Republican News

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Well … we have, haven’t we? The President has perhaps gotten too involved in the fight over the CR, tossing in last-minute demands and insisting that Republicans not cave on Democrats’ hobby-horse agenda. One may not agree with the President’s leadership on this issue, but no one can deny that he’s engaged and fully briefed on the matter.

Oh, the media means the other President. The one who’s barely been seen in the last few weeks. That makes this a good question — why hasn’t Barack Obama spoken to the American public? 

[handed papers from home office]

THIS JUST IN … reporters are asking about Joe Biden. Well, who would have thought that? Certainly not Karine Jean-Pierre, who never does answer the question:

GOOD QUESTION: Reporter to Jean-Pierre: ‘Shouldn’t Americans Here from The President of the United States Just Hours from Shutdown?’ pic.twitter.com/LSyOfHtBSP

— Sean Hannity 🇺🇸 (@seanhannity) December 20, 2024

I mean, she never does answer the question:

‘FIX THIS MESS’: White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre blames House Republicans for tanking a bipartisan spending bill, while insisting President Biden is “leading” as the government barrels towards a partial shutdown. pic.twitter.com/RO6yZGdf04

— Fox News (@FoxNews) December 20, 2024

No really, she NEVER DOES answer the question:

REPORTER: We hear that message from you, but why aren’t we hearing that directly from the president? Why haven’t we seen or heard from President Biden himself?

Jean-Pierre: This is a strategy that we have done many times before. Not the first time. And this is for Republicans in Congress, in the House specifically to fix. They created this mess. There was a bipartisan agreement. There was there was a bipartisan agreement…And so what we want to do and what the president wants to make sure we do is he is stands to ready to help get a bipartisan deal through. That’s what he wants to see.

And, you know, this is something that Republicans should own here. What they tried to jam at the 11th hour doesn’t reflect. And what the deal what that bipartisan deal that they came up with, obviously with Democrats and, you know, Republicans are showing a disregard for the American public.

Jean-Pierre can try deflecting this question all day long — and that’s what she did, too — but that just makes the question even more acute. Trump may become president one month from today, but Joe Biden is the president now, and this is his budget cycle. Why wouldn’t he get at least as involved in the talks as the President-Elect? That’s especially true if KJP’s gripe is accurate. Why wouldn’t Biden counter alleged GOP intransigence by lending his weight to the debate?

There are two answers to that question, neither of which reflect well on the White House. Either Democrats have decided that Biden’s unpopularity would make matters worse, or they have decided that his cognitive impairment would make matters worse. Those two options are not mutually exclusive, either.

But that doesn’t mean the White House isn’t injecting itself into the negotiations. Here’s Jean-Pierre herself suggesting that the administration might just decide that a shutdown will impact security arrangements for January 20. Nice inauguration ya got there …. shame if something happened to it …

🚨#BREAKING: Karine Jean-Pierre Says Government Shutdown Will ‘Restrict’ Transition Activities for Incoming Trump Administration— Claims Republicans Are the Ones ‘Threatening’ Shutdownpic.twitter.com/zzdCKYtQWH

— CENSORED (@censorHQ) December 20, 2024

Gee … I think that’s something we should hear from the President rather than one of the PR flacks. So when will Dr. Jill hold a press conference?

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Yesterday Duane wrote about the Wall Street Journal story outlining Joe Biden’s decline in office, something which the entire media was only willing to admit after his disastrous debate performance. But the Federalist highlighted another part of this story revealed this week by the NY Times. It came in a story titled “A Weary Biden Heads for the Exit.” [emphasis added]

This is the twilight of Mr. Biden’s presidency, the final days of the final chapter of an epic half-century political journey that has had more than its share of twists and turns. Time is catching up with Mr. Biden. He looks a little older and a little slower with each passing day. Aides say he remains plenty sharp in the Situation Room, calling world leaders to broker a cease-fire in Lebanon or deal with the chaos of Syria’s rebellion. But it is hard to imagine that he seriously thought he could do the world’s most stressful job for another four years…

Even when pushing for his priorities, Mr. Biden has found it hard to break through. During his visit to the Amazon rainforest last month, his fragility appeared painfully clear to those traveling with him.

After speaking for seven minutes on a day of draining humidity, a blue shirt hanging loosely over his frame, he turned to slowly shuffle away down a dirt path as several people in the audience not used to seeing him up close said they held their breath, worried that he would trip. (Aides said his gait was no more unsteady than usual.)…

When Mr. Biden visited the National Museum of Slavery that afternoon, he did not actually enter the main building to view the exhibitions; instead, artifacts were brought outside to show him, which two people familiar with the planning attributed to fear that the steep stairs would be too much of a challenge. (The White House denied that the stairs were a concern and said he was not brought inside for scheduling and logistical reasons.)

It really is hard to imagine that Biden or anyone around him thought he could do this for another four years. But I think it’s worth pointing out that Biden wasn’t alone in his apparent delusion. He had the support of his staff and most of the media in that effort. Meanwhile, people like me and many other conservatives were pointing out the obvious for at least two years and generally being treated like conspiracy theorists for doing so.

I made the case the day after the election that this was the Democrats’ Big Lie and that it likely explained why Biden’s campaign (before he dropped out) was a non-starter.

Even if you believed he was capable of running the country at any given moment, the idea that he had another four years in him was a bigger fantasy than The Lord of the Rings. And yet, for nearly two years, Democrats shrugged it off and denied everything.

This was the big lie.

Democrats have branded that phrase as an anti-Trump reminder of Jan. 6, but for most of the last two years they were telling their own big lie and hoping everyone would go along with it. The big lie was that Biden was fine and would be fine far into the future. As the evidence kept piling up that this wasn’t true, Democrats resorted to ever more defiant denials, i.e. he’s fine behind the scenes and claims to the contrary are a media fixation.

While all of this was happening the media would occasionally report on the issue only to be browbeaten for doing so by the White House. Today, Chris Cillizza, formerly of CNN, takes a look back and apologizes for not taking this more seriously. He admits that he would frequently get prompts from Republicans about it but says he blew it off, partly because the White House was so adamant in its denials.

“Republicans would regularly ping me and say ‘Why don’t you ask more questions about Joe Biden and how he’s doing? He’s 76, 77, 78-year-old man,'” Cillizza said. He continued, “And I would sort of brush them off because what I would say is ‘Well, there’s no obvious evidence that he’s declining. He moves a little slower. He talks a little slower but there’s no evidence that he’s declining.’

“And the White House and the people around Joe Biden were absolutely adamant that suggesting anything…asking the question about whether he was in some physical, mental or both decline was offensive. ‘How could you?! It’s age shaming.’ And I think impacted me at some level. Because while I did ask the question from time to time…I didn’t really push on it if I’m being honest.”

A bit later he returned to this adding, “There was a shame factor that went into that. People around Biden worked to make you feel bad when you asked whether he was up to the job of being president, running for president again and serving for another four years…And they did a very good job, until they couldn’t any more, of hiding it.”

Two points here. First, I guarantee you that there are 50 or 100 other DC reporters who could all tell this same story. All of them were cowed by the White House for years. That’s obvious in retrospect. Few wanted to risk their access to the exclusive club by stating what was increasingly evident to everyone. That was especially true given that the right had taken up the issue. No media person wants to agree with them. It’s career suicide to take anything the right says seriously.

Second, while it would be easy to beat up on Cillizza for getting such an important story fundamentally wrong, the fact is that he’s one of the only reporters who is admitting it. Yes, it’s too little, too late but at least he’s willing to say he personally missed it and explain why. I don’t see any of the other reporters who were droning on about “cheap fakes” doing that. They’ve had every day since Joe Biden’s debate to reflect on who was right and who was wrong here, and for the most part they’ve done that reflection very quietly.

“In retrospect, it’s clear that the people close to him knew that, at best, he had some good days and some bad days,” Cillizza said. “June 27, the debate, clearly was a bad day. But if the bad day was that bad, as bad as he performed on that debate stage, the fact that he had been president without a whole lot of questions being asked about his physical and mental decline and I’ll add the fact that he continued to be president from June 27 until January 20, 2025 I think is a little bit concerning and begs the question when did people near him know?”

We’re lucky that the moment when the Big Lie imploded was just a debate and not an international crisis. Actually, we don’t even know that Biden’s decline wasn’t part of a failed response to some crisis because the White House has been lying to all of us for years.

Did Biden have a bad day during the withdrawal from Afghanistan? Did he have a bad day when deciding how to respond to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine? Did he have a bad day when making decisions about the border crisis? 

The fact is we don’t know the answers to these questions because the White House lied to us and the media mostly went along with it. In the scope of that institutional failure, Chris Cillizza is just a small rounding error. I’m more inclined to give him some credit for at least telling the truth about it now than to beat him up for doing what every other reporter was doing then.

Of course his takeaway is that journalist need to learn the lesson from their failure with Biden and apply it to Donald Trump, which is just amazing. Of course they are going to learn their lesson now. Of course they are going to hound Trump about his health using their failure with Biden as an excuse. It’s the most predictable thing in the world.

Here’s Cillizza’s full apology video.

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Over our lifetimes, most individuals should contribute more net benefits to society and, in general, to the state than they consume. 

In societies where the consumption and production are pretty much equal, society stagnates. Think subsistence economies, or what we saw during the Dark Ages once the collapse of the Roman world was done and before the Renaissance. Stasis, in other words. 

Some societies, most common in socialism, actually contract as people consume more than they produce. A few at or near the top can live quite well, but overall the society is eating its seed corn and inevitably declines. 

Capitalism creates economic growth because production outstrips consumption, so capital is built up, and in return, that capital generates even more growth. We invest in education, roads, and other infrastructure in order to keep the economy expanding and improve welfare for everyone. 

Each generation bequeaths to their descendants an economy more robust and productive than the one they inherited. It’s a virtuous circle.  

In Britain 47.4% of the people subsidise 52.6% of the others who are a net cost to the country. That is the majority of people receive more in benefits than pay in tax.

By the time of the next election Labour will have bankrupted the nation. The Tories did nothing about it… pic.twitter.com/3Fsxh3S1th

— David Atherton (@DaveAtherton20) December 20, 2024

One of the blessings of wealthy societies is that we can provide support to people if they can’t survive on their own–mostly temporarily, but for a few who are disabled more permanently. We also ensure basic dignity in old age, and basic medical care for all. Ideally, individuals have invested over their productive years to cover these expenses themselves, but we all agree nobody should starve or be left to die in the street. 

But in principle, each of us must, in the aggregate, generate more wealth than we consume for the virtuous circle to continue. 

More than half of people in the UK receive more in benefits than they contribute in taxes, official figures show.

A total of 52.6pc lived in households that received more from the state than they paid to the Treasury last year, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The figures underscore the challenge facing Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves as they try to tackle a ballooning sickness benefit bill and pressures from an ageing population.

The analysis, which reveals a decrease from 53.6pc the previous year and covers the 12 months to March 2023, factors in both cash benefits and the use of public services such as the NHS, schools and free childcare.

Well, that is no longer the case in many European countries, explaining why they are stagnating. Consumption for the majority of households now outstrips their production, which is obviously unsustainable. At a minimum, the basic economic unit (the household) should produce no less than it consumes and, ideally, a lot more. 

It is theoretically possible that a minority of people and households could be so productive that they can carry the weight of the entire economy and government on their backs, and in practice, the wealthiest 10% pay the lion’s share of taxes already. 

Working-age people are typically net contributors to the state – meaning they pay more in direct and indirect taxes than they receive in benefits and public services.

However, even among this group, 45.3pc received more from the state than they paid in taxes, although this partially reflects benefits relating to education and childcare.

In the long run, though, making the most wealthy and productive carry all the tax burden gets you back to a society that stagnates or even disinvests. If the return on work or capital is diminishing with investment or effort, people quit doing it, and there you go…

The “soak the rich” and spread the wealth around philosophy always and everywhere leads to stagnation or even decay. So far, European countries are limping along, but that just means that their decline is slow. 

We expect the young, the aged, and the infirm to be net consumers. The young, because they are not yet productive and we are investing in their future; the aged, because their most productive years are behind, and the infirm, because decent human beings help those in need. 

But Western welfare states have tipped the balance so far that the trajectory is unsustainable. In the longer run, the wealthier the society, the better off everybody is, including those who need state support. 

I feel like we are replaying the 1970s, with inflation, radical politics, and a stagnating Europe. The original run of this movie sucked, although it did have a good soundtrack. 

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How much does the federal government spend on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion efforts each year? Apparently no one knows because there’s no requirement to collect or report such information. We do know it adds up to tens of millions of dollars.

Price tags for DEI efforts vary widely across the government, but clues can be found in the amount of money agencies have publicly requested as part of the appropriations process.

HHS, for example, requested $113 million in its FY 2024 budget for “training for diversity” in the health workforce. That’s up from $102 million in 2023 and $94 million in 2022. The Department of Labor’s 2024 budget request included $515,000 to hire two full-time employees and provide for the necessary resources to “support diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) program and training initiatives.”

At the Department of Agriculture, to “establish The Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion office,” it requested $3 million that same year. In a more than 5% increase from FY 2023, the State Department requested $73.6 million for DEI for 2025.

In its FY 2025 budget request, the Department of Defense asked for $50.9 million to fund DEI related activities, according to a spokesperson.

All of this money, an probably a lot more, is now on the chopping block according to Elon Musk and Vived Ramaswarmy. 

Biden’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has gone wild on DEI:
– 207 employees spread across 7 Offices of Minority Health
– 294 taxpayer-funded staffers dedicated to “diversity, equity & inclusion.”

The price tag for payroll alone exceeds $67 million, with a… https://t.co/qU9BJRZCnQ

— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) November 13, 2024

DEI is just another word for racism. Shame on anyone who uses it. https://t.co/HM94ZZmfhU

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 3, 2024

Of course DOGE isn’t a department and can’t do anything apart from President Trump, but there is some low hanging fruit here which Trump might want to get to on his first few days in office.

Among DOGE’s first recommendations for action could be rescinding Biden-era executive orders related to DEI, according to one of the people familiar with DOGE discussions.

President Joe Biden expanded government workplace DEI protections by signing a number of executive orders widening them to include a broader group of Americans, from pregnant people and military spouses to rural communities and caregivers.

But the institutional left isn’t going to let go its gains easily. The ACLU announced a roadmap back in July aimed at protecting DEI in expectation of a possible Trump reelection. Here’s how they framed it.

The campaign has promised, for example, to eradicate both public and private diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies. This attack on DEI is part of a larger backlash against racial justice efforts ignited by the 2020 killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor, and the nationwide protests — unprecedented in size and diversity — that followed. In the wake of those protests, workplaces, schools, and other institutions announced plans to expand DEI efforts and to incorporate anti-racism principles in their communities. The opposition to these efforts from far-right actors has been dramatic, with anti-DEI activists and political operatives framing their attacks as a strike against “identity politics” and weaponizing the term “DEI” to mean any ideas and policies they disagree with — especially those that address systemic racism and sexism. More broadly, however, the anti-DEI backlash is part of a larger effort by right-wing foundations, think tanks, and political operatives to dismantle civil rights gains made in recent decades

Part of the response involves pushing elected Democrats to spout appropriate talking points.

Congress members should also counter the anti-DEI movement by publicly and vigorously pushing back against propaganda that DEI is inherently “racist” and stifles freedom of speech. They must refocus the conversation on the origin of DEI programs and amplify, through hearings and public statements, how such critical programs work.38 DEI programs became prevalent in public and private sectors following the civil rights movement is a way to combat racism and sexism39 — two pervasive problems that persist today. A key political aim of the extreme right in their anti-DEI efforts is to divide voter coalitions and advance a partisan agenda. The anti-DEI movement labels DEI programs as discriminatory publicly, but it is the extreme right’s proposed anti-DEI policies and legislation that will make workplaces, schools, and public contracting more discriminatory and less inclusive and welcoming for persons based upon their race, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and religious identity.

But the main response will come in the form of endless lawsuits to protect what the ACLU sees as “gains.”

All of that to say, Musk and Ramaswamy should be careful what they say because the ACLU will be sure to use any stray word against them in court if possible and some progressive judge somewhere will issue a national injunction based on a tweet or an off-hand remark. Getting rid of DEI programs is a worthy goal but to get this done they are going to have to be prepared to defend it before a court system that won’t always be friendly.

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Well … sorta. After trying to extend government operations by CRomnibus and then in a mainly clean continuing resolution attached to a debt ceiling hike, House Speaker Mike Johnson has a new approach for Plan C. Why not — and we’re just spitballing here — break up the pending issues into separate legislation and let people vote on each?

You know … how Congress is supposed to work?

It’s not quite regular order, but it’s closer than we’ve seen thus far:

NEWS — We hear that house republicans are likely to split the bill in pieces. Hold votes on different titles in the bill — CR, debt limit, ag, disaster relief.

This would allow each piece to pass or fail on its own merit.

This is a world of ever shifting strategy. So we’ll… https://t.co/MwNPPEt6Dz

— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) December 20, 2024

Fox’s Chad Pergram and Liz Elkind heard the same thing. One unnamed House Republican lamented, “We’ll be here all night,” which might be cause for sympathy … if they’d done this in September. Or October. Or pretty much any time between the election and this morning, but especially any time this week. 

Politico puts a little more meat on the bone:

Under the House GOP’s latest plan, Republicans will try to pass three separate bills: a short-term funding bill, money for recent natural disasters and a one-year farm bill extension with aid for farmers, according to a person with direct knowledge of negotiations. A shutdown deadline is now about 12 hours away.

The new plan will test his ability to wrangle his conference. Members believe Johnson is taking the proposal through the Rules Committee, trying to pass it through regular order so it only requires a simple majority on the House floor. Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), who is on the panel, said that he will back the plan, meaning it should have enough support to get out of the committee.

But then things get trickier. Johnson would need near unity from his conference to bring it up for debate on the floor, known as voting for the rule. Democrats typically don’t vote for rules and are loath to help bail out Republicans after they backed away from a bipartisan funding agreement earlier this week.

If Johnson can manage to clear that hurdle, members could then vote for the individual bills that they support and vote against the ones they don’t — meaning Congress could avert a shutdown while other pieces of the previous GOP-backed bill could be dropped, at least for now.

Again, file this under Things We Could Have Done Monday. The biggest takeaway here is that we’re back to a clean CR. Isn’t that pretty much where we started? 

The problem with regular order now is that Republicans don’t have “same day authority,” and the current CR expires at midnight. The only way to get the CR part of this package to the floor before the midnight deadline is to do so through suspension, which then requires two-thirds approval. However, that’s not really much of a problem. Even if the floor vote has to wait for Saturday or Sunday, the shutdown will have started but not have much impact at all. In reality, the House has a couple of days to deal with that issue, assuming the Senate will act once the House passes it. And even if the Senate needs a day or two, any shutdown would be so short as to only be noticeable through press-release Mad Libs:

This is progressive Mad Libs. “The [villainous noun] is marching [beloved noun] to a [catastrophic noun] that will [scary verb] to [demo du jour] because they would rather [villainous verb predicate] for [villain du jour] than [virtuous agenda item we ignored until now]” https://t.co/2pDDCdzaDG

— Ed Morrissey (@EdMorrissey) December 20, 2024

The decision to break out each part of the previously combined legislation for separate votes might get House Republicans back on board. It may not fly with Democrats in either chamber, although one particular issue has been dropped — the debt ceiling, according to Jake Sherman. Three bills will come to the floor: the CR, disaster relief (which should pass overwhelmingly), and an extension of the Ag bill with some added direct relief to farmers. Sherman thinks that the components could be rearranged at some point, but those are the basic unresolved tasks — and it appears the debt-ceiling debate has been punted for now.

Manu Raju heard the same thing, and that Republicans aren’t interested in dealing with it now:

Where things stand:
House GOP plan:
Votes on:
– 3-month government funding bill
– $100 billion disaster package
– $10 billion farm aid

Punt debt limit to next year

Vote under suspension tonight or by rule tomorrow, per sources

Jeffries says they’re talking pic.twitter.com/F5v7b5Kxo9

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) December 20, 2024

What about the Democrats? Hakeem Jeffries says that Republicans are back to negotiating with them:

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries privately told his caucus Friday morning that communication had restarted with Republicans, according to two people familiar with his remarks granted anonymity to discuss the dynamics.

“Because of our display of unity, the lines of communication have been reopened,” Jeffries said, according to the people in the room.

Does that mean that Democrats will offer tacit approval for this new approach? Probably not, but it does show a little more realism after yesterday’s faceplant. Whether Republicans like it or not, Democrats control the Senate and will have a voice in any budget extension. That doesn’t mean we have to pass a CRomnibus, but it does require some communication to see what will fly and what won’t. 

Stay tuned. Plan D is undoubtedly around the next corner. 

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People are rightly focused on government spending, GDP growth, increases in the deficit and debt, and obviously inflation. 

Each of those matters quite a bit, obviously, but the most important measure of the health of the economy is usually left out of economic discussions: productivity growth. 

The United States doesn’t have its fiscal house in order, and it is true that runaway government spending and rapidly increasing debt threaten our prosperity. Government spending has been driving a large chunk of the inflation we have seen, and that leads directly to the pain we are feeling. 

But the single-biggest reason that the United States still can have a bright future is that Americans themselves are extremely productive–we are by far the most productive economy in the world, save a few tiny countries. Compared to our peers the United States is a standout because US workers are just that much more productive than everybody else. 

Why has productivity (GDP per hour worked) grown faster in the US than in Europe over the last 15 years.

[note: if you think this is because Americans work more than Europeans, you are wrong. Productivity measures output *per hour worked*] https://t.co/p80CKhTNFP

— Yann LeCun (@ylecun) June 18, 2024

Most people don’t understand how much the EU economy has stagnated while, for all its flaws, the US economy keeps growing. Americans in the poorest states are as wealthy or wealthier than Europeans. People may think that our poorest states are backwaters, but compared to Europe, they are doing extremely well. 

Part of the reason why we think of Europe as wealthier than it is is simple: Americans know how the American middle-class lives, and we compare ourselves to how European elites live. When we think of France, we think in tourist terms and envision living in central Paris, eating baguettes and brie, and think that the worst part of the experience is considering buying a Peugeot. 

Uh, no. For all the talk about Europeans being poorer than Americans because they choose a more relaxed lifestyle, the truth is that the economic rot in Europe runs deep. Even former powerhouse Germany is deindustrializing due to the sclerotic economy, Net-Zero policies, and a technocracy that runs the country for itself. 

Recent gap in performance has been staggering…

2010-2023:
🇪🇺 EU productivity: +5%
🇺🇸 US productivity: +22%

GDP Share (1960 vs 2024):
🇪🇺 EU: 34% → 15%
🇺🇸 US: 28% → 25% pic.twitter.com/A47cY0zUsr

— Alessandro Palombo (@0x_ale) December 5, 2024

Of course, being the best of a bad lot is still being in a bad lot, but America’s main problem isn’t our private sector, which is not, on the whole, declining. Rather it is the dysfunction in government that is the greatest threat to our future. 

This chart puts into perspective that even without factoring in the cost of servicing the debt, fiscal spending alone represents over 25% of GDP in the US.

Today’s government expenditure has already surpassed the levels seen after the Global Financial Crisis.

The notable… pic.twitter.com/VLPJl1Jf4l

— Otavio (Tavi) Costa (@TaviCosta) September 7, 2023

Interest on the federal debt and the size of the deficit are, by far, the biggest threat to our economic future, and the problem has ballooned in scope over the past few years. 

As you can see, according to the Congressional Budget Office the size of the deficit is about 80% higher in terms of GDP and the interest on the debt is almost 90% higher than three years ago. That is a total disaster.

But for those of you who behold and despair, there is hope–and the hope is that with a dramatic drop in deficit spending or, God willing, elimination of the deficit entirely (good luck with that!), we don’t have to inflate away the debt and destroy our economy by destroying the dollar. 

Output per hours worked (“labor productivity”) has increased *much* more in the US than in other advanced economies since the pandemic.

Maybe using an economic policy strategy aimed at running the economy hot was not a bad idea after all?

chart via @JosephPolitano pic.twitter.com/dA1LF7fs0A

— Philipp Heimberger (@heimbergecon) November 5, 2024

Productivity growth, and especially continued innovation, will allow us to scale the Mount Everest of economic problems. 

The rest of the world still invests in the United States and our national debt because all things being equal, we are still the best place to invest. Our private sector is dynamic (less so the big corporations, but the big corporations are not where the action is), and change happens here, not in sclerotic Europe or worker bee China. We invent things, and others copy them. 

“US labour productivity has grown by 30 per cent since the 2008-09 financial crisis, more than three times the pace in the Eurozone and the UK. That productivity gap, visible for a decade, is reshaping the hierarchy of the global economy.”
This quote and the charts below are from… pic.twitter.com/fPGoki3mqQ

— Mohamed A. El-Erian (@elerianm) December 3, 2024

Slashing government regulations and getting the deficit under control would be enough to right the ship. Sure, the debt would remain a drag on the economy, and we need to reverse the trend and shrink it, but you really can grow your way out of the debt if you don’t keep adding to it. We don’t need it to be zero, just manageable. 

Almost all the worst economic problems we face are caused by the government. That’s why CEOs from the innovative side of the economy–those who don’t lobby the government to give them an unfair advantage in order to grow profits–backed Trump this time. 

We need DOGE to succeed. It is the key to America’s success. 

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What is it lately with these kids attending Virginia colleges that have “George” somewhere in the name?

Some malevolent mutant form of revolutionary virus must be on the door handles or backstroking through the water because these kiddies, for all that the formerly revered institutions they attend are pricey, seem to be coming out as emotionally stunted, murderously inclined psychopaths.

 For the money, those schools used to pump out productive citizens and members who contributed positively to society. 

Now, those universities named for august figures in American history are becoming better known more for *checks notes* wanna-be jihadis than journalists and criminals more than the pursuit of a criminal justice degree.

George Washington University has had a helluva spring, with students holding a trial that ‘sentenced administrators to death,’ declaring a ‘liberated zone‘ free of fellow Jewish students, and has had to have police ‘clear’ pro-Palestinian protests resulting in its own set of controversies re: they were mean.

The university also preemptively suspended or put other pro-Palestinian student groups on probation (no word if any were double-double secret probation) at the end of August in anticipation of a revival of the anti-Semitic festivities when the school year started back up.

George Washington University has suspended its chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace just days before the start of the new semester.

The private university in Washington, D.C. also suspended Students for Justice in Palestine and put six other pro-Palestinian student groups on probation, in a preemptive move that signals the school expects campus protests against the Israel-Hamas war to resume as students return to campus in the coming days.

The groups were temporarily suspended last fall after pro-Palestinian students projected inflammatory messages on campus buildings, including “Glory to our martyrs” and “Free Palestine From The River To The Sea,” weeks after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel. The school’s chapter of JVP, the anti-Zionist Jewish group, supported that protest and said on social media that it stood behind every message.

The new suspension means that the groups will not receive official university recognition, funding or any other forms of institutional support this semester. In the spring, they will go on probation and will have to seek permission to hold any on-campus events.

They’re such nice kids. 

Georgetown University has its own happy little group of Hamas-loving miscreants, and, with the new school year, they went straight back to hating Israel. No doubt they were inspired by the delightful characters they employ on campus known as ‘professors.’

Here’s one of those intellectual heavy-weight haters calling FL Congressman Byron Donalds an ‘Uncle Tom’ earlier this year.

Why do @Georgetown, @GWtweets, and @AmericanU employ a racist terror-supporting professor who hates the US?https://t.co/9GpXlk2Ecz

— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) May 3, 2024

Intellectual and original! Damn, if that $68K a year tuition money isn’t well spent paying his salary, huh?

What a bang for your buck.

Most of the organizational work for all the Geroges’ campus fuss and bother has been led by the fervent believers who belong to what should be classified as a domestic terror group, only they call themselves ‘students,’ so it’s okay – Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).

They are mouthy, and aggressive, slick as snot knowing how far to push buttons and what to get away with in order to maintain victim status, and they are EVERYWHERE.

‼️Columbia student Keila Leonard is leading a protest on campus now in support of He💤bollah, shouting in Arabic about the elimination of Jews. @Columbia has banned her group SJP but it is clearly not enforced.
pic.twitter.com/QfpUZNNDIu

— Manhattan Mingle (@ManhattanMingle) September 27, 2024

SJP is in motion across the country at all times.

SJP should be banned from every campus In America.

This isn’t about speech. They are making, specific direct violent threats, and that is not protected speech. https://t.co/g9FsgxMI31

— Pradheep J. Shanker, M.D. (@neoavatara) September 29, 2024

They have an admittedly slick website for budding terrorist sympathizers. One might also wonder how the keffiyehs, Palestinian flags, promotional handouts, and signs magically appear at whatever campus or street protest ‘spontaneously’ erupts if they’re mere ‘students’ protesting, as they claim.

Well, the ‘students’ have some pretty big buck, bad actor backers.

The Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP) today released comprehensive research shedding light on the insidious activities of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and its umbrella organization, the National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP), on university campuses across North America. The report reveals “over $3 million a year” of funding for the NSJP linked to organizations accused of funding organization Hamas.

Entitled “National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP): Antisemitism, Anti-Americanism, Violent Extremism and the Threat to American Universities”, ISGAP’s report delves deep into the roots of antisemitism within SJP, its connections to violence and terrorist groups, and its alarming rise in influence since the Hamas terror attack in Israel on October 7, 2023. The report sheds light on a disturbing pattern of radicalization and intimidation targeting Jewish and pro-Israel students and faculty following October 7.

The report specifically highlights non-profit organizations supporting SJP (Students for Justice in Palestine) that have been linked to Hamas, including WESPAC, Tides, American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), Americans for Justice in Palestine (AJP), and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). According to the report, SJP has strong financial ties with WESPAC, which serves as a financial sponsor by channelling tax-free donations through its accounts to SJP chapters. The report additionally reveals that SJP receives significant organizational support from American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), a non-profit currently under investigation by the Virginia attorney general. AMP has been accused of being a successor to a charity held accountable for funding Hamas. AMP has also admitted to funding Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).

With Iranian support bankrolling all of that.

All with SJP coyly blinking like Cheshire cats behind their masks and keffiyeh-wrapped faces while lecturing Americans that free speech permits their aggressive physical intimidation, with the accompanying death threats towards not just Jews but anyone who supports the state of Israel.

I haven’t forgotten about that other ‘George’ named school in Virginia – George Mason University – named for one of our country’s Founding Fathers. A Virginia planter whose input at the Constitutional Convention influenced ‘many of the clauses’ in the final product, Mason became one of only three delegates not to sign the Constitution because it had no ‘Bill of Rights.’

SJP has a really strong chapter at George Mason. Go figure.

In August, a happy little group of SJP-led Hamasholes celebrated back to school by vandalizing GMU’s student center, spray painting warnings of a ‘student intifada’ among other chirpy sentiments, and causing thousands of dollars worth of damage as well. They also did their patented ‘raise a banner’ trick condemning the ‘genocidal war profiteers’ who were due at a career fair the next day attended by quite a few military contractors. All of it was documented on Instagram.

…On Wednesday, Sept. 25, at 6:58 a.m., Mason Police Department reported a case of property damage at the Johnson Center. According to the daily crime and fire log, Mason filed a complaint reporting, “intentional vandalism to State property.” The time of the incident is unknown and the status is still pending as of Sept. 25. 

An anonymous submission was posted on the Instagram page gmuintifada displaying photos and videos of the incident. Gmuintifada wrote in the caption, “autonomous actors at George Mason university do NOT welcome the genocide profiteering defense companies attending the GMU career fair.” 

…Mason’s annual fall career fair was scheduled to be held at the Johnson Center from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. This two-day event hosts various companies on Mason’s campus to assist in new hire recruitments.

In an anonymous photo submission posted by gmuintifada, a banner draped over the balcony of the Johnson Center listed “Lockheed, Gen. Dynamics [and] Leonardo.” Gmuinfitada wrote in the caption, “students in the Johnson Center have raised a banner condemning the genocidal war profiteers present in the GMU career fair.”

STUNNING! BRAVE!

According to the Washington Free Beacon, what their photo essay did was give Fairfax police the sneaking suspicion they’d seen this act before and who might be responsible. Cops got their ducks in a row, asked for a search warrant, and, when they got it, they went in to see what they could find.

QUELLE SURPRISE

…Those activists caused thousands of dollars in damage, a felony in the state of Virginia, and police suspect the SJP leaders, sisters Jena and Noor Chanaa, led the group of vandals. Weeks after the incident, in November, a county judge granted a warrant—which is under seal until February, according to a Fairfax County court representative—allowing police to seize electronics from the Chanaa family home.

When officers entered the Chanaa family home, they found firearms—modern weapons, not antiques—as well as scores of ammunition and foreign passports, all of which sat in plain view, according to court documents obtained by the Free Beacon and sources familiar with the investigation.

They also found pro-terror materials, including Hamas and Hezbollah flags and signs that read “death to America” and “death to Jews,” according to court documents and sources familiar.

Given the allegations earlier this year about funding connections between SJP and the Islamic Republic of Iran, this is very serious terrorist threat. @GeorgeMasonU should have banned SJP and expelled its members long ago after SJP’s harassment of Jewish students and its willful… https://t.co/lrjrAz4l5L

— Adam Mossoff (@AdamMossoff) December 11, 2024

Predictably, CAIR and terrorist coddlers in the press went to work screaming religious bigotry and racism at the raid (with no mention of the felony vandalism that provoked it) and the subsequent ban placed on the two sisters by the campus police department.

Police find unsecured weapons and bulk ammo in the family home of George Mason’s SJP president and past president (they’re sisters)–plus Hamas and Hezbollah flags and armbands that say, “Kill [Jews] where they stand.” And *this* is how Wapo headlines the story: pic.twitter.com/3ABzQmXE2A

— Judith Shulevitz (@JudithShulevitz) December 12, 2024

The Free Beacon story was written on the 9th of December – eleven days ago. At that time, howls of outrage continued over GMU’s ‘interim suspension’ of SJP and other pro-Palestinian groups on campus.

So unfair and unwarranted.

…CAIR has called on George Mason to rescind those disciplinary measures.

University leaders see the case differently, with George Mason president Gregory Washington calling the school’s actions “justified based on the information available” in a Nov. 20 faculty senate meeting. So do state and local law enforcement officials.

“For us at the state and local level, you know, we’re concerned,” one official told the Free Beacon, noting CAIR’s ties to illicit fundraising efforts for Hamas as well as recent revelations that Iran has bankrolled anti-Israel campus protests in the United States.

“It clearly shows the connection between potential radicalization and some of these student groups that are out there,” the official added. “It needs to be investigated if these are just sympathies, or is there a road to radicalization?”

Oooo. Kinda prescient there. Almost ‘nose for trouble’ good.

Cuz yesterday?

Oh, yeah. Things are just peachy…well. Actually, looking more watermelon red.

The FBI has arrested an Egyptian national in Virginia, a George Mason University student. Abdullah Ezzeldin Taha Mohamed Hassan is accused of planning a mass casualty attack targeting the Israeli Consulate General with explosives and a rifle.

This is the same university that was… pic.twitter.com/L0QiQpUkV6

— Marina Medvin 🇺🇸 (@MarinaMedvin) December 20, 2024

…This is the same university that was in the news a few weeks ago for their female international students and the collection of literature in their home wishing harm on Americans and Jews — a home full of weapons and ammo. 

George Mason’s international students are a threat to this nation.

I’m not here to argue.

Innocent Lutheran minding his own business going to class was gonna do what?

An 18-year-old freshman at George Mason University in Virginia was arrested Tuesday for allegedly plotting a mass casualty attack on Israel’s General Consulate in New York City, which he described as “a goldmine of targets,” according to a report.

Abdullah Ezzeldin Taha Mohamed Hassan, an Egyptian national, was charged with one count of demonstrating how to manufacture an explosive with intent to murder internationally protected persons after allegedly instructing an undercover FBI agent in November to target the consulate with explosives, the Washington Post reported Thursday.

“Two options: lay havoc on them with an assault rifle or detonate a TATP [suicide] vest in the midst of them,” Hassan allegedly told the agent posing as a terrorist sympathizer on Nov. 27, prosecutors alleged in court documents obtained by the outlet.

Hassan, who had been facing deportation proceedings, was arrested by the FBI in Falls Church and subsequently banned from campus, according to the report.

The first-year college student has an extensive digital paper trail with social media accounts praising the Islamic State and Osama bin Laden and spreading terrorist and antisemitic propaganda, the FBI charging documents state.

I am SORRY, PEOPLE, but you’re not a citizen, and the FBI gets you dead to rights ‘rambling’ about Osama Bin Laden and ISIS?

YOU ARE OUT WITH NO ‘PACK YOUR BAGS’ WARNING

What in the Sam hell?

And talk about the obvious. Get them gone.

And not just out of Virginia, although moving quickly there might be a really good idea, all things considered.

I’d be looking real close if my kid was in any of these schools.

Blows my mind this Schlita has gone this far.

How many days we have left…?

This post was originally published on this site

By golly, someone should hire this guy and have him work for the Democrat Party! [checks notes] Again!

Just kidding, of course. James Carville belongs to a time long past when the leadership of his party cared about winning elections rather than Bluesky, and when mainstream culture mattered in their calculations. These days, as Carville notes in this rant captured by the Daily Caller, the elite Academia-based cliques care about what’s really important … virtue signaling. And as Carville at least suggests, what’s being signaled isn’t all that virtuous either:

“Anybody that questions the absolute, unquestionable benefits of transition surgery is going to be called this equivalent of being against civil rights or being against women having the right to vote …  somebody can fact-check me, it’s banned in Nordic countries,” Carville said. “I think the liberal Labor government of Britain just passed legislation on that question.” …

“But you can’t — if you say the border, we should have had something different — well, that makes you a racist. If you say that we should proceed with caution on this transition surgery … then you’re slammed. And the tyranny of the left is tyranny. And not only tyranny that it causes people grief, it loses us elections, people,” Carville said. “And I got to tell you … there are people that think this, and I’m increasingly agreeing with them.”

“There are a substantial number of people in the Democratic Party — almost exclusively coastal, almost exclusively white, almost exclusively higher-educated — that would rather lose and feel superior about themselves than have to go through the trouble to do the stuff it takes necessary to win an election,” he continued. “And as long as that philosophy is part of the Democratic coalition, it is going to continue to cause unbelievable damage to our electoral prospects. I cannot say it any simpler than that.”

This formulation is pure Carville. He structures this argument so that it’s less concerned about the actual tyranny than it is about the elections. If tyranny won elections, you get the sense that Carville might gripe a bit, but he’d also appreciate it from an electoral-strategy point of view. 

As it happens, though, tyranny turns out to be … unpopular. In fact, that’s it’s defining characteristic. If these policies were popular, the Left wouldn’t need to impose them with tyrannical methods, after all. Carville seems to miss that point in this rant, although to be fair, it’s clipped from an obviously longer argument that Carville makes. 

Transition surgery on minors is weird. Forcing women to abide men in their restrooms, locker rooms, and sports competition is oppression. Allowing unregulated swarms of illegal immigrants to come into the country is dangerous. Letting psychotics threaten people on public transit with impunity is absurd. The people who have to live with the consequences of these elite-fantasy policies are furious. The only way to continue those policies is Leftist tyranny —  to ban all dissent to these policies and to punish anyone who takes action to counter them. 

That is why the Left began leveraging their influence on Big Tech speech platforms and in mainstream media to censor and suppress any debate over these issues. They use “misinformation” and “fact check” regimes and orgs to not just argue these topics but to actively deplatform those who dissent. That became particularly acute during the pandemic, where nonsense lockdown policies, masking mandates, and compulsory vaccinations became Too Important To Discuss Because People Were Gonna DIE!!!1!1!! 

Tyranny is both the strategy and the end goal. The Left demanded tyranny to impose those nonsense policies as well as to keep other topics off the table, such as the corruption of the Biden family and the exposure of its bagman Hunter Biden. They want to deplatform their opposition so that they can control the debate space as well as the regulatory and legislative space, and to deny any access to their opponents. As is always the case, the purpose of tyrannical strategies is to ensure unopposed rule as opposed to popular self-governance, which always ends up trending back to reality rather than Utopianism in the long run. 

So Carville’s right, and perhaps more right than he knows. And more Right than he’d care to admit, too. 

Addendum: If you want to fight Leftist tyranny with us, there’s no better time to do that than right now with a VIP membership! Use the promo code FIGHT to get 60% off by the end of the year. Be sure to check out the VIP Gold level, which gives members access to all Townhall Media VIP sections, and VIP Platinum level, which includes access to Townhall TV, direct messaging to all contributors, and great discounts at our Townhall Media Store!

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It’s pretty rare that everybody across the political spectrum agree on anything, no less something so consequential as this. 

But ask a Republican, a Democrat, or a media maven, and they all agree that Joe Biden is politically irrelevant.

Look at the coverage of Congress’ battle to pass a continuing resolution and to address the debt ceiling. As far as I can tell, there isn’t a mention of Joe Biden, the nominal President of the United States, having the least political influence over the outcome. We read about Trump’s negotiations with Speaker Johnson, and the Democrats are obsessed with the idea that they can use their own messaging to drive a rift between Donald Trump and Elon Musk, but Joe Biden is absent from both the negotiations and the news coverage. 

I’m not sure I have seen anything like this, although I only vaguely remember the transition in 1980 when Jimmy Carter passed the baton to Ronald Reagan. 

We have already seen that world leaders are treating Trump as the president, but you would expect the current President to be burnishing his legacy and assure the world that he is still in charge. 

The opposite is happening, though. Biden has almost disappeared, Kamala Harris is getting raked over the coals by her own party and is mostly hidden too. And the Pravda Media is finally opening up about how absent Joe Biden was from his entire administration. With the exception of Tony Blinken and Alejandro Mayorkas, the media is admitting that it was nameless, faceless bureaucrats whom nobody outside Washington could name who ran the country. 

Joe Biden went from being the most consequential president since Franklin Roosevelt and the most upright and moral since George Washington to a broken man without a working brain, all in the space of a few weeks. 

Both The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal did their deep dives into Biden’s being a vegetable, and reporters are now admitting that they screwed up the story–although heaven forbid you assume there was any partisan motive. 

Former CNN Contributor apologizes for covering for Democrats by not covering Joe Biden’s mental decline:
Chris Cillizza: “As a reporter, I have a confession to make. I should have pushed harder earlier for more information about Joe Biden’s mental and physical well-being and any… pic.twitter.com/5XFBGlndRq

— Eric Abbenante (@EricAbbenante) December 19, 2024

But nobody pretends that Biden is president, and they are acting like Trump is calling the shots. 

All the coverage is about Trump’s choice for this seat or Elon’s opinion about that issue… Will the Canadian government fall because Trudeau is getting humiliated by Trump?

This benefits Trump, at least so far, but it also presents a problem: it sure looks like the economy is going to tank and that potential crises are popping up, meaning that Biden is leaving Trump a bigger mess than we already knew. Trump will want to hang all the blame on Biden, but if anything goes wrong between now and January 21, Trump will, ironically, own it even though his power is mostly a perception rather than having any control over the executive branch. 

Trump, though, is the luckiest man in politics and has a unique ability to control the narrative, so I expect that he will manage the tast of shoving the blame onto Biden and taking credit for anything good.

In any case, nobody is even pretending that Biden is in control of anything. 

This post was originally published on this site

Well, you certainly could have fooled us. Plan A for Speaker Mike Johnson was to collaborate with Democrats to pass a CR and partial omnibus with lots of pork for everyone. When that collapsed in a hailstorm of recrimination, Plan B relied on House Republicans to unite on a purer CR with a debt-ceiling lift. Once again, House Republicans refused to take “yes” for an answer in an embarrassing floor vote last night. 

Now Johnson is telling reporters that a Plan C to avoid a government shutdown tonight is emerging, although no one knows what it might entail. Something about stump water at midnight of a full moon, perhaps? 

NEW: Speaker Johnson just told @RealMikeLillis at the Capitol that there’s a “plan” to avert a government shutdown and the House will vote this morning.

He didn’t divulge specifics.

“We have a plan… we’re expecting votes this morning, so you all stay tuned. We got a plan.”…

— Mychael Schnell (@mychaelschnell) December 20, 2024

Whatever Plan C might be, it can’t do worse than Plan B did:

House lawmakers from both sides of the aisle joined together to reject Speaker Mike Johnson’s latest stopgap funding package Thursday night, with one day to spare before a partial government shutdown is set to begin.

The House voted 174-235 against the package under suspension of the rules, which requires two-thirds support from those present and voting for passage. Thirty-eight Republicans bucked leadership and President-elect Donald Trump, a staunch proponent of the revised bill.

Why did Johnson do it under suspension? He couldn’t be sure to get support from his own Rules Committee, that’s why. That might have been a hint as to how well Plan B would work, especially since the much-skinnier CR cut Democrats mainly out of the loop. Hakeem Jeffries warned earlier yesterday that House Democrats wouldn’t rescue Johnson after changing the deal, although that was hardly necessary. 

So what are the options for Plan C? Punchbowl News looks at four options, the first of which is a non-starter — putting Plan B up for another vote, this time through Rules. That would be a great plan, except that you’d need all of the Republicans to vote for it. So …

2) A negotiated settlement. Although Trump might not like it, Democrats have a price. Johnson can get together with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and figure out what Democrats need to support a bill to fund the government past tonight.

The problem for Johnson is this runs the risk of both dividing the House Republican Conference and angering Trump by trying to again cut a deal with Jeffries. Democrats have to be convinced Johnson won’t renege again, as well as being able to deliver enough votes. Sources close to Jeffries say they can deliver the votes. The question is can Johnson?

3) Drop the debt-limit increase. If Johnson were to drop the debt-limit increase from Thursday’s bill, that might be an attractive option for Republicans and even some Democrats. Remember, that’s a three-month CR with disaster funding and an extension of the farm bill. With a shutdown just hours away, this isn’t a bad move.

Plus, many Republicans are truly opposed to Trump’s call to extend the debt limit now. Congress is six months ahead of any debt-limit deadline. Also, Trump also dropped this demand into lawmakers’ laps two days before a shutdown.

4) A short-term CR. There was some talk inside the GOP leadership and among rank-and-file members about a short-term CR to fund federal agencies until early or mid-January. But this wouldn’t change the current reality: Johnson has a very small majority, he has to deal with a volatile incoming president, face down an emboldened mega-billionaire with a social media platform and has a generally uncooperative House Republican Conference.

Of all these options, #3 looks like the most viable. It doesn’t require much support from Democrats and allows a Republican Senate to then deal with the debt ceiling. It also allows the skinnier CR without the CRomnibus spending and weird nomenclature changes to pass so that all of the future spending decisions can get made with Republican control of both floors in Congress. 

Or maybe Republicans just want to force a shutdown now. Whether or not anyone wins in a shutdown, this is the least worst time to do it. It’s just after the election and two years before the midterms, it comes on Joe Biden’s sede vacante watch, and it would mainly squeeze the progressive bureaucrats. The problem with that strategy is that it gains nothing in the end. Like most strikes, the losses outweigh the gains in the long run. Republicans might get some concessions on the margins, if they get anything at all, but nothing that would change the trajectory of spending overall. In the end, they still have to deal with Democrats to get anything passed in this session of Congress, and probably in the next session too, as long as House Republicans refuse to unite behind any kind of strategy. 

Perhaps we’ll see Johnson’s Plan C later this morning. Actually, we had better see it later this morning, or else Congress will have to work all weekend to get anything passed. If they pass anything at all, that is. 

Update: Could #3 be the next step?

ANNA PAULINA LUNA just came out of the speakers office and said there will be a vote on “something very similar to yesterday.”

She said Rs will not negotiate with Dems.

She also said vote at 10, which I’ve been told is an ambitious internal leadership goal not meant to be…

— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) December 20, 2024

“Something very similar” without the debt ceiling increase might get the rest of the House GOP back on board. Whether it goes anywhere in the Senate would be another question, but that would be Chuck Schumer’s problem. 

Update: Politico suggests that the debt ceiling is the real prize, and that both Trump and Johnson think this is the right time to have the fight:

Right or wrong, there also seems to be a belief among some people close to Trump that some sort of debt ceiling disaster is around the corner and thus this needs to be dealt with now.

Behind that thinking is a fear that Democrats are so eager to trip up Trump, that when the debt ceiling next needs to be raised, they’ll demand the GOP make politically impossible concessions. Republicans will then either cave to Democrats’ demands or they’ll cause a breach of the debt ceiling, precipitating an economic catastrophe in Trump’s first year back in office.

Under this logic, these Trump world figures argue that it’s better to face a shutdown now to try to resolve the issue.

Maybe …? If that was the case, though, Johnson would probably just have stood pat after last night’s vote rather than look for another way out. Unless Plan CR is just a pure CR with a debt ceiling hike, which might only be slightly different than Plan B but with more clarity of purpose.