Instead of negotiating a solution to the impending government shutdown, the Biden administration is talking trash.
Take Office of Management and Budget director Shalanda Young. In response to reports that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy intends to forgo his salary in case of a government shutdown, she launched into a rant Friday shaming him and other Republicans for the potential shutdown that some critics say is the administration’s fault.
“Look, I’m glad that the Speaker’s made that statement. By the way, members of Congress have to get paid constitutionally, so maybe he’ll put it in a sock drawer. I don’t know, but they have to get paid during a shutdown,” she told reporters.
“That’s theater. That is theater. I will tell you, the guy that picks up the trash in my office won’t get a paycheck. That’s real. And that’s what makes me angry,” she added.
Listen:
“That is theater. I will tell you, the guy who picks up the trash in my office won’t get a paycheck. That’s real.”
— OMB Director Shalanda Young, when asked about House Speaker McCarthy claiming he won’t take a salary during the government shutdown and if Biden will do the same pic.twitter.com/qUFpeDlPfl
— The Recount (@therecount) September 29, 2023
According to The Hill, she also admitted the White House is doing everything to “plead, beg, shame Republicans” into bending the knee and kowtowing to the administration’s demands.
She was right about that. With the help of the media, the administration has been trying to force House Republicans to automatically accept — forget any negotiations — a bill to avert a shutdown.
“So far, the White House has refused to negotiate, stressing that an agreement was already in place and House Republicans are refusing to honor its terms,” even the Associated Press, a left-wing out, admits.
In fact, President Joe Biden outright refuses to meet with McCarthy.
“The people that McCarthy needs to talk to are his own caucus. That’s who he needs to have a conversation with, not the president,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre reportedly dismissively said on Friday.
Republicans have been pushing back on the White House’s claims by arguing that a shutdown bill should also be paired with spending cuts given America’s ballooning debt crisis and also border security given America’s border crisis.
To that end, McCarthy tried on Friday to push through a stopgap funding bill, the “Continuing Appropriations and Border Security Enhancement Act, 2024,” but 21 Republicans chose to vote with Democrats (all of whom voted “no”) against the bill.
The Republicans argued that the stopgaps and continuing resolutions need to stop — and Congress needs to rein in spending once and for all.
“When House Republicans took the gavel in January, we made a promise to the American people to pass 12 individual appropriation bills to avoid a Continuing Resolution in the first place,” Rep. Troy Nehls, one of the 21 dissident Republicans, told Fox News in a statement.
“While this [stopgap] bill makes significant spending cuts and enhances border security, it allows illegal aliens to remain in our communities and continue to wreak havoc across the country,” he added.
Below is a list of every Republican who joined Democrats in voting down the stopgap:
- Andy Biggs
- Dan Bishop
- Lauren Boebert
- Ken Buck
- Tim Burchett
- Eric Burlison
- Michael Cloud
- Eli Crane
- Matt Gaetz
- Paul Gosar
- Marjorie Taylor Greene
- Wesley Hunt
- Nancy Mace
- Mary Miller
- Cory Mills
- Alex Mooney
- Barry Moore
- Troy Nehls
- Andy Ogles
- Matt Rosendale
- Keith Self
Had the stopgap bill made it through, then McCarthy could have made the case that Republicans have done their part to avert a shutdown. But thanks to the 21 defectors, this argument is no longer valid.
The trouble is that this makes it that much easier for the White House to successfully claim that Republicans are to blame for the shutdown. And indeed, that’s exactly what’s happening.
“Just over a third of voters (34%) said Republicans in Congress would be mostly to blame for a government shutdown, while 23% would blame President Joe Biden and 21% would blame Democrats in Congress,” according to a Morning Consult poll published earlier in the week.
A poll from YouGov produced similar results, with 29 percent of voters blaming Republicans, only 14 percent blaming congressional Democrats, and just 13 percent blaming the president.
According to reports, McCarthy held a last-minute pow-wow with his fellow Republicans late Friday night, but no agreement was reached.
Speaking with reporters after the meeting, Rep. Dan Crenshaw slammed the 21 “holdouts” for refusing to play along while offering any solutions.
“The problem is, is the holdouts aren’t offering any other options. The holdouts say, well why don’t we have a shutdown and [work on the appropriations process] as if all of a sudden, the messy democracy that makes appropriations process difficult in the first place is somehow going to resolve itself,” he said.
“It’s a f–king democracy, it’s hard. And there’s no acknowledgment of that,” he added.
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V. Saxena is a staff writer with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University. Saxena also contributes to BizPac Review.
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