There’s threat of another government shutdown coming on Saturday, November 18th. Congress, specifically the House of Representatives, have been using their spending limit farce law as a way to renegotiate the budget. If you remember the budget is submitted and hacked and rehacked and then voted on at the beginning of each fiscal year.

This incredible waste of time, complete with embarrassing political posturing, to re-do Congressional work has hampered our nation before. Our country needs continuity of governance. Employees need to get paid, government services need to continue.

What has the House been up to over the past few weeks since Matt Gaetz (R, S, ?) was able to oust former speaker McCarthy? They voted against expulsion for criminal Representative George Santos (efe.com). They voted to pause an effort to impeach Homeland Security director Alejandro Mayorkas (The Guardian). They also spent a lot of time figuring out who was going to be the next speaker. Notice how much other stuff they did while the government shutdown looms. It’s a goat rodeo.

Speaker Mike Johnson has announced a plan to keep the government open without providing aid to Ukraine or Israel. His proposal would tie aid to Ukraine with financing for the Border Patrol and separate it from a vote on aid to Israel (Reuters). The President’s proposal ties all three budget items together in one bill. We will see if this goes anywhere.

It’s amazing that a small number of malcontents in the populist chamber of Congress could create such a mess. It’s time to get rid of this silly spending limit law. It is always overridden and only provides opportunists in Congress a chance to hold the country hostage while they attempt to promote minority and radical agendas.

Ismael Haniyeh of Hamas provided an excellent diversion from Matt Gaetz‘s attempt to sabotage aid to Ukraine for the benefit of Vladimir Putin and their gods.