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It’s Déjà vu all over again at the US Capitol. A Friday deadline looms as Congress scrambles to pass a Continuing Resolution to avoid a government shutdown. House reps are in panic mode, and tempers are flaring.

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You think they’d have learned by now that all this undue stress could be avoided if they had just passed a budget.

House Speaker Mike Johnson faces intense criticism from fellow Republicans as the deadline to pass the CR approaches. Johnson had promised a clean stop-gap bill to provide funding for the government until March 14th. Critics claim what is being presented is a 1500-page omnibus spending bill disguised as a CR.

Johnson has indicated that he will adhere to the ’72-Hour’ rule, in which lawmakers have 3 days to review the 1500-page bill before a 12th-hour vote on Friday.

“It’s a total dumpster fire,” Rep. Eric Burlison (R-MO) said. “This is why I ran for Congress, to try to stop this. Sadly, this is happening again.”

Burlison went on to express disappointment in Speaker Johnson’s handling of the CR.

Johnson is defending the bill and the additional spending measures that have been added to it. Including money earmarked for disaster relief.

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We had, as we say, as we described them, acts of God. We had these massive hurricanes in the late fall, Helene and Milton and other, disasters, we have to make sure that the Americans that were devastated by these hurricanes get the relief they need. So we are adding to this a disaster relief package. And that’s critically important. Also important is, the devastation that is, that is being faced by our farming community. The agriculture sector is really struggle. They’ve had effectively three lost years

Chip Roy wasn’t buying it.

It’s unclear how many Republican votes Johnson can afford to lose and still pass the bill.

What is clear is Democrats are trying to take advantage.

 House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) rolled out a wishlist of demands in exchange for their cooperation, including:

– The federal government would pay 100% of the cost of rebuilding the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. This could run to $2 billion or more.

– A trade deal that would allow duty-free access for Haitian apparel and textile imports.

– Reauthorization of the African Growth and Opportunity Act, which permits duty-free imports for hundreds of products from sub-Saharan African countries.

– Funding to build museums on the National Mall to honor women and Hispanics.

– The Second Chance Act, which aims to help the reentry of convicted criminals back into communities. –

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We couldn’t confirm if any of these ‘Demands’ made it into the final bill, but none seem to be essential to a bill that’s intended to temporarily fund the government.

Representatives have just 72 hours to read this 1500-page monstrosity, which doesn’t leave much time to make changes or, more directly, cut the overinflated bill.

She’s right; disaster relief should be a stand-alone bill, but no one is being held hostage. Like every member of the House, she has the option to vote NO.

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Adding obnoxious porkbarrel spending to bills at the last minute has been going on far too long in DC. Defeating this bill would be a good first step toward ending the practice.

Vote no. It’s as simple as that. Defeat the bill and let the government shut down. Put the pressure back on House leadership to cut the porkbarrel spending out and present a clean bill. 

Easy peasy. At least it should be.

If House Republicans are unable to ‘Just Say No’ and the bill passes, it will meet additional opposition when it arrives in the Senate.

Republicans in the Senate may not have enough votes to kill the bill, but Rand Paul intends to delay it should it pass the House.

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Rand Paul can always be counted on to have the courage to stand by his convictions, but we hope it doesn’t come to that. Speaker Johnson should never have presented a bloated ‘Omnibus in Disguise’ CR bill, and it should be defeated in a Republican-controlled House. That’s what we should expect of them.

Stand up, stand together, and do what’s right.

SHUT IT DOWN.