What he really means is “Talented Americans cost too much”.

I once had a boss tell me to my face that I had to work three times as hard as the team members in Eastern Europe, because they were paid three times less than I was. Yeah, I didn’t stay long after that.

The fact of the matter is that most Republicans don’t care.

The wealthy don’t need insurance, they can buy it if it makes sense but they can just rebuild out of pocket (and likely take a tax advantage for doing so). So all the rising rates do is chase people out who had lived there for decades, which makes it easier for the wealthy to build exclusive communities. Big win for them! Yeah the planet may be going to hell, but they’ll be dead before it gets brutal (or so they think).

Now, most people voting for Republicans aren’t wealthy, but for some reason they like voting against their own interests to prop up the wealthy. Maybe they do consider themselves to be temporarily embarrassed millionaires after all.

He thinks “pleading the fifth” means taking the whole bottle of Vodka

It’s OK if you’re a Republican …

She said Giuliani claimed to have “immunity” and told “her that he was selling pardons for $2 million, which he and President Trump would split.” The lawsuit did not suggest any pardons were sold.

I see, 50 for him and 50 for the big guy…

He had been in a bad car accident recently, that probably explains the brace.

He was the NYC Mayor in the late 90’s, and when the Sep 11 attacks happened. Later, he ran for President, and talked so much about the attacks that people started referring to him as “Gi911ani”.

Of course, even back then, he was extremely good friends with Donald Trump…

we’ve done that before

That watchdog will just get an Official Referral to Kristi Noem, she knows what to do with dogs that won’t cooperate

Oh no, this smackdown may drive him to drink.

(Although to be honest, he will be drinking regardless…)

BOO-URNS

… And they named an airport after him!

I think AOC will make a perfect Presidential candidate, in 2040 or 2048 after a few terms in the Senate. She will still be “young” by Presidential standards. Maybe by then many of the misogynists will have died off.

Don’t get me wrong: she would make an extremely good candidate in 2028 too. But I don’t think she has a chance of winning in the current climate. Too many people won’t vote for a woman right now, but are self-aware enough to know they can’t admit it anymore, so will come up with bullshit reasons why they can’t do it.

If she is on my ballot she is getting my vote, full stop. But I want to keep her for NY for a while longer.

There may be a way to make lemonade out of these lemons. While there are 3 appropriations bills bundled into this package, most of the rest of the appropriations would be on a continuing resolution until the end of the year, which isn’t really a very long time. So, absent some sort of breakthrough with the House, we will be in this same position in January.

If Republicans renege on the December vote, then Democrats can go back to them and say “No, we mean it this time, put back the ACA subsidies or we dont agree to kick the can further. We trusted you once and you lied.”

Meanwhile, in this bill there are explicit guarantees for SNAP funding and protections for federal workers during the shutdown. Yes, those things were already law, but it reinforces things if Trump signs a bill in November and then ignores it in January. Those are the things that made this shutdown especially painful, and the current bill’s passage will limit the pain Trump can inflict.

Basically, I don’t buy into the narrative that Democrats got nothing in exchange. It seems like they got a lot of incremental things, that will help give them leverage when Republicans decide to screw them. In the meantime, Federal workers get back pay to prepare for the next one.

You can’t, at least not yet. They are all either not on the ballot in the midterms (because their term is longer), or have already announced retirement. They are betting on all this blowing over before they have to ask for votes again.

Plot twist: Rudy declines the pardon, because when his lawyer advises he can’t take the fifth anymore, Rudy thinks he’ll have to quit vodka.

It’s even dumber, because it’s not about the budget, it’s about the allocation of funds to certain departments and the authorization to spend that money, which comes after the budget. Some other countries separate budgets and appropriations like this, but those other countries put in those safeguards you mention, because they want government agencies to function even if the politicians are having a snit.

In the US, thanks to “small-government” Republicans, we make it extremely difficult to spend any money without explicit authorization. And since we also have no concept of a no-confidence vote, politicians can basically hold government funding hostage if they want. The politicians that are doing this right now know they won’t have to face another election until next November at the earliest. (Senators serve six year terms, and it’s telling that all of the Democrats who voted for cloture on this bill are either retiring or not up for election next year…)

Well, they tried to, but he won, and now they are all going to cozy up to him as long as he keeps winning

The DNC backstabs those folks if they run for President, but would have no problem backing a certain victory for a Senate seat.

Yeah yeah, I know. Trading their votes for the promise of a vote in the future is kinda dumb. But then, there is this nugget buried here:

There is also a negotiation to reinstate all of the federal workers Trump laid off during the shutdown, the report adds.

That might just be worth it, because it would be Congress passing something that puts direct constraints on what the President can do, and daring him to veto it.

Edited to add: don’t sleep on the 3 spending bills that are being negotiated too. This effort looks like a continuing resolution that extends most agencies through the end of the year, but those 3 bills constitute full appropriations for agriculture, military construction and legislative agencies. And it looks like Democrats may have won back some funding for programs that the House budget gutted. This is all from the NYT, if I happen to find a non-paywall link I’ll add it

What do you mean? Making a backroom deal to get the Next One Up across the finish line is exactly how they operate