The Republican Utopia

Dr. Strangelove said:
We're all slaves to the bottom quartile of America's dumbest people. Musk isn't going to become Speaker, of course, but this is a symptom of a larger problem.

Furthermore, Musk not wanting to pass a budget and then tanking it is really dumb. I find it unfortunate that the biggest hangup seems to be disaster relief, but I say strip it from the bill and let North Carolina pick themselves up by their bootstraps. They voted for idiot leadership, so they deserve idiot leadership. 

Lastly, if we shut down the government, we need to actually shut it all down. No more social security payments, no more Medicare, no more TSA/FAA agents to run the airports. Let the American public see what it's like to not properly fund agencies. 
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The biggest hang up is not disaster relief. Not sure where you get that idea. Every single comment I have read indicates the salary raises, continued funding for Ukraine, and the biolabs/gain of function funding is the hang up. I think a lot of folks wanted a clean, stand alone bill for disaster relief, but Dems refused.

I also don't think that Musk will or should be considered for Speaker. 

 
DevoHusker said:
The biggest hang up is not disaster relief. Not sure where you get that idea. Every single comment I have read indicates the salary raises, continued funding for Ukraine, and the biolabs/gain of function funding is the hang up. I think a lot of folks wanted a clean, stand alone bill for disaster relief, but Dems refused.

I also don't think that Musk will or should be considered for Speaker. 
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I saw Disaster relief cited in the article I read because it's $100 Billion dollars. If Republicans want to actually save money, cut it.

The other items you cited add up to a fraction of that and aren't really worth haggling over. If Republicans are interested in ineffective government and want to haggle over items that cost very little, then I hope they continue to be dysfunctional.

 
I will say today that I have seen several reports, like this one, that indicate the Congressional raises are NOT from $174k to $243k as has been widely bantered around. 

Members of Congress have not had a raise to their $174,000 salaries since 2009, after repeatedly freezing a law implementing automatic cost-of-living increases. The pending CR does not include a COLA freeze, but that would not result in a 40 percent boost in pay — far from it. The maximum potential pay adjustment would be 3.8 percent, an increase of $6,600.


 
DevoHusker said:
I will say today that I have seen several reports, like this one, that indicate the Congressional raises are NOT from $174k to $243k as has been widely bantered around. 

Members of Congress have not had a raise to their $174,000 salaries since 2009, after repeatedly freezing a law implementing automatic cost-of-living increases. The pending CR does not include a COLA freeze, but that would not result in a 40 percent boost in pay — far from it. The maximum potential pay adjustment would be 3.8 percent, an increase of $6,600.
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I don't have a problem with the pay raises if they haven't had one since 2009.  I also believe there should be a provision for COL increases every year.  That would go a long ways to this not being a political hot potato every so often.

 
Dr. Strangelove said:
We're all slaves to the bottom quartile of America's dumbest people. Musk isn't going to become Speaker, of course, but this is a symptom of a larger problem.

Furthermore, Musk not wanting to pass a budget and then tanking it is really dumb. I find it unfortunate that the biggest hangup seems to be disaster relief, but I say strip it from the bill and let North Carolina pick themselves up by their bootstraps. They voted for idiot leadership, so they deserve idiot leadership. 

Lastly, if we shut down the government, we need to actually shut it all down. No more social security payments, no more Medicare, no more TSA/FAA agents to run the airports. Let the American public see what it's like to not properly fund agencies. 
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Disaster relief should be its own stand alone bill.  This would help guard against using it as leverage for other things to spend on 

We always more than properly fund the government.  It’s how you end up almost $40 trillion in debt 

 
BigRedBuster said:
I don't have a problem with the pay raises if they haven't had one since 2009.  I also believe there should be a provision for COL increases every year.  That would go a long ways to this not being a political hot potato every so often.
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I have no problem having their salaries frozen until they can balance a budget.  At that point unfreeze them and give COLA adjustments.   Also don’t mind freezing their wages because they ain’t supposed to be in office for 25,30,40 years.   And I would love to ask those complaining, if life is so rough being in Congress, why would you all run for re-election so many times.   Hint….its because all the goodies they get, and use of campaign funds not for direct campaigning. 
 

And for the Republicans complaining about no COLA adjustment, stop b!^@hing about keeping minimum wage at $7.25 (or whatever it is).   There should be a COLA with minimum wage every year if Congress is gonna help themselves.  

 
Archy1221 said:
I have no problem having their salaries frozen until they can balance a budget.  At that point unfreeze them and give COLA adjustments.   Also don’t mind freezing their wages because they ain’t supposed to be in office for 25,30,40 years.   And I would love to ask those complaining, if life is so rough being in Congress, why would you all run for re-election so many times.   Hint….its because all the goodies they get, and use of campaign funds not for direct campaigning. 
 

And for the Republicans complaining about no COLA adjustment, stop b!^@hing about keeping minimum wage at $7.25 (or whatever it is).   There should be a COLA with minimum wage every year if Congress is gonna help themselves.  
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I have no problem with that either. Especially your last paragraph. 

 
BigRedBuster said:
I don't have a problem with the pay raises if they haven't had one since 2009.  I also believe there should be a provision for COL increases every year.  That would go a long ways to this not being a political hot potato every so often.
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Shouldn’t that exist for minimum wage if it exists for congress?

 
Shut it down. I bet nobody notices. There is emergency funding for 90 days to keep the important stuff going. I love it. Anyone remember these? Me neither. 

U.S. history have included the 21-day shutdown of 1995–1996 during the Bill Clinton administration over opposition to major spending cuts; the 16-day shutdown in 2013 during the Barack Obama administration caused by a dispute over implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act;[15] and the 35-day shutdown of 2018-2019 during the Donald Trump administration, the longest shutdown in US history...

 
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