Just four days out from a government shutdown, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has declared a bipartisan Senate stopgap measure dead on arrival.

Senators, having apparently lost faith in McCarthy’s ability to stave off a shutdown, negotiated a bill late Tuesday night that funds the government until Nov. 17 and includes $12 billion in aid and disaster relief for Ukraine. It’s expected to be voted on by the end of the week before being sent over to the House, and is intended to buy lawmakers more time to hash out a longer-term deal, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said.

But, according to Punchbowl News, McCarthy said in a closed-door meeting on Wednesday morning that he wouldn’t take up a bill that includes Ukraine funding but no border security measures. “I don’t see the support in the House,” he reportedly said.

Aid for Ukraine has been one of several sticking points for ultraconservative hardliners in the House who have repeatedly sabotaged McCarthy’s efforts to get spending bills passed.

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[–] 253 points 2 years ago (5 children)

They aren't "Ultraconservative", they're "Russian Plants in the US Political system"

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  • [–] 207 points 2 years ago* (12 children)

    "Government shutdowns" are, among other things, wage theft from government employees.

    In the Gingrich shutdowns of the 1990s, even active-duty military members' pay was delayed without compensation for up to three weeks. Yes, that's right: the Republicans literally stole paychecks from our soldiers and sailors just to stick it to Bill Clinton. (And maybe to give a little handout to their buddies in the payday loan business.)

    More recent shutdowns have spared active-duty DoD, but still perpetrated wage theft against members of the Coast Guard and other defense-critical services. That was the case in the 2018-2019 shutdown, for example.

    You can't convince me you care about border security if you don't fucking pay the Coast Guard.

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  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago (6 children)

    I'm sorry, but I have zero sympathy for military service members.

    The GOP has repeatedly spat in their face and they continue to vote for them in overwhelming fassion, because "macho" or some bullshit.

    Other federal workers I do feel bad for.

    Fuck the GOP.

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  • [–] 10 points 2 years ago

    The Military doesn't uniformly vote right- it's just the senior/ranking/whiter folks that tend to do that. The noncoms (who tend to be young, brown) tend to vote in line with their civilian cohorts.

    In other words, the military are politically representative of/in line with their civilian peers, politically

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  • [–] 10 points 2 years ago

    I have zero sympathy for military service members

    Who are disproportionately poor and POC (especially women) while also being very young. I don't think you realize how much these people are sociopathically targeted by scumbag military recruiters.

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    [–] 150 points 2 years ago (15 children)

    This stupid fuck. All he has to do is negotiate with the Democrats. His speakership is over regardless. He must know that. The only point in what he's doing now is cruelty. People will starve and he's fine with it. He wants it.

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  • [–] 69 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

    His speakership is over.

    If he allows Democrats to save his ass, Republican voters will despise him, costing him paid gigs as a Republican pundit in their echo chambers where Republican voters go to have their fucked up biases reconfirmed in between My Pillow ads.

    Americans have permitted greed to become the first and only consideration in every facet of American life. That has consequences, well deserved consequences.

    This is what happens when hyper-individualism and greed become core societal values instead of the severe character defects that harm others they actually are. There isn't some magic switch that flips for people when they become politicians that makes them selfless. They take the dog eat dog, capitalist, "I got mine and fuck you," rational self-interest core American values that we fully celebrate and mandate in every other aspect of American life with them, and vote on legislation solely on the basis of what they personally have to further gain. As long as we encourage our people to be selfish as a culture, as we do to the extreme, our leadership will be a reflection of that. So long as a typical American parent is proud of their oil executive child for making lots of money, instead of ashamed at the harm their child's chosen industry does to society, we will have McCarthys in charge.

    No honor among capitalists. Just a race down into oblivion. We chose to keep the delusion of making "fuck you" money alive at the expense of being a society that cares about what happens to each other and future generations. And sadly there's more Americans that somehow still want to stay on that course, as we're all just temporarily embarrassed millionaires who don't want to be hindered by what we still owe to society when it's our turn to punch down.

    "I'm not rich, but someday I will be, and then all the poories better watch their step!"

    -The perfectly healthy American mindset

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  • [–] 20 points 2 years ago* (9 children)

    All he has to do is negotiate with the Democrats.

    He did. The Budget was negotiated with President Biden back in June / July. What's happened is that he can't get the Freedom Caucus to vote for what he negotiated. It's ridiculous.

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  • [–] 20 points 2 years ago (8 children)

    He doesn't need their votes. He needs the Democrats and a handful of Republicans.

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  • [–] 11 points 2 years ago (7 children)

    True, except the Freedom Caucus is threatening to hold a vote to remove him as Speaker if he dares do anything they don't like.

    McCarthy wants to keep his power position (even though, as it's currently set up, he doesn't really have much power) more than he wants to help this country. If helping the country would result in some minor harm to the level of power he has, he'll let America burn.

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    [–] 130 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (11 children)

    I know I'm in the minority in this, but you know the most fucked up thing?

    This impasse won't end because of the pressure of federal workers suffering.

    This impasse will end because our credit rating effects the profitability of our capitalist owners, whose sociopathic greed infecting our society is the reason we have sociopathic politicians like McCarthy in the first place.

    Because here in the US, sociopathy is encouraged, even mandated in business by shareholders, hurt whatever peasants you want if it makes you an extra nickel, just not the owners. That was Bernie Madoff's mistake.

    Edited for spelling

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  • [–] 27 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Never forget that asshole corps like Toyota went back to funding GOP members despite the fact they tried to end our Democracy.

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    [–] 130 points 2 years ago (9 children)

    Remember: him and (especially) the far-right goons want a shutdown. They know Republicans will rightly be blamed in the short-term. But they're willing to accept that, and even worse: they're willing to damage the entire country and weaken our National Security to hurt the economy while Biden is president. That's all this is! Don't let anyone ever forget...

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  • [–] 33 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    The problem isn't forgetting, the problem is making them go against the programming they're being fed by whatever propaganda outlet they choose to consume. Those institutions just launder shit ideas and convince the viewer that they are correct and everyone else is wrong. We'd just be "reminding" them of something that "isn't true."

    I strongly believe our biggest problem in the US is the conflict between the need for a free press and the press abusing the absolute shit out of that, being literal propaganda outlets.

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  • [–] 16 points 2 years ago

    Most Americans think that literally every decision in DC gets filtered through POTUS, because they don't have a viable concept of what the function of government is or even how the government is structured. A shutdown will be seen by the majority of the population as "Biden's doing".

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    [–] 97 points 2 years ago* (2 children)

    I don't see the support in the House.

    Then bring it up for a vote and let it be defeated, you nincompoop.

    This lying wimp knows it would pass, and would rather cost the economy billions than risk looking like he's not a big powerful strong man.

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  • [–] 43 points 2 years ago

    My opinion is that ANY legislation that is passed in one chamber MUST be brought to a vote in the other. No quietly killing bills that clearly already have legs. If you want to squash things originating in your chamber, fine, but not something already in motion.

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  • [–] 61 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    Trump wants a shut down. Trump gets a shut down. Trump wants to blame Biden. I don’t think that’s going to go so well

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    [–] 41 points 2 years ago (5 children)

    I’m gonna go ahead and predict that by this time next week, he’s going to not be Speaker of the House anymore. Also, automatic ejection and disqualification from the speakership in the future should be an automatic mechanism that gets triggered when the house is unwilling to fund the government.

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    [+] 25 points 2 years ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)
  • [–] 21 points 2 years ago

    The Treason Caucus is in complete control of McCarthy

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  • [–] 15 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    There absolutely would be support from Democrats and moderate Republicans. But he refuses to work with Democrats.

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    [–] 13 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

    So I think I must've slept past part of highschool civics class. Why does the Speaker of the House get to unilaterally decide what bills the House will vote on? If this bill was unanimously supported by Democrats and a few Republicans, it would pass. So how does one man just decide not to vote on it and shut down the government?

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  • [–] 23 points 2 years ago

    It's not totally unilateral. If a majority of members sign onto what's called a discharge petition, legislation can advance without the speaker's approval. The issue is:

    1. There's a process and it takes about 30 days to do that.

    2. Republicans typically refuse to sign onto these when in the majority, even the moderates.

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    [–] 11 points 2 years ago

    Stupid is what stupid does

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  • [–] 10 points 2 years ago

    Can we get a class action lawsuit together?

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  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago

    Moderate reps have made a couple of grumbling noises suggesting they might attempt to bypass him with the Dems on this but supposedly the specific process in question is VERY rarely invoked.

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