A tentative agreement has been reached to reopen the government, without funds for a border wall. That’s a clear victory for the good guys.
Trump has been frantic on the Twitter machine, insisting on his wall, and freaking out over Roger Stone’s arrest. His next tweetstorm will be…interesting.
Meanwhile, get those workers paid!
Eh, Repubbles won’t budge on negotiations and it will shut down again in a couple weeks, and they’ll get another chance to reframe it as Dem intransigence.
Nah, all Speaker Pelosi has to do is say “no” again. It’s now clear that holding federal workers hostage for Trump’s fake wall won’t move the Democrats to make a deal.
Let’s hope that the legislature can get something for Trump to sign before Fox/Coulter/Rush change Trump’s mind.
I’m on contract, working for a federal agency that has been shut down. We had a meeting less than an hour ago that discussed, among other things, the fact that we were about to run out of money to pay salaries, and could be terminated should that happen. If I were terminated, I would loose health insurance coverage about 2 weeks before my wife is due to give birth to our second child. I’ll take whatever stop-gap measures I can get, if it means still being able to provide for my family and not have to pay out-of-pocket* for childbirth in an American hospital.
Please do not loose sight of the million+ people that are suffering right now due to this self-inflicted mess.
Yes, I know that COBRA is a thing, but getting so close to having to exercise that option during a time like this has been producing an enormous level of anxiety.
Oh my goodness joeeggen – losing health insurance two weeks before your baby is due is the stuff of absolute nightmares! I really hope this extension until Feb 15 keeps you all covered. Best of luck to your family.
I am eagerly watching http://clerk.house.gov/floorsummary/floor.aspx?day=20190125&today=20190125 for the legislative action of this actually happening. Until Congress passes an appropriations bill and Trump signs it, it isn’t done.
What’s even worse with COBRA is it takes a while to get started, and while you eventually get reimbursed, you have to pay charges before that.
I don’t agree with all of her substantive political positions (things like PAYGO drive me insane), but since she pushed the ACA through, I’ve long argued Pelosi will go down in history as one of, if not the best Speaker in American history.
I just don’t ever remember an instance of someone so thoroughly humiliating their political opponent like this. Not just winning on the shutdown, but making him cancel the SOTY after blustering about it…
I also worry that the younger dems aren’t moving up in leadership positions, but goddamn, she’s good at her job.
@rpjohnston
6 R’s already defected in the Senate. If Trump tries this again, he legitimately will lose support of Congressional Republicans. This would be the first time in…at least since 9/11 (with the exception of Bush’s weird SS privatization attempts) that they fractured. I do think it would happen if he shuts things down again.
I live in a deep red state and Trump seriously lost people with this nonsense.
@joeeggen: I hope the end of the shutdown gives you the reprieve you need, and all the best for the birth of your baby.
I would be very surprised if Trump has the stomach for another shutdown in three week. He stared into the abyss this morning (airports shutting down, and most important–to him–approval ratings plummeting) and blinked. He’s not going to do that again.
If anything, he will invoke his emergency powers to push funding toward the wall, which will trigger a lawsuit from the Democrats and the states, and it will get dragged through the courts over the next few months.
The Dems may offer him a fig leaf in exchange for signing a longer term deal in the meantime, but that’s about it.
I’m just assuming Trump agreed to the temporary end of it so he could give a State of the Union speech. All he really wants out of the presidency is more rallies, isn’t it?
And remember all the hand-wringing from the centrist Democrats over her speakership last month…?
The best thing about it is that she correctly sized up Trump as a bully with a weak hand from the get go. She’s been coolly needling him for weeks about his narcissistic tendencies and for being completely out of touch with the people, and that drip-drip-drip along with keeping the Democrats completely in-line–not one defection–with her no deals with hostage takers stance has left him out of options.
She may not be perfect policywise (though the bills they’ve passed so far have been pretty good) but in a congress where Democratic legislation is unlikely to become law, her skills as a political operative are key.
@Duth Olec
I thought the same. He may also hope he doesn’t look as bad the second time around, but I doubt that’ll work. Then again, never underestimate the power of fear-mongering. If he can sell people on the “invasion”, then maybe. Perhaps he’s hoping the SOTU will do that.
Gotta admit, watching Alex Jones watching Roger Stone give his post-arrest press conference was absolutely hilarious.
Get all the workers paid, even the ones who work for companies with contracts. Cleaners, maintenance people and security guards. They won’t get paid unless there is a separate bill passed and signed.
doubtthat @8
“I also worry that the younger dems aren’t moving up in leadership positions, but goddamn, she’s good at her job.”
As long as the next generation is learning from her, it’s good.
@Tabby Lavalamp
I hope you’re right, but it isn’t just Pelosi. The average age of the Democratic leaders in the House is 72(!!). It’s only 48 for Republicans.
https://www.quorum.us/data-driven-insights/the-115th-congress-is-among-the-oldest-in-history/175/
There is certainly a lot the younger Dems can learn from experienced members, but I do worry that we aren’t preparing the younger generation of political leaders well. You can watch someone make a deal, but it’s an entirely different game leading the negotiations.
I also think the generation gap isn’t great given that there are a lot of really important tech issues (facebook, Amazon monopoly…etc.) that the older folks do not seem capable of handling. There have been some bonkers hearings.
But again, that’s a more general worry. Pelosi is fire.
Duth Olec @11: That was exactly my thought. He cannot stand that Pelosi kept him from giving his speech. I would bet that his speech will be full of blame for the democrats and whiny calls to fund his wall. I hope the dems let some of the freshly elected representatives give the opposition speech.
@17, doubtthat
The Democratic leadership has been using half-hearted support of “social” issues to provide cover for rightward motion on financial and foreign policy issues since around 1990, and they desperately want to ensure that control of the party stays with people who will embrace that tactic. If you don’t support drone bombiing, “kill lists”, tax breaks for corporations, and union-busting trade agreements, you will never pass the test. If your idea of an effective campaign is to energize the base and call the right wing out on their lies, that’s also going to keep you out — the geniuses in charge of the party think that “good strategy” is to try to attract Republican votes by kicking the Democratic base in the teeth to show how very right-wing you are. And since the DLC was kind of obviously a self-indulgent disaster for the party (moved everything rightward which normalized Reagan, Bush, and Gingrich and lost control of Congress in order to replace New Deal supporters with corporate-friendly, war-friendly candidates) there aren’t a lot of younger people who are interested in going that route. The leadership will keep going with the same people until it’s being run by brains in jars, rather than admit that pushing rightward was a mistake which needs to be reversed.
The cynic in me says that this is buying time for the inevitable wave of privatizations, starting with air traffic control. As a “bonus”, this allows airports to be reorganized so even the air traffic control quality is tiered according to how expensive your flight is.
I suspect that the Republican’s next move will be to start a lovely distracting war in South or Central America. Rally ’round the flag!
@Ed Seedhouse:
No, the war in South America is going to be bipartisan. They’re already ramping up the rhetoric for supporting the coup in Venezuela, preparing to get involved militarily (because it has turned out so well everywhere else we’ve done that…) and the Democrats are showing themselves happy to go along with it. The reason presumably rhymes with “boil preserves”.
Apparently, because of this inevitable capitulation, Ann Coulter thinks Shitgibbon’s the biggest Republican wuss to inhabit the WH since GHW Bush. I know it’s too far to say “he must be doing something right if Coulter hates him,” since that’s basic-level human, but it is gratifying to see her upset with her guy, and it’s always nice to see the Alien Queen devour a drone.