MAGA Mike Flops— Ted Lieu: "The Training Wheels Fell Off For GOP Leadership”

Ready for a government shutdown at the end of the week? It’s what Trump and his campaign operatives adamantly want and what a great many of House Republicans— including MAGA Mike— are ready to give them. MAGA Mike has always favored shutdowns. What’s changed? Sure, he’s the speaker now… but shutting it down in why Trump and the extremists made him the speaker.

Yesterday, Jamie Dupree, noted that the dysfunction in the House is just as incapacitating as it was before anyone outside of Shreveport and the Christian nationalist movement had ever heard of MAGA Mike. Dupree wrote that he’s unsure how the past week “could have been any worse for House Republicans. GOP leaders had to cancel votes on two government funding bills. An entire week of House legislative work was wasted. And then, lawmakers went home not knowing how Speaker Mike Johnson will try to avoid a government shutdown on November 17.” Of course many of them are delighted that there’s no path forward on averting a shutdown. And the reason they larded up the spending bills with nonsense that could never pass, even the House, let alone the Senate, was to create chaos and dysfunction the DC media seems to not understand isn’t something they’re trying to avert.

And many Republicans don’t understand— or at least don’t want to understand— that that’s what’s going down right now. Don Bacon (R-NE), sitting in an Omaha-based seat Biden won by over 6 points, said “Speaker Johnson has committed to us that he is going to do everything he can to avoid a shutdown.” Another vaguely mainstream conservative— at least mainstream for Tennessee, Chuck Fleischmann, said “I’m going to give the Speaker the flexibility and the latitude to make the best decision.”

Dupree wrote that “In essence, we are watching a repeat of late September, when House Republicans almost stumbled into a government shutdown— unable to agree on a GOP plan to fund the government which featured spending cuts and border security provisions…”

Tired of waiting for the Speaker to do something, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer started the parliamentary wheels turning on a bill to serve as a legislative vehicle for a temporary funding plan, known as a CR. A first procedural vote will occur on Monday evening. It's not clear when the House might vote on its own bill. The original plan for this week was for the House to approve two government funding bills, and create some Republican momentum on the CR. But both of those bills were shelved, short on GOP votes. ‘We've struggled this week,’ acknowledged Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), who couldn’t resolve a dispute over Amtrak, which sidetracked a transportation funding bill. ‘You probably got 10-12 people that don't think Amtrak should exist at one end— and then 10-12 at the other end (who want more money), and you got to get them to vote for the same bill,’ Cole told reporters.”

And that wasn’t all, because of the crackpots like Marjorie Traitor Greene and the sociopaths in the House Freedom Caucus filling the Financial Services bill with nonsensical amendments to reduce peoples’ salaries to $1 and to institute a de-facto national abortion ban, that bill died without a vote as well.

Conservatives were opposed— even though they were allowed to offer all sorts of amendments. ‘It looks like there are some folks who are going to vote against it no matter what,’ said Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL). But Freedom Caucus members were aggravated that none of their budget cutting plans were approved. ‘All the conservative amendments were blocked,’ said Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN), who tried (but failed) to reduce the salary of the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission to $1. A day after 106 Republicans voted to eliminate all staffers for the Office of the Vice President, 165 Republicans voted to reduce the salary of White House Press Secretary Karine Jean Pierre to $1. That plan lost 257-165. ‘This is another unserious amendment,’ said Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD).” But it was serious. It was an example of the Shut-It-Down Caucus making it impossible to move forward.

Can the GOP actually pass a plan with no help from Democrats? House Republicans couldn't do that back in September…Everyone knows what the answer is right now on both government funding and a shutdown. It’s the same as it was in September. Republicans evidently can’t pass anything with just GOP votes, so a bipartisan solution may be the only way forward— and many House Republicans want no part of that. [including MAGA Mike] … At this point, the House has approved 7 of the 12 government funding bills. I think they've probably hit a wall. What do I mean by that? With a four seat majority, there is only so much the GOP can get done with just Republican votes… I have reported from Capitol Hill since 1986. I am hearing and seeing stuff that I never could have imagined as a reporter.”