House Republicans closed out the week by canceling votes on two party-line funding bills in the span of 48 hours, a setback for new Speaker Mike Johnson and a sign of persisting dysfunction in the chamber ahead of a key funding deadline.
They pulled a transportation-housing bill late Tuesday as some coastal Republicans opposed cuts to Amtrak. And they yanked a financial services and general government measure on Thursday morning that included divisive anti-abortion language.
It’s a step backward for Johnson, R-La., who had hoped to show progress on appropriations bills championed by his party’s conservative wing in order to secure their votes to pass a short-term bill that would keep the government open beyond the Nov. 17 deadline.
No, this is a bad idea. This will unfairly punish poorer Congress m (like AOC and Bernie Sanders).
Mitt Romney has enough money to survive not being paid for a few days or weeks. Honestly, Mitt Romney’s congressional pay is a drop in the ocean that is his vast net worth.
AOC really depends on her congressional salary to be able to afford basic stuff. Cutting off that money could be devastating for poor members of Congress. They could lose their house (singular) or be unable to pay other bills.
At best, cutting off congressional pay will discourage not wealthy people from running for office. At worst, it could be used as a weapon by the right to punish representatives they don’t like.
Instead, we should prevent Congress members from leaving the capitol building until they pass a budget. Not for food. Not to go home and sleep. Not for a walk. This’ll affect everyone evenly, and will probably be more motivating after a couple of days.
Nearly every way you can think of to get the Republicans to do their jobs they’ll find a way to make it backfire. They straight up can’t be trusted with power. The only thing they excel at is fucking things up.
Eh, I can think of a few ways, but it involves a 20 pound bag of ice a deep fryer and a woodchiper.