Dem
50
GOP
50
Yesterday, both chambers of Congress passed a stopgap funding bill that will keep the government operating until December 20. They got it done with a few days to spare, which is positively leisurely as compared to most of these recurrent budget "crises."
The bill that passed was Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-LA) "Plan B," which included a few goodies for various parts of the federal bureaucracy (e.g., FEMA), but no money for the Department of Defense and no SAVE Act. The vote in the House was 341 to 82, with 209 Democrats and 132 Republicans voting "yea," and 82 Republicans voting "nay." Over in the Senate, it was 78 to 18, with 50 Democrats and independents and 28 Republicans voting "yea" and 18 Republicans voting "nay."
As we have noted a couple of times, this result is a very big poke in the eye for Donald Trump. He demanded that the SAVE Act be included in the bill, and didn't get it. He demanded that House Republicans shut the government down, and he didn't get that, either. In fact, his position didn't even manage a majority among the Republican conference, in either chamber. His power to do mischief is fading (though it will substantially come back to life if he's returned to the White House, of course).
Meanwhile, the Freedom Caucusers in the House have steam coming out of their ears. But it's pretty clear, at this point, that they are all bark and no bite. They could theoretically move to vacate the chair, but they know that: (1) they are not going to get a speaker more friendly to them than Johnson, and (2) they would infuriate their Republican colleagues if they pulled that stunt weeks before an election. So, the FCers (plus expelled former FCer Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-GA) will go on Newsmax and OAN to carp about how much they've been wronged, and... nobody will care.
In the short-term, the main impact of the budget being resolved is that the members of both chambers will be released from obligations in Washington, and will be free to spend the remainder of the cycle campaigning. The House will be in session today and tomorrow, and then that will be it until November 12, leaving them 39 days to hit the campaign trail. The Senate, for its part, has already been adjourned by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). The folks in that chamber who need to hit the hustings will thus have 41 days to do it.
In the medium-term, the members will have a nice, big headache waiting for them once the dust has settled from the election. They will have to come up with either another stop-gap bill, or—gasp!—an actual budget, and they will have to do it with the Christmas holiday, the New Year's holiday and the certification of the presidential results all on the horizon. It's hard to imagine it won't be another kick-the-can situation, since there will be a new leader of Senate Republicans, a new president, and possibly a new Speaker all incoming, but not actually in office yet.
Whatever happens, if you don't like this uncertainty, then you should be rooting for Democrats to take over control of the House. Then they will be able to put forward a grown-up budget without having to worry about temper tantrums from the FCers or from Donald Trump. That is not something that Johnson or any other Republican leader in the House can offer right now. Mind you, a Democratic budget might still be controversial, and might still be hotly contested once it gets to the Senate. But at least the sausage-making process can get underway without having to waste time on stupid show horse-ery. (Z)