Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich knows a thing or two about brushes with government shutdowns and as a result of that experience is giving some much needed friendly advice to current Republican Party Speaker Mike Johnson that might end up saving his butt and allowing him to stay in the position while also appeasing conservatives. Listen up, Mikey, I think you ought to hear the man out.
Gingrich, on a recent appearance on Fox News host Jesse Watters’ program, said that Johnson doesn’t really have a good reason for trying to jam through the resolution that would fund the government up through March. Instead, he advised Johnson to change up his strategy and come up with a “short term resolution” that lasts just long enough until President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated and the rest of the new Congress takes office.
At that point in time, he said, a balanced budget can be pursued. Gingrich then gave praise to Elon Musk, billionaire owner of SpaceX and co-head of the soon-to-be Department of Government Efficiency, along with Vivek Ramaswamy for doing their part to draw attention to the bloated spending of the federal government.
“Well, I think, first of all, the whole idea of the DOGE Committee has already paid for itself by having Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy begin to point out all the dumb things in this bill,” Gingrich went on to say during the program, according to the Daily Caller. “The obvious answer is, kill this bill, pass a very short continuing resolution to get the new Republican Senate installed, and negotiate a new bill before January 20 that covers the rest of the year and gets the job done.”
Johnson’s first mistake was assuming he could work fairly with Democrats to fund the government, Gingrich said on “Jesse Watters Tonight.” He intimated that shutting down the government may be necessary if liberal lawmakers insist on adding “dumb things” like Covid-era spending to legislation that shouldn’t do more than simply keep the lights on. “But it also, I would just say two things will be sort of, I think, radical for Washington. One, when you negotiate with Democrats, they’re going to put stupid things in the bill. So there’s a big disadvantage every time you let them help write the bill, because everybody on your side is going to think the bill is stupid,” Gingrich said.
“Second, we closed the government several times while I was Speaker. We would not have gotten to a balanced budget if we had not had the guts to go to the mat and say, ‘No, we’re not going to do dumb things,’ which was a great shock to Bill Clinton and a great shock to the Democrats. But the country thought, you know, it’s good not to do dumb things,” Gingrich later told Watters. “So I would hope that Republicans in the House and Senate will take seriously the warnings of President Trump and of Vivek Ramaswamy and of Elon Musk.”
President-elect Trump voiced his concerns about Johnson’s bill on Wednesday, writing on Truth Social urging the House speaker to pursue a hike in the debt ceiling before the end of President Joe Biden’s term. “If Republicans try to pass a clean Continuing Resolution without all of the Democrat “bells and whistles” that will be so destructive to our Country, all it will do, after January 20th, is bring the mess of the Debt Limit into the Trump Administration, rather than allowing it to take place in the Biden Administration,” said Trump, warning Republicans of repercussions if they failed to act. “Any Republican that would be so stupid as to do this should, and will, be Primaried. Everything should be done, and fully negotiated, prior to my taking Office on January 20th, 2025.”
We don’t need more compromise. I’m not sure why Johnson is so terrified of a government shutdown that he would sell-out his own principles. It’s kind of shady to be perfectly honest. Do Democrats have something on the guy? Pictures of him cheating on his wife or something? What’s the deal? He doesn’t appear to be that kind of guy, so I’m stumped as to why he would compromise on this spending bill.
Hopefully, he’ll actually listen to Gingrich and take the right steps to end this mess.
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