The more I see of this CR, the less sense it makes. What is the GOP getting out of this?

[Recursion]

I figure there must be an angle I'm missing here. What are they getting out of this? This is increased funding for Democratic priorities; we were mostly looking to minimize cuts. This includes funding for high speed rail in California, which is like the Platonic Ideal of stuff Republicans don't want to pay for, and it's far enough down the road that Democrats probably wouldn't put up much of a fight for it. What the hell happened over the weekend?

[elleng]

1. Thought I'd wait til tomorrow

to see what others think. Could it be they're actually feeling pressure from We the People???

[Laura PourMeADrink]

4. Geez - that is why Rush is all in a tizzy - the budget doesn't have enough provisions to hurt people

to satisfy the right.

Could he (Dimwit) actually be moderating - just enough to keep the flames away?

[elleng]

8. Not HIM, it is/was congress' bill.

I'm sure trump hasn't written any of it.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

19. True. He knows zero about legislation. But - he can utter out some stupidity. LOL

[elleng]

20. He can, and will (some time.)

Now, 'pretend' it's OK with him, even what he wants! (Imagine him crying into his pillow!!!)

[Laura PourMeADrink]

21. Can't see that. Machiavellian to the max. I just wish we would realize that and play

him more.

[elleng]

23. But he doesn't know how the U.S. govt works,

and only now 'meeting' the players, so not sure the Machiavellian play book works in this context.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

26. You are right. We can't assume he is involved and "thinking" and plotting.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

2. Even though I can not imagine Trump actually thinking. Actually saying - "I like this, let me

pass it on to the legislators."....I work at home with the news on all day in the background - and have heard every word he has said for a year or two now. He likes high speed rail. Now how he communicated that is anyone's guess.

[gratuitous]

3. If I had to guess . . .

I'd say they get this funding headache off the congressional calendar, first and foremost. This clears the schedule to try to dick over America with their other pet projects while providing a certain amount of cover (See? We funded that high speed rail thing you hippies like so much) for a number of Republicans facing a righteously pissed-off electorate at home.

We'll see if it works, but I wouldn't bet the farm if I was a Republican. Democrats have gotten a really good taste of "we fight, we win" in the last three months. We're not yet ready to let it go.

[Recursion]

6. It's not working; the RW blogosphere is shitting itself.

The CR is literally twice as long as ARRA was; they didn't have to walk into that but they did.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

7. So, what are the wingers getting?

[Recursion]

9. That's the thing: nothing, that I can see

Which is why I'm trying to triple-check everything. The only "GOP" win is increased defense spending, but plenty of Democrats are more than happy to expand that too (and, hell, now that I'm a DoD contractor again, I'm entirely fine with the US overpaying for avionics). But even that is $35Bn less than Trump asked for.

WTF happened this weekend?

[Laura PourMeADrink]

15. Thanks so much for delving into this. You rock ! My initial reaction is - Look to EGO. Trump

desperately wants a win. If Dems do their homework, and are led by a savvy person, they should hold out and tack on more of what we want.

[gratuitous]

10. Impotent rage

But they've got nowhere else to go.

Now is a good time for Democrats to hold some town halls and rallies in those areas where those mythical white working class disgruntled voters reside. Generate a little local excitement, buck up the folks in the area who are fighting the good fight, and get a little coverage for the Democratic message without the Fox News filter. See if we can't generate the aura of winners, and swing a few percentage points of those votes. We don't have to win them all over, but a 3-6% change in the right areas would have won Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin in 2016.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

17. True ! Do something. But, don't we have to have a bad guy to fight? I wonder if

Trump is playing us. If we have nothing big to fight against, we won't. i hate it, but we won't. Now will be a good time to watch Perez and see if he's got any savvy.

[octoberlib]

39. This is also a possibility. There's an election coming up and they're trying to take some of the

wind out of our sails.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

40. crossed my mind too. We can only say "they wanted to defund something..." instead of that

they actually did defund.

[jmowreader]

18. What they're NOT getting is more important

Trump doesn't want to admit it, but when you are a Republican president and you have a Republican House, a Republican Senate and a whole city full of Republican bureaucrats, if the government shuts down the deed belongs to the GOP.

The only thing the GOP is going to get out of this deal is the assurance that, at least for this news cycle, the press won't pronounce Trump's all-Republican government the gang that can't pour piss out of a boot. Considering that Trump has managed to fuck everything else up since he got inaugurated, absence of derision is nearly as good as a win.

The rational observer might think this CR is an absolute disaster for Trump, but they don't see it that way.

[Amishman]

35. Time, they are getting time to get their far right and moderate members back under control

The Republicans didn't expect to be in this situation as we all see they have no plan to govern. They need time to corral their fringe members and figure out how to utilize Trump. This bill is really only a few months and keeps spending largely level, it's a punt.

Just wait, in two months we are going to see ugly bills popping up with unified R support. The back door shady deals are being made, it's what the pukes do best. We'll see the rotten fruit in the summer.

[herding cats]

5. I can't figure it out either.

The deeper I've delved the more confused I've become. As you said, there's inclusions which make little to no sense in this thing.

What was taking place that were not aware of? Was this in part a thumbing of the nose by Republicans at the Freedom Caucus?

[Recursion]

11. Right, it's like almost showing off

I mean, you can't tell me that Pelosi and Schumer went into this weekend saying "we're going to save high speed rail funding". Something happened in there.

[safeinOhio]

13. And funding for Planed Parenthood and

No money for the war on Cannabis.

[Recursion]

16. Right? And the EPA and CPB and...

It's almost like ostentatiously a Democratic bill

[snort]

12. We know everything you've done...

Nahhh

[Mr. Ected]

14. This is the old guard GOP flipping Trump the bird

With one hand and the Freedom Caucus with the other.

[LonePirate]

22. They know the bill won't pass without Dem votes and they don't want blame if they fail to pass it.

Republicans control everything in DC. If they fail to pass this budget bill, they will receive all of the blame, and it will be intense if it causes a shutdown. They had no choice but to enlist Dem help. I wouldn't be surprised if more Dems vote for it than Repubs. Not only that but this bill will pass the Senate whereas any alternative would not pass either chamber.

[Sculpin Beauregard]

24. I think either indictments are imminent, or are happening already.

Look; everyone in DC probably knows the TrumpRussia thing is going to blow wide open soon. A lot of Cons are going down.

The GOP must know they will be known as the treason conspiracy party. They know they will be destroyed in next election. The old guard is maybe trying to salvage what they can? I dunno.

[mopinko]

25. the gop knows it is all going to explode soon?

we know what you did last november?

[Sculpin Beauregard]

28. Yates' open hearing is soon, and I think Comey is having a closed hearing in a couple days.

Oh, and Twitter rumour has it that two grand juries are almost finished convening. From a source in DC who worked in Clinton WH. He's not been wrong yet.

[BiminiTwisted]

27. Got to have the budget buttoned up prior to the indictments.

If the shit hits the fan before then, Trump can hold the government hostage by not signing the bill

[leanforward]

29. Hear, hear

What you infer, I fully agree with. There is a lot hanging out there and we'll need the rest of the spring and the summer to get through the grand juries. The actions taken is deafening by the silence.

We have to get through the next seven months.

I am a loyal citizen/american/patriot in opposition to pRezident dRumpf and any GOP lemming.

Follow the money.

[Mountain Mule]

30. It ain't over until the Fat Lady sings

Keep in mind that this budget is only good until September. I've been thinking of it as a sort of summer vacation myself, but come fall, we'll have to duke this out all over again. So, that's like 5 months? Much can happen between now and then, never mind the 2018 midterms a year from next November. The Repug leadership could have any number of cards up their sleeves.

I also feel that the growing outcry among the American people may be making more moderate Repugs nervous. I know for a fact that Colorado Senator Cory Gardener (R) is nervous about holding onto his seat in the upcoming midterm election as well he should be. Thanks to a changing demographic, Colorado is already changing from purple to true blue and this is happening in other states in the American Southwest, as well - increasingly younger voters; increasingly Latino - not good for the Repugs.

I've been following several other fairly large Internet forums with great interest for several years now. This is only my own personal observation, but I notice some pretty telling changes in attitudes with a definite swing away from the extreme right. For example, folks on one large, previously almost complete Con forum are now being inundated by posts from the center and from the left. We Dems are being described as having the ability to stick together even if we "can't govern" (guess "can't govern" refers to the anarchy of the Obama years - beats me). Heh! Guess they haven't checked out our squabbles re Sanders, etc.

Dumbf's base is feeling pretty betrayed at the moment, and I couldn't be more pleased. But its very early days yet and as we have sadly discovered, the only thing sure about Dumbf is that he'll do even more outrageous things than he has before - a lunatic with a large lunatic fringe of followers. He'll probably drop an atomic bomb on Korea or Honduras tonight. Wouldn't put it past him.

[spanone]

31. K&R...

[watrwefitinfor]

32. Things like this CR rarely (if ever) get passed without deals of some sort.

What did we give up?

Any upcoming economic issues in the senate and house of representatives - especially tax "reform" - bear close watching for any signs of congressional quid pro quo.

For if so, it will be slammed on us early one Monday morning after all the wheeling and dealing has been done in secret.

Wat

[Recursion]

33. But now that earmarks are gone deals like that don't stick

There's no good faith and no leverage anymore

[watrwefitinfor]

34. Recursion, you may be right.

If so, that makes this CR seem earth-shattering, in the wake of all those years of obstruction and edge-of-the-brink budget negotiations.

I still think we should keep our collective eyes open.

Wat

[Volaris]

37. We can wait for the other shoe to drop,

But it may be that the GOP Congressional leadership (especially in the Senate) knows how truly fucked they would be if they let the govt shut down while they run the show. They remember how bad it was when they were in the minority, and there's no way they're going to run that guantlet unNerfed...this shit is 'live steel' for them now, no democratic president to blame, no 'loyal opposition' argument for them to make even in passing.

Besides, the Senate couldn't give a lesser fuck what the House Freedumb caucus wants, and the proof is that McConnell got lifetime health care paid for, for his home-state coal miners.

We wonder how he keeps getting elected; it's little things like this. It may be ideologically hypocritical as all get, and yes he's a snake, but hes a snake who knows where all rabbit holes lead, and he uses that to feed himself appropriately. My bet would be McConnell will be all in on the infrastructure spending bill, so long as the DOT SEC (his WIFE) gets to be in charge of who gets what building contracts, and how the 'bid' money gets transfered to the 'appropriate' accounts.

[octoberlib]

38. I used to think earmarks were bad and was in favor of getting rid of them.

I've changed my tune on that.

[octoberlib]

36. This is my suspicion. Trump's going to get his tax reform in exchange for this bill. Hope I'm wrong.

[octoberlib]

41. Trump was just on Twitter calling for a government shutdown in September.

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[TNLib]

42. the GOP is scared of shutting down the government

They're scared of Trumps low numbers and loosing their seats.

Trump is nothing but a con man anyway trying to make a buck he doesn't care about any of this.

So dems are in a good spot to get things done even though they're in the minority.

Meanwhile the deplorables are howling. I kept asking my husband this question last night. So he went and read the comments on the conservative message boards and told me what they were saying.

Basically they're having a melt down.

[Initech]

43. Republicans only run anymore on the principal that they hate liberals.

And I think this time it's backfiring. Hate can only get them so far.