Another Budget Crisis

Another budget crisis looms at the end of the month. These crises are totally artificial, manufactured by the Republican Party, one of Newt Gingrich’s inventions to destroy the US government.

For those reasons, and because of a sort of PTSD resulting from having had to plan environmental restoration actions under continuing resolutions, I usually triy to avoid the discussion around these crises, now every few months. They are a waste of money, time, and emotion, and one of the reasons the Republican Party should be outlawed.

There is a great deal of self-harm inflicted by Democrats in the discussions around the crises. Just stop it, I scream mentally as I scroll to something pleasanter, like the progress of local forest fires.

If the government is shut down, who will the public blame? This is one of the most unproductive of many unproductive topics Democrats fight with each other about. It is simply unknowable, for reasons I may expand on in a later post, although I hate to add to this discourse.

I read Ezra Klein’s piece over the weekend, although by the time I was half through, I was scrolling pretty fast, as it was packed with all the discourses I hate. But Josh Marshall put more effort into it (or is just not saying he was scrolling), and he has some useful ideas.

Josh does it without the self-undermining arguments about what people will think. He points out that

• Republicans have the majorities in Congress and are therefore responsible for governing.
• They cannot pass a continuing resolution without votes from Democrats.
• Democrats should demand something meaningful in return for those votes.

Three broad areas in which Democrats should make those demands are

• Forcing Trump to get Congress to pass a law making his tariffs legal.
• Forcing him to end his rescissions and make him follow the congressionally passed budget.
• End the invasions of American cities.

Additionally, electorally vulnerable Republicans need to extend the Obamacare subsidies until the 2026 election. Make them change the bill to make the subsidies permanent and restore Medicaid as well.

Finally, one of the continuing areas of shilly-shallying is the fear that Trump will push the Republicans to end the filibuster. It favors Republicans more, so just let them do it.

All this seems like a good plan to me. Or anything that says that it’s Republicans’ responsibility to govern, and if they can’t pass this continuing resolution, they’re in breach of that responsibility.

And stops there. Don’t tell people how to respond, unless it’s to vote Republicans out.