DAVID MARCUS: De facto President Trump's handling of shutdown threat was a masterclass

[Nithavela]

There's a reason Trump/Musk talking points are focussed on the number of pages reduced....bragging about axing $190 Million dollars for treating children with cancer may not play so well.

"The initial compromise bill included language to ensure that providers of internet service to rural areas weren’t ripping off customers, to protect consumers from hidden hotel fees, to secure semiconductor supply chains, to restrict U.S. outbound investment in China, even to prohibit deepfake pornography. All those were all gone in the successor bill.

But some of the hardest cuts to swallow involved medical research. In particular, advocates say, the revised funding bill delivered a devastating blow to the fight against pediatric cancer.

The slimmed-down version was stripped of language that would have allowed children with relapsed cancer to undergo treatments with a combination of cancer drugs and therapies. (Currently the Food and Drug Administration is only authorized to direct pediatric cancer trials of single drugs.) The bill also didn’t include an extension of a program that gave financial lifelines, in the form of vouchers, to small pharmaceutical companies working on rare pediatric diseases. It was also missing earlier provisions that would have allowed for kids on Medicaid or CHIP—that is, poor children—to access medically complex care across state lines."

Elon Killed the Budget Deal. Cancer Research for Kids Was Collateral Damage.

Advocates were celebrating the inclusion of money and provisions to help fund pediatric research. And then the tweets started.

open.substack.com

Thank you for protecting deepfake pornography, President Musk! Finally some policy I can get behind.

 

[Always in His Presence]

Again - in the media's now eight year rush to make the President look as bad as possible - this is a STOP gap - not the full budget. Look at the dates the funds expire - 10 months from now - Yes, congress can move on each of them.

Good grief - if the man came out tomorrow with a cure for cancer the headlines would read "Trump puts thousands of doctors out of work"

The President elect or the Congress, whose job it is to pass these bills?

As fyi, the last Congress to pass an annual budget bill on time - occurred in 1996.

SMH

 

[essentialsaltes]

This doesn't affect this coming year, but Republican decisiveness may save taxpayers some money down the line.

9/11 World Trade Center Health Program funding suffers setback. Fire unions sound off on Congress' failure to act.​

More pork eliminated by the short-term budget deal: additional funding for rural schools.

U.S. House fails to reauthorize 20-year-old bipartisan bill to fund rural schools, communities​

The bipartisan Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act — first passed in 2000 — was reauthorized by the Senate in November. But by December 20, in the run-up to passage of a stop-gap spending bill to keep the government open until March, House Republicans could not reach agreement about how the rural schools bill should be funded and so it died without a vote

 

[Pommer]

More pork eliminated by the short-term budget deal: additional funding for rural schools.

U.S. House fails to reauthorize 20-year-old bipartisan bill to fund rural schools, communities​

The bipartisan Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act — first passed in 2000 — was reauthorized by the Senate in November. But by December 20, in the run-up to passage of a stop-gap spending bill to keep the government open until March, House Republicans could not reach agreement about how the rural schools bill should be funded and so it died without a vote

This will save a bunch, sorry kids.

 

[Aryeh Jay]

This will save a bunch, sorry kids.

Perhaps hunger will motivate them to do good in school and get better paying jobs.

 

[Pommer]

Perhaps hunger will motivate them to do good in school and get better paying jobs.

If we did more coal mining the kids would be able to work in the mines, like in the old days!

 

[Aryeh Jay]

If we did more coal mining the kids would be able to work in the mines, like in the old days!

Fun fact, in Alabama when I was in elementary school, the school shut down for two weeks and we picked crops, cotton or sweet potato. Good time.

 

[essentialsaltes]

There is no 'it' yet on the table.

There is still no budget on the table. Time for another 'master class' before March 14th.

Of course, at the moment it looks like Trump will just violate the Impoundment Control Act and just spend things he wants to spend them on, and not spend them on things he doesn't. Republican Congresscritters can just go home and enjoy all the winning.

 

[essentialsaltes]

There is still no budget on the table. Time for another 'master class' before March 14th.

Inside the House GOP clash over tax cuts​

Prominent House Republicans are privately warring over how to advance tax cuts that are expiring and President Donald Trump’s long list of other tax demands — with Budget Chair Jodey Arrington and deficit hard-liner Rep. Chip Roy locked in a struggle against Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith and other senior Republicans.

The dispute is hindering Speaker Mike Johnson ’s plan to advance a budget blueprint this week, as different GOP factions continue to squabble over the costs of the tax plan, how to offset them to reduce their deficit impact and possible cost-saving changes to programs including Medicare and assistance for low-income Americans.

They are also pushing for changes to a critical piece of the complex process: the so-called “budget reconciliation instruction” [which] dictates the maximum amount by which the committee can increase the deficit

[Increase the defecit? I thought the fiscally responsible Republicans were going to reduce the deficit? Well, maybe if it's just a teeny-tiny amount, and it'll decrease at least as a percentage of GDP.]

Smith (R-Mo.) presented a number at the GOP’s retreat in Doral, Florida last month — around $5.5 trillion — that reflected his committee’s understanding of how much it would cost to implement Trump’s priorities [well, so much for that]

The number that lawmakers had tentatively settled on last Thursday — around $4.7 trillion — would make it virtually impossible to implement anything above an extension of the expiring tax cuts [which cost $4.6 trillion]

[Arrington and Roy seem dead-set on being flies in the ointment, and... well, tune in next time, so see what happens.]