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After many delays and much anticipation, Speaker Mike Johnson unveiled the 1,547-page continuing resolution that Congress will need to pass in order to avert a government shutdown just days before Christmas.

The CR was originally supposed to be revealed before the weekend of December 14, but due to ongoing negotiations, the funding bill was not actually revealed until Tuesday night. Although the CR had already become the subject of scrutiny due to the timing and the lack of transparency, the funding bill is now expected to have even more defections after the text of the funding bill was actually made public.

‘Soon they will have to face the American people and say, “We’ve tacked on hundreds of billions of dollars onto the debt because it was easier for us.”‘

“I had hoped to see Speaker Johnson grow a spine, but this bill full of pork shows he is a weak, weak man,” Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky said in a Wednesday post on X. “The debt will continue to grow. Ultimately the dollar will fail. Democrats are clueless and Big Gov Republicans are complicit. A sad day for America.”

“Conservative Republicans should start an OnlyFans account considering how often we get screwed,” Republican Rep. Kat Cammack of Florida said in a Tuesday post on X. “The CR is a bad deal.”

Despite having the December 20 deadline on their calendars for months, leaders left the CR on the back burner. Consequently, lawmakers are frustrated that they are now forced to vote on a funding bill just days before the deadline.

“Congress has had months to negotiate a clean government funding bill to get us to Trump’s term,” Republican Rep. Michael Cloud of Texas said in a Tuesday post on X. “Yet, here they are again at the last second trying to jam a 1,500+ page CR that could be called for a vote before the required 72 hour rule. The DC Apparatus operates not on transparency, but behind closed doors away from the American people.”

“There is no strategy,” Daniel Turner, founder and executive director of Power the Future, told Blaze News. “The goal here is just for them to all go home for Christmas and to promise the American people that next year they will tackle it. That’s been the strategy, or the regular operations of Capitol Hill, for the last 20 years.”

The CR itself contains numerous provisions that are unrelated to the bare-bones approach many fiscal conservatives had hoped for. The funding bill includes the first pay raise for lawmakers since 2009 as well as an opt-out from Obamacare, $100 billion of disaster relief for hurricane victims, $30 billion of aid for farmers, and a crucial provision transferring the Robert F. Kennedy stadium to the District of Columbia.

In short, Johnson threw together a Christmas omnibus for lawmakers to deal with in the 11th hour.

While it’s not unusual for Congress to put out a Christmas omnibus, Johnson notably said he would take it upon himself to break the tradition.

US Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.), U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and US House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) listen during a Hanukkah reception at the US Capitol Building on December 17, 2024, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

“We have broken the Christmas omni,” Johnson said during a press conference in September. “And I have no intention of going back to that terrible tradition. So there won’t be a Christmas omnibus. … We’re not gonna do any buses.”

“People call me ‘NostraThomas’ for accurately predicting Speaker Johnson would use the Christmas recess to force a massive spending bill through Congress,” Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky said in a Wednesday post on X. “After claiming he would not, Johnson is embracing a D.C. tradition that’s nearly as old as decorating Christmas trees.”

The Christmas omnibus will kick the can down the road until mid-March, roughly 100 days into President-elect Donald Trump’s administration. Trump’s hands are tied as a result, giving him and his administration no control over the budget for the first 100 days, weakening his ability to implement the MAGA mandate Americans voted for.

“It’s always next year, and it’s very frustrating,” Turner told Blaze News. “When you see the American people gave a very decisive mandate on spending, on the cost of food, on the cost of energy, on the cost of goods and services, and still they’re tacking on just absurd amounts of spending to make their jobs easier.”

“Soon they will have to face the American people and say, ‘We’ve tacked on hundreds of billions of dollars onto the debt because it was easier for us,'” Turner continued. “But it’s not your job to do it the easy way. It’s your job to do it the right way.”

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