Staff Reports
A hefty 1,547-page spending bill has hit the political arena faster than a hot knife through butter, apparently with a side of pork. This latest attempt at a continuing resolution, crafted in secret by House Speaker Mike Johnson, has resulted in grumbles of dissatisfaction from within his own party. Prominent Republican Senator Josh Hawley took to “The Alex Marlow Show” to express his concerns, calling the bill an “embarrassment.” It seems that being crammed down the throats of fellow Republicans without sufficient notice is not the ideal way to maintain party unity.
The timing couldn’t be worse. Unveiled just days before a looming deadline, this spending bill is designed to keep the government running until March 2025 but is loaded with billions meant for some eyebrow-raising expenditures. Among the more troubling provisions is the one-year extension of the State Department’s Global Engagement Center, effectively funding the censorship of conservative media outlets, including Breitbart News. If that doesn’t raise some alarms, the raises for Congress members and the ability for lawmakers to opt out of Obamacare surely will. Add to that a blockage of investigations into Congress itself, and it’s no wonder Hawley has labeled the crunch to get this bill passed a “total clown show.”
Speaker Mike Johnson is getting some well-deserved coal in his stocking from conservatives livid with his attempt to play Santa with a Christmas list stopgap spending bill.
The massive house-of-cards measure Johnson countenanced collapsedWednesday amid scathing criticism from… pic.twitter.com/jN7QeouEev
— Erik-Conservative In Cali 𝕏 (@caliucconserv) December 19, 2024
What’s particularly alarming is that Congress had all year to establish a budget but opted instead for a last-minute, multi-thousand-page bill that nobody has time to read. It smacks of the type of political maneuvering typically associated with the Democrats. Hawley rightly noted that this was not the standard operating procedure that Republicans had promised to dismantle. Tensions are high as the bill garners pressure from within its own ranks, and leaders seem determined to push it through unchallenged.
The commentariat was animated by Rep. Thomas Massie, who made history by being the first Republican to declare that he wouldn’t support Johnson in the upcoming speakership vote. By aligning himself with Hawley’s sentiment, Massie is clearly signaling discontent with the party’s direction. The grassroots sentiment among conservatives is evidently growing weary of these bureaucratic shenanigans, desiring leaders who stick to their commitments rather than serving up the same old political theatrics.
As if this couldn’t get any more absurd, former President Donald Trump weighed in, branding the bill as something he is “totally against.” He and Vice President-elect JD Vance wasted no time in condemning the spending spree that seems to offer special perks to government censors and political figures threatening to undermine conservative values. The party now stands at a crossroads that could determine its future direction. The real question remains whether genuine conservative leadership can rise to the occasion during these chaotic times, or if the GOP will continue to falter under the weight of its own political arm-twisting.
