Congress Really, Really Sucks
Anybody who thought there would be some semblance of sanity on Capitol Hill once House Republicans finished their pick-the-leader circular firing squad is bound to be disappointed as assorted end-of-year deadlines approach.
In two weeks (Nov 17) there will be a showdown over continuing funding for much of the federal budget. Word in DC is that the Biden administration is sounding out immigration advocates on new rules for asylum claims, a move that somebody told somebody could break a congressional logjam.
Congressional dysfunction also led to the expiration of 2018’s farm bill October 1st. Every five years lawmakers must rewrite the legislation impacting more than 10% of the total workforce and the more than 12% of the population (mostly children & the disabled) depending on assistance to keep food on the table.
Fortunately, SNAP benefits are considered a mandatory appropriation and will continue at current levels as long as there is an appropriations bill or a continuing resolution to keep the Agriculture Department running.
Policy and funding levels for farm, food, and conservation programs all are enabled by Farm Bills, and there are many ways a partisan perspective can influence outcomes.
In the past, disagreements were handled at the committee level as everybody involved believed in the necessity of this legislation, and compromises were made with the notion that a majority of legislators would vote aye once things were settled. Senators from both sides of the aisle have been following the traditional path.
Any semblance of a working farm bill is a long way off from making it out of the House committee. Pennsylvania Republican Agriculture Committee Chair Glenn Thompson has said he will not bring a farm bill to the committee until there is scheduled time for debate on the House floor.
The way things stand now, there is literally not enough time for that to happen, given the slim number of days those congresscritters actually work. The House will tie itself in knots trying to fund the Israeli re-run of bad US policy post 9/11.
Newly ensconced House Majority leader Mike Johnson made his intentions clear last week when he okayed a poison pill in a standalone military equipment and support funding bill, namely offsetting the cost by defunding the IRS.
There is no practical reason to starve the entity collecting federal revenue, unless you believe there is a deep-state conspiracy to something, something, MAGA! like our Representative Darrell Issa.
Rep. Juan Vargas, who hails from a very safe district, proved that he has no principles by supporting the bill. But we knew that already.
This wasn't a serious bill, as the vote was nearly postponed by Republicans so they could attend a Donald Trump rally.
It’s clear from recent performances on the House floor that Republicans have mostly quit governing in exchange for social media status. The race to become a Xitter troll, Instagram influencer and/or TikTok star is all that counts, as Dear Leader is proving that process is less important than performance.
Rep. Nancy Mace, the current rising star in the GOP, was a leader in unseating former speaker McCarthy, and she’s just getting started. Some of her former staffers have shared a memo outlining her plans:
The 2021 memo further branded “NATIONAL NANCY” as “THE freshman thought leader on federal issues.”
Responsibilities for her team featured in a staff handbook — which aides claim she also helped author — instructs the communications director to send out a press release a day, and directs their comms team to book her on national TV outlets as much one to three times a day, or a minimum of nine times a week, former staffers told the outlet.
“It is not normal for a member to prioritize media and comms over actual legislation like that,” one former staffer vented to the outlet.
As a practical matter (a guy can fantasize), the precedent of requiring offsets with Israel will make finding $60+ billion for Ukraine somewhere else in the budget nearly impossible, not without cutting into too many programs that even Republicans prioritize.
Wait until you hear what Majority Leader Johnson came up with as a means of passing another continuing resolution: a “laddered” series of votes extending individual pieces of the appropriations process, via individual bills. Even other Republicans think this is crazy.
Things are already going poorly for the guy elected to the Speaker slot because “he doesn’t yell.” Here’s Joan McCarter at Daily Kos:
The impossible agenda that Johnson planned for government funding has proved to be, yes, impossible this week. He was going to pass three appropriations bills in the two-and-a-half working days in the House this week and has had to pull one of them.
The Transportation, Housing and Urban Development spending bill has been shuffled to next week, meaning they’ll have to try to do three massive spending bills then as well. Enough Republicans told leadership they would not be available for Friday votes, the official reason for postponing the bill.
Jay Kuo might be onto something with Is the GOP Disintegrating Before Our Eyes?
The recent deadlocks by the House GOP in electing a House Speaker—which astonishingly happened twice this year—eerily echo the division and deadlocks of the Whigs in 1854 and the Democrats of 1860. Back then, you either stood with your Southern party members on the questions of slavery, or you split from each other. We are now seeing that happening with the modern Republican Party: You either stand with Trump and MAGA, or you leave.
In the wake of the election of Speaker Mike Johnson, a true MAGA Trumpist and election denier, some of the last oppositional voices are departing the Republican Party. On Wednesday of this week, two outspoken House members, Reps. Ken Buck (R-CO) and Kay Granger (R-TX), who had both received intimidating threats after they had cast votes against the radical MAGA candidate Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) for Speaker, announced they would not be seeking reelection next year. Both lawmakers had voted to certify Joe Biden’s election in 2020.
While the Senate appears downright genteel compared to the House, Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s holds on military promotions came to a head yesterday, as Republicans damned him for weakening the nation’s biggest public works project aka national security. Two promotions – General David Allvin to be Air Force chief of staff and Admiral Lisa Franchetti as chief of naval operations–were passed with 95 to 1 votes.
Between Sen Rand Paul’s holds on diplomatic personnel and Tuberville’s tantrum, there are more than 400 Senate confirmations in the pipeline. Since votes are required on each position, the logistics involved mean it could take months to complete, even as more vacancies occur.
If all this constipation in congress makes you think somebody doesn’t care about the government continuing to function, you’re right. I view it as sabotage, namely breaking the system so a guy who says “only I can fix it” ascends to the executive.
It’s a scary thought, especially with divisions over the Israeli - Gaza conflict manifesting themselves; margins for Democratic presidential candidates are slim in several states with significant populations (like Michigan) who have no stomach for the choices being made in their name.
I fully realize that there will be people who take issue with my characterizations of the war to annihilate (fill in the blank). That’s how I see things, being nasty won’t bring the dead back to life, deal with it.
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Friday’s Links for You
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Abortion, Every Day (11.2.23) by Jessica Valenti
Florida AG wants the state Supreme Court to stop a pro-choice ballot measure
More in ballot measure news today, this time from Florida. Attorney General Ashley Moody wants the state Supreme Court to keep a pro-choice amendment off the ballot entirely. Because like every other Republican these days, she’s terrified to let voters have a say on abortion. Moody argued in a filing this week that this “effort to hoodwink the Florida electorate should be rebuffed.” Hoodwink!
We knew this was coming. Last month, I told you that Moody had filed a brief challenge (as a placeholder while she wrote out this substantive one), and argued in an op-ed that the amendment’s language on ‘viability’ was deliberately misleading and meant to trick voters. As I pointed out, the tactic is shitty but smart. Abortion rights activists have been including ‘viability’ standards in some pro-choice ballot measures to preempt any criticism that they’re supporting abortion ‘up until birth’—even though ‘viability’ is an arbitrary standard. Now Moody is using that against them.
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The Middleman Economy: Why Realtors Just Took a Big Loss and Homebuyers Might Benefit By Matt Stoller
Earlier this week, the nightmare scenario for the industry came true. After a brief trial and a two and a half hour deliberation, a Missouri jury awarded $1.8 billion in damages in a class action suit to hundreds of thousands of homeowners who bought homes in the state.
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The housing market is likely to come out much cleaner in the end, with good realtors still doing great business. All in all, these cases are great examples of the importance of private enforcement of antitrust law, and why appointing lawyers with a sense of political economy as judges is meaningful. That said, if there is a much lower commission structure, a lot of agents will end up leaving the business, which will be painful, though the process will likely play out over years. Still, real estate is a cyclical industry, so that tends to happen anyway. In the meantime, it’ll be a messy transition, but Americans will be able to keep a bit more of their savings when they buy and sell homes. Lower commissions work in other countries. I don’t know why they wouldn’t work in America.
