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‘This is what surrender looks like’: Freedom Caucus opposes shutdown-averting spending bill

January 15, 2024 | | Print Article

The House Freedom Caucus is crying foul over a short-term spending bill being pushed that is meant to stave off a government shutdown, claiming that Republicans are surrendering to Democrats over it.

The conservatives contend that the continuing resolution enables more massive amounts of spending, according to the Washington Examiner.

“With the first appropriations bill deadline set for Jan. 19 as per the laddered continuing resolution passed last year, Congress is left with just days either to pass each appropriations measure or extend the deadlines with another continuing resolution,” the Washington Examiner reported.

“House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) announced a new continuing resolution Sunday night to push the laddered measure’s deadlines for appropriations bills to March 1 and March 8,” the media outlet noted.

(Video Credit: FOX 5 Washington DC)

Johnson has taken tremendous heat for working with Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Democrats to craft the bill. Conservatives are threatening to vacate him as speaker just as they did with Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) over it.

“The @HouseGOP is planning to pass a short-term spending bill continuing Pelosi levels with Biden policies, to buy time to pass longer-term spending bills at Pelosi levels with Biden policies,” the Freedom Caucus wrote on X Sunday night. “This is what surrender looks like.”

Montana Representative Matt Rosendale, who is a member of the caucus, said on X, “Congress holds the power of the purse strings! We MUST start acting on our constitutional duties instead of caving to the special interests of the D.C. Cartel. This reckless spending CANNOT continue. I will be a hard NO to any short-term spending bill.”

“One of the principal reasons cited for former Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s ouster last year was his failure to restore regular order to the appropriations process. However, hard-line members have said they’re willing to give Johnson some time to address the problems he was handed,” the Washington Examiner noted.

The threat to vacate is still very much a possibility for Johnson at this point despite the fact he appears to not be bothered by it and claims to be a die-hard conservative. His friend Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) isn’t ruling out that it could happen.

“House conservatives spent last week trying to get House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to pull out of the deal, but when Johnson floated the idea of a long-term CR to a group of moderate Republicans, nearly all lawmakers said no to the suggestion, one attendee told The Hill last week,” The Hill reported.

“Because the completion deadlines are upon us, a short continuing resolution is required to complete what House Republicans are working hard to achieve: an end to governance by omnibus, meaningful policy wins, and better stewardship of American tax dollars,” Johnson said in a statement Sunday evening.

The speaker claimed the agreement slashed $16 billion in spending and said it “represents the most favorable budget agreement Republicans have achieved in over a decade.”

In a bad sign for Johnson, Democrats are supporting his proposal as the Freedom Caucus is standing against it.

“I am in strong support of the effort to keep the appropriations process moving forward and avoid a disruptive partial government shutdown,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) wrote to Democrats Sunday.

The measure may well pass in the House with Democrat support. Johnson might win that fight, but he could then face a motion to vacate just as McCarthy did if he goes against the conservatives who are dead set on closing the border and reining in spending.

In a previous statement in December, the House Freedom Caucus warned, “To call this ‘unsustainable’ is an understatement. It is a fiscal calamity. Unfortunately, members of the House and Senate have done little to force a course correction from this calamity. Indeed, many have been party to it. Worse yet, we are extremely troubled that House Republican leadership is considering an agreement with Democrats to spend even higher than the modest $1.59 trillion statutory cap set six months ago by the Fiscal Responsibility Act and to obscure the actual spending numbers with more shady side deals and accounting tricks. This is totally unacceptable.”

If the measure does not pass, parts of the government will shut down Friday night which many conservatives will welcome given the state of the border and the national debt.

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