House Votes Yes
By a 229-206 vote, the House of Representatives passed the long-awaited spending bill. President Trump was expected to sign it before you read this.
The Senate approved the same package on Monday night after seven Democrats and one independent who caucuses with the Democrats broke with their party and joined Republicans in supporting the measure. The bill will keep the government open until at least Jan. 30 and extends funding for certain key programs, including food stamps and veterans benefits, through the end of September.
A total of six Democrats voted in favor of the plan to reopen the government, compared to the 207 who voted against the bill. Just two Republicans, Thomas Massie and Greg Steube, voted in opposition. Yahoo News
As reported here earlier, the bill did not include an extension of Obamacare subsidies, although a vote on them was promised to Democrats in the near future. The essence of a compromise is when both sides are equally dissatisfied with the results – this one seems to fit that criterion.
My prediction? The Republicans will oppose continuing the subsidies, and against Obamacare in general . The Democrats will demand the Republicans produce their great medical plan, which the President has been claiming to have. The Republicans will have nothing to say, the President will once again say there will be a great wonderful plan shortly that is already in development, the plan will never see the light of day and the GOP will still whine about Obamacare 10 years from now. I would be happy to be proven wrong – but the safe money is on that.
Hopefully between now and the end of January they can sort out a compromise. Think we all would love to see an actual budget instead of continuing resolutions, but realistically if they haven’t done one by now, we are probably looking at more dispute for the holidays.
Term limits. Definitely need term limits.
The Repubeletards’ response SHOULD be, THE CONSTITUTION AND THE FEDGOV HAVE NO BUSINESS BEING IN HEALTHCARE INSURANCE. SHUT IT ALL DOWN, NOW!
But, Repubeletards being the RINO DemLites that they are, won’t say that or go there.
I’d venture that none of our elected congresscritters like Obamacare, but no dem is gonna cut their own throat and say it out loud. It’s a failure, was designed to be a failure, and is nothing but a stepping stone to single-payer healthcare. I’m just waiting for my boss to call and say we’re open for business. The one good thing about the shutdown is the backlog of Jeep parts in my garage are now installed.
I’m also looking forward to getting paid. This whole working 6 hours a week without getting paid sucked. We were struggling, but we were able to get by without dipping into our savings. It’s all good though. With us still working during the shutdown the troops still got supported and they could still train.
6 hours?
Ooops, I meant days. I just made myself look like the stereotypical government employee
The shutdown didn’t hit us as hard as some, I still had retirement and disability income. Most federal employees don’t have that safety net. While the last few weeks weren’t exactly a good time, we were never in financial jeopardy. Some people call that privilege, I call it living within your means. What an novel concept.
They had us all get on ATAAPS and redo our time cards today. The geniuses told all of USARPAC that we had until 1500 to do it so I had to drag my happy ass into work (I work night shift) to do it. In a twist that Stevie Wonder could see coming nobody could do so since the website was overloaded. G8 finally said that they would do everyone’s (what could possibly go wrong). I was not shocked one bit when I came into work and checked my timecards were all jacked up and already submitted. I was missing over 50 hours of overtime, 40 days of night dif, and two holidays that I worked.
At my first reading of your comment I thought it read: “stepping stone to single prayer healthcare…” Could be someday soon…
Yay, I can work and get paid now, unlike working and not getting paid.
Fuck these clowns.
So, how does this work?
Do the civilians who have not been working for the last month get paid back for the last month?
Yes. Federal law passed in 2019 requires it, and the house added the funding into last night’s bill.
How you guys look at me…..
(My contract was forward funded for 6 months and for all the shutdowns, I’ve been paid…but this time, yeah, I had savings for this to go about 6 months. 😀 )
You know what’s sad, I can’t remember the context for why I remember this phrase and I had to google it. (August 9, 1974, President Gerald Ford speaks about Watergate and Nixon after taking the oath of office.)
Imagine what Herr Trumpo is going to be saying (that’s sarcazums)
“It was a nightmare. A big, beautiful nightmare, probably the scariest nightmare of all time. Maybe the scariest nightmare in the world.”
Democrats:
Remember when the Executive branch abusing its power, actively or reactively, was worthy of scorn and concern?
Oh! the halcyon days of an empire with a pinkie toe (maybe more?) in hospice.
Nixon was a fucking saint —and way more popular— as compared to the crop of losers we’ve been cursed with in the last 2.5 decades.
But even he was commie lite. Price controls outside of a time of national emergency (ie war) should be a hanging offense. Even within context of a DECLARED war, post conflict the author of such a decree should have enough honor to banish himself.
Only diff between Presidents before and after Nixon? He got caught
I wonder how long before someone decides it might be high time to take a look at why we’ve allowed a single decision by a Carter appointee to create shutdowns…prior to the 1979 appointment of Benjamin Civiletti there were no shutdowns, there were certainly funding gaps. Government remained open however as everyone assumed that government would do its job and fund the budget at some point…employees were paid, bills were paid and Congress caught up with the funding within a few weeks or a month….
Since that decision CRs have become a political weapon to be wielded by the minority party like a cudgel for leverage over the majority…and the rhetoric from both parties when they’re the majority facing a minority driven shutdown is remarkably similar.
The entire process makes no sense at all, Civiletti was no Constitutional genius he was just another lawyer with an opinion that may or may not be accurate in ascertaining the intent of words written by men long dead.
So…we just kicked the can down the road 60 days? that about it?
Well we’ve been kicking the debt down the road for generations, the budget for 8 weeks is nothing compared to that…