

“This bill is not a permanent solution. I look forward to soon beginning negotiations with my counterparts across the aisle and across the Capitol to complete full-year government funding bills that reverse decades of disinvestment,” said House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.).

The bill also includes $28.6 billion to provide localities with assistance to recover from recent natural disasters, including recent hurricanes and wildfires, as well as $6.3 billion for Afghan refugee resettlement efforts.

Republicans are [disingenuously trying to force] Democrats to prevent a debt default by using the budget reconciliation process, which is the same procedural route planned for the party’s “human infrastructure” package to expand social safety net programs like paid family leave and child care.

Note: The “Grim Reaper of Democracy” and his Sedition Party earlier this week prevented Democrats from raising the federal debt ceiling with just Democratic votes by objecting to a procedural motion for unanimous consent. So these Seditionists would not let Democrats raise the debt ceiling on their own by promising a Senate filibuster.

But Democrats warn that using the reconciliation process to prevent a debt default — which historically has been addressed with bipartisan support through regular order — is an unnecessarily complex and time-consuming process that might not be ready before the Oct. 18 deadline.

Due to unanimous Sedition Party obstruction, and continuing obstruction from their enablers, prima donna diva Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema (nominally Democrats).

Using the reconciliation process to address the debt limit would require additional action in committees, ping-ponging the bill between the two chambers and lengthy voting sessions in the Senate known as a “vote-a-rama” in which senators can offer unlimited amendments.

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) have insisted that using reconciliation isn’t a realistic option.

“We cannot afford the risk of a drawn-out, unpredictable process sought by the “Grim Reaper of Democracy,” which could very well actually cause a default,” Schumer said.

It’s not clear what other options Democrats will pursue. The House passed a standalone bill largely along party lines on Wednesday to suspend the debt limit through mid-December 2022, but it’s expected to run into the same GOP stonewall [filibuster] in the Senate.

Raising or suspending the debt limit allows the Treasury Department to generate more cash to pay off existing obligations already enacted by lawmakers.

Yellen testified before a House committee on Thursday that she supports abolishing the federal debt limit altogether, arguing that it’s a “very destructive” threat to U.S. obligations. 

Something which should have been done over the past 100 years. Instead of raising the debt limit, repeal this asinine provision of law.

Aside from the debt limit deadline on Oct. 18, centrist and progressive Democrats remain at odds over reaching some form of agreement on the social safety net expansions [the Build Back Better $3.5 Trillion human infrastructure budget reconciliation plan.]

House Democratic leaders have also scheduled a vote for Thursday at the behest of centrists on the “skinny” Senate-passed bipartisan infrastructure bill that invests in roads, bridges and transit programs, but it’s unclear it can pass due to progressives threatening to withhold their votes as leverage to protect the social spending package [and the demonstrated bad faith of so-called “centrists” (corporate Democrats), and whatever sick exercise that prima donna divas Sens. Manchin and Sinema are engaged in.]

There is still a chance that Speaker Pelosi pulls the vote on the “skinny” Senate-passed bipartisan infrastructure bill because the votes are not there. She could let it go forward to teach the Democratic enablers of the Sedition Party a lesson.