And the Government Shuts Down...

What a bunch of assholes.

(The Guardian) 'It's going to get more and more painful,' says Mike Johnson, as he claims Trump and Vought making cuts 'reluctantly'
Speaking to reporters this morning, House speaker Mike Johnson has indicated that lawmakers are no closer to a deal on government funding and, standing at a podium emblazoned with the words, “The Democrat shutdown”, continued to lay blame for the shutdown squarely on the opposition.

He continued to insist that the Republicans had nothing to negotiate over because they’re pushing for a “clean” continuing resolution, which doesn’t include any new GOP provisions and would just maintain government funding at the current levels.

Johnson reiterated his point yesterday that Chuck Schumer had “handed the keys to the kingdom” to the executive. The White House said today that federal layoffs will probably be “in the thousands”. Johnson said: The president takes no pleasure in this … When Congress turns off the funding and the funding runs out, it is up to the commander in chief, the president of the United States, to determine how these resources will be spent … He doesn’t want to do it.

Johnson also claimed the White House’s budget director, Russell Vought, is making cuts to the federal government “reluctantly”. (A reminder that Trump said earlier this morning that he couldn’t believe the Democrats had given him ‘this unprecedented opportunity’ to – with Vought – cut ‘many Democrat agencies’ perhaps permanently). Back to Johnson, who said:

Russ does this reluctantly … He takes no pleasure in this, because he has to sit down and decide, because he’s in charge of that office, which policies, personnel, and which programs are essential and which are not. That’s not a fun task and he’s not enjoying that responsibility.

He added this warning regarding the longer the government stays shut down: It’s going to get more and more painful. Because the resources run out and more and more things have to be reduced and eliminated.

safeinsanity said:

The dems would rather shut the government down than stop paying health care to their precious illegals.

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I certainly don't believe we should be paying for healthcare for anyone here illegally, but the Medicaid cuts that came with the Big Beautiful Bill are real. And what happens when all of these people show up at any random ED anyway? Hospitals are required to treat these people.

It sucks. I don't want my tax dollars to go to that, but there's no real solution to it. These people are still going to get care, someway or another.

It'll be interesting to see who blinks first.

Cam said:

It'll be interesting to see who blinks first.

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Well, the Democrats were offered a clean CR to fund the government for the next 7-8 weeks until the regular appropriations process was completed and they refused. Its' their shutdown.

KO896 said:

https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/1/text

There's the bill....could you point out what Medicaid cuts you're referring to that are concerning?

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The new work requirements. You have to work 80 hours a week if you are able-bodied, which is essentially a part time 20 hour a week job. I'm not saying that's unreasonable, but all of this ends with the uninsured getting free treatment in any random ED anyway... Unless EDs are permitted to deny care, and we'd say that's inhumane. Somewhere down the line, all of this gets paid for. If not the government on the front side, it'll be costs eaten by all of these medical giants on the backend.

I don't have any idea what the right answer is, nor do I pretend to. As someone who works/pays taxes/pays for insurance, obviously it's irritating to see those abuse the system and enjoy those government benefits that I'm helping pay for. At the same time, I feel like I'll just be paying for it in another way.