The weekend brought no resolution to the fight among House Republicans about whether to once again break budget deals, a fight that could possibly go down to the wire and threaten yet another government shutdown. That's the last thing House Speaker Paul Ryan wants or needs, and it sure wouldn't do much for the Republicans heading into an election. But when have considerations like that ever made any difference to the maniacs running things in that chamber? Meetings late last week failed to provide any resolution.
Many Senate Republicans and many moderate members in the House say they are ready to move forward writing spending bills that include the $30 billion in additional funding for military and domestic programs, which was outlined in the agreement negotiated in the final days of John A. Boehner's speakership. Many conservatives voted against that deal and say they feel no reason to accept it this year as House Republicans draft a fiscal blueprint.
"I think there is a great political answer but we haven't got to that point yet," said Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) of how to get around the impasse.
Mulvaney, a member of the approximately 40-member House Freedom Caucus, said Friday that Republicans have a responsibility to cut spending, even if it means breaking with the Senate and potentially sacrificing hopes for an easy budget season ahead of the election in November.
"There's still the option of doing it in true regular order which is locking the Budget Committee in a room for the weekend and seeing if there's something that both [Virginia conservative] Dave Brat and [Oklahoma moderate] Tom Cole can vote for," Mulvaney said.
Meanwhile, the majority of Republicans believe that they have a budget framework—one that was passed in both the House and Senate—and are getting just a little fed up with the Freedom-y types who keep fucking these things up.
That's not to mention House Democrats, who will oppose any efforts to gut that budget agreement, and the Senate which would never pass it. Once again, it's reality against the Freedom Caucus. But once again, it’s the Republican-controlled House, so reality is losing.
Meanwhile, Ryan is attempting to pretend that this is all normal, and that he isn't falling into the same trap that his predecessor John Boehner did. "I'm not the top-down, cram-it-down-your-throat kind of guy," he says. "Do I believe we should pass the budget, we should have a fully functioning appropriations process? Of course I do. I think that's very important. But this is a decision we'll make jointly, as a House Republican caucus." In other words, I'm powerless to keep these guys in line, so it's going to be business as usual: Chaos.