Trump seeks a “Clean Continuing Resolution”. The spineless House cheers.
A clean CR and hike of the debt ceiling cost Kevin McCarthy his job as speaker and threatened the job of his replacement Mike Johnson. Guess what?
Trump Endorses ‘Clean’ CR
Fox news reports Trump Endorses ‘Clean’ CR as Government Shutdown Looms
As the prospect of a mid-March government shutdown looms, President Donald Trump endorsed the idea of a continuing resolution to fund the government through the end of September.
“As usual, Sleepy Joe Biden left us a total MESS. The Budget from last YEAR is still not done. We are working very hard with the House and Senate to pass a clean, temporary government funding Bill (“CR”) to the end of September. Let’s get it done!” he declared in a Thursday night Truth Social post.
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital in a statement on Friday that he will back Trump’s request.
“I will support President Trump’s request for a clean CR to hold spending flat while DOGE continues to identify cuts, the administration re-programs those funds, and Congress readies a strong FY26 appropriation package that cuts waste and reflects DOGE and common sense,” the congressman noted in the statement.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has indicated that “anomalies” can be inserted into a CR to increase or decrease spending, noting that language could be added to reflect spending changes like cuts associated with USAID.
“I would have a real hard time voting for a clean [continuing resolution] after everything that we’ve seen out of DOGE,” Rep. Eli Crane, R-Ariz., said, according to The Hill.
Fox News Digital reached out to Crane’s office on Friday to request a comment from the congressman. “I have little confidence that Congress will be able to keep up with President Trump,” Crane said in a statement emailed over by a staffer who explained the lawmaker was referring to the prospect of Congress making the Trump administration’s actions permanent via legislation.
“Why are we even having DOGE if we’re not gonna solidify and put it in the CR?” Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., asked, according to The Hill.
A Debate Over Clean
Politico reports Trump’s spending play raises ‘risk of a shutdown,’ top Democrats say
Top Democratic appropriators said on Friday that President Donald Trump’s decision to abandon bipartisan spending talks and endorse a long-term funding patch is “raising the risk of a shutdown.”
Speaking two weeks before the March 14 funding deadline, Washington Sen. Patty Murray and Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro said in a joint statement that Republican leaders were “walking away” from negotiations aimed at cementing new government spending levels.
Trump said he wanted a “clean, temporary government funding Bill” through the end of fiscal 2025, but it is unclear what exactly “clean” might mean. Some Republicans want Musk’s cuts reflected in any new bill, while Democrats want guardrails written in to prevent further slashing. Disaster aid, including for the recent California wildfires, is also at issue ahead of the deadline.
“Republican leadership’s plan to pass a full-year continuing resolution with Musk’s devastating ‘DOGE cuts’ would give Trump new flexibility to spend funding as he sees fit,” the Democrats said in their statement, noting that Musk has advocated for a government shutdown.
Murray and DeLauro said they “remain ready” to negotiate a bipartisan deal to fund the government with updated budgets and “hope Republicans will return to the table to do just that.”
Nonsensical Fears
Fears of a government shutdown are nonsensical. If Democrats withhold votes for a spending deal, they would be blamed for a shutdown.
The party that supports shutdowns as a negotiation tactic always collapses.
After all the hype from Republicans about a clean CR, key clean CR opponents like Chip Roy are now on board.
Continuing Resolution Flashbacks
November 11, 2023: No Surprise, House Speaker Johnson Proposes Same Plan as McCarthy
There are likely big surprises elsewhere, but there is no surprise in this corner regarding Johnson’s plans to keep the government running.
“It’s…100% clean. And I 100% oppose,” said Rep. Chip Roy (R., Texas) on social media.
December 19, 2024: House Rejects Trump-Supported Stopgap Funding Plan, 37 Republicans Say No
37 Republicans say no to Trump.
Yesterday, Speaker Mike Johnson agreed to pass a 1500+ page continuing resolution budget monstrosity.
The bill died after Elon Musk and president-elect Trump trashed it.
Johnson then slimmed the bill down to 116 pages. That bill had Trump’s support.
Not mine. But I don’t get a vote. Regardless, I was reasonably confident the revised bill would blow up, and it did.
Once Johnson stripped 1300 pages of Democrat goodies the bill was doomed in the Senate and I thought the House as well.
Sure enough, the vote was 234 against to 174 for. That is nowhere close to a majority even if you throw in 21 non-voting and 1 who voted present.
Trump Threatens to Take Down Chip Roy
Also on December 19, but ahead of the vote, I reported Trump Threatens to Take Down Chip Roy, One of the Only True Fiscal Conservatives
Massive Republican infighting between Trump and fiscal conservatives is underway.
Trump was annoyed because Chip Roy, a member of the Freedom Caucus blasted the Trump-approved 116-page bill.
Well now, Chip Roy is on board. Fancy that.
January 18, 2024: Mike Johnson Is the New (But Not Improved) Kevin McCarthy
The House just passed Mike Johnson’s bipartisan continuing resolution punt. Dear Republicans, please wave the white flag and surrender before doing more damage, because more damage is on the table just today.
I took a lot of flack for saying, with reason, that Johnson would not do any better than McCarthy.
The McCarthy proposal would have extended government funding through Oct. 31, but at a $1.471 trillion annual rate, down from $1.6 trillion in fiscal 2023. And it included funds for the border.
We are now up to $1.6+++ trillion under Speaker Mike Johnson and that does not include Ukraine, Israel, or the border.
Nor does it include the full ramifications of child tax credits that now appear to cost an average of $150 billion a year. The estimate yesterday was $78 billion a year for the entire deal.
It Just Doesn’t Matter
“It doesn’t matter who is sitting in the speaker’s seat or who has the majority. We keep doing the same stupid stuff,” said Rep. Chip Roy (R., Texas), a leader of the hard-line House Freedom Caucus.
The Hard-Line Freedom Caucus
The allegedly hard-line Freedom Caucus led by Chip Roy is now OK with clean continuing resolutions.
I can guarantee the result in advance: Trump will propose budget-busting spending items that DOGE won’t come close to covering.
Republicans will dramatically increase the deficit and will use gimmicks and ridiculous assumptions to deny that fact.
But that’s OK now that Trump wants them.
What sorry state of fiscal affairs coupled with massive Republican hypocrisy, as predicted.
Spare me the sap on blaming this on Biden. Republicans have the White House, Senate, and House.
There should be no increase in the deficit in any CR, and no gimmicks to do so. Period.
But all those who agreed when Biden was president have now caved in. The fiscal conservative hypocrites cheer the result.