Freedom Caucus nixes Paul Ryan's budget attempts

Rss@dailykos.com (joan Mccarter) · Tuesday, March 15, 2016, 12:08 pm

So much for Paul Ryan's "regular order" and promise to prove that a Republican other than John Boehner could govern. He vastly underestimated both his abilities, and his opponents.

From the basement of a Capitol Hill restaurant, Tortilla Coast, Freedom Caucus members took an official position against the $1.07 trillion budget that's scheduled for a committee vote on Wednesday. The conservatives took issue with the top-line spending number, arguing that Republicans should go back to the $1.04 trillion level under automatic spending cuts known as sequestration that were set in 2011.

At least 30 members of the roughly 40-member Freedom Caucus voted to formally oppose the budget. Those 30-some members are vital for the Republican budget. Without their support, the document would lack a majority of House votes, since the spending blueprint typically gets no Democratic backers. […]

If there is no budget, Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has intimated there won't be appropriations bills. A return to the regular legislative process for appropriations was a key tenet of Ryan's pitch for the speakership. Republicans overwhelmingly support the process of individual spending bills so that they could add policy riders to legislation.

Yes, the maniacs are still anti-legislating from the basement of Tortilla Coast, Rump House Speaker Ted Cruz's unofficial offices, where they all gather to plot government shutdowns and world takeover. No matter what happens to Cruz's presidential ambitions, he'll always have a home with the maniacs.

Meanwhile, the Senate won't bother with budgeting if the House can't do it, and the House can't do it unless Ryan works with Democrats and passes spending bills with their help. Which he won't do because he's A) not a responsible congressional leader, and B) would be ousted for being a Democrat-loving traitor just like Boehner was.

What this very likely means is that on top of the Donald Trump meltdown the party is experiencing, along with the Supreme Court blockade Mitch McConnell is embroiling the Senate in, congressional Republicans are going to have to have a pre-election internal war over keeping the government open. That's exactly what John Boehner was trying to avoid when he fell on his sword last fall and negotiated a budget bill. So much for that sacrifice.

What a way to go into an election!

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