How to Know if Your Republican Congressman is Just Saying What You Want to Hear.
UPDATE - Newt Gingrich agrees.
Republicans talk about this all the time on TV and at meetings back home; government is too big, spending is way out of control (especially after COVID), we need to defund certain agencies that are abusive and out of control such as the ATF, FBI, CDC and the FDA, we need to defund these illegal special prosecutors.
If your member of Congress or Republican Senator supports/votes for what is called a “Continuing Resolution" (CR) he is just saying what you want to hear.
What is a CR? In a single up or down vote in funds the entire government at the previous year’s levels adjusted for inflation and cost of living for a year. It is just the expansion of government spending another 4-10% with no accountability.
Continuing Resolutions are supposed to be used for short term funding of the government while budget negotiations carry on when the previous year’s appropriations expire. For years CR’s have been abused to fund the entire government in a single up or down vote for an entire year.
When you see a Senate or House hearing where the FBI or some other agency simply refuses to answer questions, lies to Congress, and/or illegally resists constitutionally mandated oversight by Congress, you will often see the committee members threaten to cut their funding. Continuing Resolutions have been going on for so long that the threat of cutting funding is an empty one and everyone knows it. The yelling and threats of accountability are largely a show for your benefit.
The government is supposed to be funded by a process called “Regular Order.”
Regular Order means that the funding for the government is divided into 12 or 13 different appropriation bills covered by the jurisdiction of certain committees. The job of these committees is to go over the budgets of the various agencies line by line and take testimony from the public and interested parties. But doing their jobs is hard and cuts into their fund-raising time so members don’t want to do it.
When you hear about government funding idiotic projects like the study of LGBT nightclubs in Bangladesh; Congress has no ability to cut funding for this garbage because the government was funded using a Continuing Resolution.
Matt Gaetz, members of the Freedom Caucus and some other House Members are holding Speaker McCarthy accountable for his promise to return the House to Regular order.
The House had almost a year to get ready to pass real appropriation bills, have hearings, adjust budgets where needed, stop overlap, etc., but Speaker McCarthy recently said that there wasn’t time for that and wanted to pass another CR. This is the same Speaker McCarthy who has been talking about defunding abusive agencies and rolling back spending to pre COVID levels. McCarthy’s actions have proved that this was all talk. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell is no better.
This is why some in the House are putting their foot down. The corporate press is trashing Congressman who are holding the line, calling them far-right etc. There is nothing far right about doing their job and using Regular Order.
Matt Gaetz is 100% correct in what he says below. Every Member of Congress knows it, as well as anyone with at least a minor in political science.
The power of Congress comes from the Power of the Purse (power to control who gets what money and how much). Without Regular Order in the budget process almost nothing can get fixed, and your Member of Congress or Senator has next to no ability to actually keep promises. Here is Matt Gaetz on Tim Pool with even more detail:
UPDATE - Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich appears on Maria Bartiromo and agrees with our take:
UPDATE II - Matt Gaetz and the Freedom caucus are winning in the House. McCarthy and the House have passed several more proper appropriation bills and 72% of the budget has been passed, albeit hurried and sloppy. But the Senate has taken up none of these bills at the time of this update.