House Freedom Caucus maniacs calling the shots on government shutdown, with assist from Trump

By Joan McCarter 
Wednesday Dec 06, 2017 · 1:05 PM EST

House Speaker Paul Ryan is groveling before the House Freedom Caucus maniacs, trying to get them on board with not shutting the government down this Friday at midnight, when funding runs out. He's doing this because he does not want the Democrats to have any part in governing. So the nihilists are acting as his puppeteer, and what they say goes. What they're saying now is that keeping government running after this weekend is just a "distraction" to the tax bill, and that's led them to some seemingly irrational demands for Ryan to cater to, like having the bill they're voting on this week to avert the Friday deadline last until Dec. 30 or 31 instead of Dec. 22. Because reasons.

House Freedom Caucus leaders, who have so far refused to back a two-week funding bill, emerged from a closed-door meeting Wednesday morning sounding open to the idea.
"I think the real focus for all of us is tax reform and getting tax reform done," Freedom Caucus chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) said exiting the meeting. "That was the crux of the conversation we had today: that we gotta get across the finish line on tax reform. Any distraction from that is a problem."

While many conservatives still detest the idea of a Christmastime fiscal cliff, they may agree to back the bill to remove Democrats' leverage in the talks and avoid stalling the GOP's tax bill because of a spending meltdown.

Just let that sink in for a bit: a functioning government, paying all of its bills and keeping the country running, is a distraction from handing all of the country's assets over to the Kochs and friends. And these people are in control of the House of Representatives. Here's the deal Ryan is offering them—if they agree to a two-week bill, extending to Dec. 22, then that second short-term funding bill will contain "a full year of spending for the Pentagon—but only for the Pentagon." That leaves everything else in limbo until they come back in January to continue work.

Meanwhile, Trump is in the background, threatening a government shutdown of his own. So while all this is going on in the House (forgetting that whatever happens there has to get Democratic votes in the Senate, because there it's subject to a 60-vote hurdle) Trump is out there implicitly dangling a veto threat.

Source
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/12/6/1721741/-House-Freedom-Caucus-maniacs-calling-the-shots-on-government-shutdown-with-assist-from-Trump