They're in their own little world over in the House Freedom Caucus. They've pretty effectively killed any actual budget coming out of the Congress this year, and now are arguing to kill the lame duck session, even though they haven't worked out all the details of how. If they put their plan into effect, they might just get their government shutdown fight. Before the election.
When the House returns from a two-week recess on April 12, a small group of members are gearing up to stop GOP leadership in both chambers, if they have their way, from holding a legislative session after the November election.
It's not that the members are lazy, though doing away with the postelection session would mean the House would be in session just 17 days for the rest of the year after July 15—and zero past Sept. 30. […]
"If you look at these lame ducks, you know, the American public gets screwed," Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), the Freedom Caucus member leading the charge against the postelection session, told The Huffington Post last week. "Increased spending, all these favors that we got to do for people — it's got to stop."
Gosar said he's pitched the idea to the House Freedom Caucus of trying to find a way to kill the the lame-duck session, "and everybody agrees."
While they don't seem to have a clear plan yet on how exactly they would prevent GOP leadership—particularly in the Senate — from not holding a lame-duck session, the Freedom Caucus and its nearly 40 members have the power to block procedural votes. And Gosar told HuffPost that he's already spoken to a number of outside conservative groups who have told him, "Count us in."
Here's the deal: They are refusing to agree to spending levels that have already been voted into law and that the Senate—not to mention a majority of the House—refuses to budge from. They've effectively killed this year's budget, and are content that they've killed the appropriations process. That means that for government to keep running after September 30, there will have to be a continuing resolution that passes by that date—at spending levels agreed to last year, the spending levels the Freedom-y gang refuses to consider. And they have to figure it out in the very few days that they're actually in Washington working during the remainder of the year.
How will that work? They haven't gotten to that part yet. Just like how they haven't yet figured out how to bend the Senate to their will. But whatever they decide, they'll probably get House Speaker Paul Ryan to go along with it. They seem to really have his number.