September 30, October 1

Last day of September. Will we have a government shut down tomorrow? Evidently McCarthy is planning to bring a 45 day short term funding bill to the floor at 11:45 this morning--about 40 minutes from right now. It will need a 2/3 vote to pass. At least it is sunny and moderately warm today. I looked at my gardens noting plantts that need to be taken out. I like to leave the plants in through winter partly to provide ground cover and partly to see if they will survive the cold. I also noted several that need a bit of a haircut. I already got some more of the What-Not room straightened. I placed a Herrschner's order last Sunday or Monday which arrived yesterday. One of the items I ordered was a rack for my Omnigrid rulers. Most of them are already racked. I put the three new projects in the closet for future work. I have other projects but some are from when Mom and I moved in here and merged our stuff. Several of those I also had and I am not yet ready do do another version. Several more my brother gave me after his wife died and I am not enthusiastic about them at the moment.

Well the House of Representatives has passed what has been described as a "clean" 45 day continuing resolution. They did add disaster aid but not continued aid for Ukraine. As soon as the measure passed they adjourned until 10am Monday. Now let's see if the Senate will pass it. And see if the "Keystone Cops" of the legislature can do anything in the next month and a half. It is notable that far more Democrats than Republicans voted for the CR.

Oct. 01****************************************************************

Well, we have a bright sunny morning and the temperature should top out in the mid 80s. And McCarthy showed enough of a spine to, with Democrat help, pass a CR that the Senate could, with qualms, vote for. And then he went into the press conference to take full credit for it and chastise the Democrats for holding up the show. And to condemn the Senate for not passing anything at all ignoring the bipartisan funding bills that body did pass. Now we have 47 more days too see if they can get over themselves and pass a real budget. Part of the next phase should come up next week as Matt Gaetz has promised to put in his motion to "vacate the chair."

Looking at McCarthy trying to navigate the shark tank I wonder if he might remember several old adages. First, as Maya Angelou said, when someone tells you who he is, believe him the first time. The MAGA crowd signaled their disdain repeatedly with their threats and demands. But McCarthy never wavered in his belief that he could "negotiate" with people demanding subservience; remember Gaetz telling McCarthy was "out of compliance" and they were going to bring him to heel? There was no negotiation there. Second, Don't bite the hand that really feeds you and that was not the Gaetz/Green crowd. The ones that delivered for McCarthy's clean CR were the Democrats by better than 2 to 1.

The Financial Times has a good article: Big Government Is Back. How Will We Pay For It?. Actually, I think the answer is clear. We won't. Or at least we won't continue to pay for everything we are paying for now. What isn't clear is what we will continue to pay for and who will get hurt when we stop paying for whatever we won't pay for any more.