Congress

The Freedom Caucus Lines Up for a Government Shutdown

The House Freedom Caucus and its 42 members are lining up against any funding bill that includes funding for Planned Parenthood.

via RollCall

“Given the appalling revelations surrounding Planned Parenthood, we cannot in good moral conscience vote to send taxpayer money to this organization while still fulfilling our duty to represent our constituents. We must therefore oppose any spending measure that contains funding for Planned Parenthood.”

Given that the president will not sign a bill that defunds Planned Parenthood, and given that such a bill probably wouldn't survive a Democratic filibuster in the Senate, this means the Freedom Caucus has effectively lined up in favor of a government shutdown.

House Republicans have barely even begun their investigation of Planned Parenthood, much less completed it, but it's not as if that matters. House Republicans have completed several investigations of Benghazi and yet we're still talking about that.

The Freedom Caucus, which includes members such as Louie Gohmert and Grand Inquisitor Trey Gowdy himself, isn't going to be swayed by any investigation or so-called "facts."

Speaker of the House John Boehner will require Democratic support to pass a temporary government funding bill before the end of the month.

I was just reminded that John Boehner actually believed he could complete the entire appropriations process this year. That is hilarious. House Republicans failed to pass several of their own bills and now they will struggle to pass a bill that will temporarily fund the government.