The Absurd GOP

[Thumpalumpacus]

To wit:

Congressional leaders have reached an agreement on a framework to avert a shutdown and keep the federal government funded until the end of the fiscal year.

The agreement sets topline spending levels at $886 billion for defense spending for the current fiscal year and roughly $773 billion for non-defense spending. The defense figure reflects the deal reached last year by president Joe Biden and former Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Appropriators will still have to finalize the text of the deal and Congress will need to pass the bills before the first government funding deadline on Jan. 19. The agreement is likely to enrage far-right House conservatives who insisted on deep spending cuts and border restrictions as a price for their vote on a spending bill.

Indeed, Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, a member of the far-right Freedom Caucus, criticized the agreement as "terrible" and added that it "gives away the leverage accomplished in the (already not great) caps deal. We'll wait to see if we get meaningful policy riders... but 1) the NDAA was not a good preview, & 2) as usual, we keep spending more money we don't have."

Opposition from far-right Republicans means the legislation will likely need to pass with significant support from Democrats in the Republican-controlled House.[...]

https://www.npr.org/2024/01/07/122337823...l-shutdown

[The Grand Nudger]

There's the rub. Being racist or defending racism, whether knee jerk or out of a genuine conviction, costs Johnson nothing. The only thing that could cost Johnson his government job is..you know...governing.

What I mean by the traditional gop is what the reich wingers now call "the establishment". The guys who had to cover their bigotry up with the fig leaves of baby kissing and folksy stories. The guys who are announcing they will no longer seek reelection or have already been primaried by loons. The attempted coup ultimately failed in the us as a whole, but it has definitely succeeded within the ranks of right wing us politics. Honestly, I think this was always going to happen, I'm just glad I don't sound like a loon anymore when I talk about it.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Imagine being offered $18 million… to feed kids… and saying no…..

Gov. Jim Pillen’s administration has decided that Nebraska won’t be participating in a new national child nutrition program that could have delivered an estimated $18 million in grocery-buying benefits next summer to kids and their families.

The decision comes despite a monthslong effort by food banks and other advocates to persuade the governor to opt into the Summer EBT program.

https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2023/12/20/...n-program/

Follow up on this:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced Wednesday that nearly 21 million children will receive expanded grocery benefits this summer across all but 15 states.

[...]

Fifteen states did not opt into the program, with many Republican state officials saying that their state did not need the funds or that they did not have the capabilities to run this program.

Those states include Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Vermont and Wyoming. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds ® suggested that the state did not need the program, pointing to high rates of childhood obesity as a reason why they should not expand grocery benefits for children.

“Federal COVID-era cash benefit programs are not sustainable and don’t provide long-term solutions for the issues impacting children and families. An EBT card does nothing to promote nutrition at a time when childhood obesity has become an epidemic,” Reynolds said in a statement.

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch...-children/

[Fireball]

Imagine being offered $18 million… to feed kids… and saying no…..

Follow up on this:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced Wednesday that nearly 21 million children will receive expanded grocery benefits this summer across all but 15 states.

[...]

Fifteen states did not opt into the program, with many Republican state officials saying that their state did not need the funds or that they did not have the capabilities to run this program.

Those states include Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Vermont and Wyoming. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds ® suggested that the state did not need the program, pointing to high rates of childhood obesity as a reason why they should not expand grocery benefits for children.

“Federal COVID-era cash benefit programs are not sustainable and don’t provide long-term solutions for the issues impacting children and families. An EBT card does nothing to promote nutrition at a time when childhood obesity has become an epidemic,” Reynolds said in a statement.

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch...-children/

These stooges don't realize that the obesity is linked to poor food choices related to poverty. SMH

[The Grand Nudger]

Fucking brilliant. Say that the welfare funds ought to go to your processor buddies rather than hungry kids, and then say that because the kids are now fat on your griftpals food...then this is now why those same kids in deeply at risk states don't need more of their food. You can't argue with that. I mean..literally.

[Silver]

Lauren Bitchbert got her husband arrested when it should have been her.

[arewethereyet]

I love this so much!

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/...53a8d&ei=7

The chairman of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus unloaded on Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) in an interview.

Rep. Bob Good (R-VA) called out the Georgia Republican as a "fraud" and "useful idiot," saying she lacked support and trust among her fellow lawmakers, in an interview with the outlet Halal Flow.

...
"Marjorie Taylor Greene has demonstrated that she'll say anything to smear or attack or lie about those to whom she has a personal vendetta or a grievance against," Good said. "Marjorie Taylor Greene showed herself to be the fraud that she is when she unconditionally supported the former speaker [Kevin McCarthy] a year ago, and then, of course, she got lots of blowback against her because she had positioned herself as a brand of, somehow, anti-establishment and a change agent in Washington, and then she unconditionally supported the former speaker that was obviously very unpopular with her base. She then smeared and lied against those of us who were fighting to prevent the former speaker from getting elected back in January."

[Fireball]

All those pots and kettles. Think maybe we could take a cue from Uncle Remus and throw them a Tar-Baby?

[arewethereyet]

All those pots and kettles. Think maybe we could take a cue from Uncle Remus and throw them a Tar-Baby?

Let them eat their own.

It's so much better that way.

We get to watch the GOP implode.

[Thumpalumpacus]

All those pots and kettles. Think maybe we could take a cue from Uncle Remus and throw them a Tar-Baby?

Let them eat their own.

It's so much better that way.

We get to watch the GOP implode.

It's like watching thieves squabble over the loot.