'Cut the games': Speaker Johnson roasted by hometown paper over his budget antics
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) was put on notice on Sunday by his hometown paper that the editorial board expects him to honor his commitment to return the fractious House to the "serious" business of working for the voters.
According to the editors of The Advocate, it is time for Johnson and House Republican Majority Leader Steve Scalise, also representing Louisiana, to stop larding their budget proposal with far-right "political riders” that will doom the budget as the clock ticks down before the government is thrown into chaos.
"Cut the games. If you promise regular order, let’s see it in action," the editors wrote.
"Johnson was wrong to push an emergency measure that tied aid to our ally Israel to a GOP hobbyhorse, cutting the Internal Revenue Service budget, as some anti-government Republicans want to do," they continued. "That just adds to the deficit, as it lets more high-income tax cheats defeat the system; for most of us, it just means the IRS can’t hire enough people to answer the darn phone."
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As the editorial board reminded the newly elected speaker, his state would be hard hit by a government shutdown.
"Our state is heavily dependent on federal spending in a multitude of ways, more so than many others. That's one reason why Louisiana does not need a new government shutdown," they wrote.
"So are we going to define 'regular order' as throwing all sorts of unattainable sloganeering into budget bills? Even worse, in critical national security decisions?" they cautioned. " We don’t think that’s reasonable, but clearly the clock is ticking and some sort of temporary spending measure must be passed ahead of the Nov. 17 deadline."
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