Posted on 05/07/2024 3:38:35 AM PDT by RandFan
Spokespeople for the two lawmakers declined to comment on their discussions, but we hear Greene and allied Rep. THOMAS MASSIE (R-Ky.) showed up to the meeting with a list of potential demands. Per folks we spoke to last night, they include the following:
-No further aid for Ukraine;
-A return to the “Hastert Rule,” meaning no legislation is brought to a vote without support from a majority of the House majority;
-Defunding the special counsel probes into DONALD TRUMP in upcoming appropriations; and
-Enforcement of the “Massie Rule,” whereby government funding is automatically cut across the board if no superseding agreement is reached before a set deadline.
Some of these would be easier for Johnson to agree to than others. Since this Congress has effectively cleared the barn, as they say, of controversial, must-do items such as funding the government, raising the debt ceiling and extending surveillance authorities, Johnson can probably stick to the Hastert Rule.
And Democrats agreed to a version of the Massie Rule during last year’s spending talks with KEVIN McCARTHY — so Johnson could probably go there as well. And on Ukraine, Congress just sent Kyiv $60 billion in aid — enough to last through the year by most estimates, though Greene might also want to strike an expected nine-figure aid authorization in the annual Pentagon policy bill that’s expected to move later this year.
>> Johnson has given up on that rule a few times.
That’s the real problem, right there.
Johnson has established a track record as a liar, a betrayer, a faithless promise-breaker.
He cannot be trusted.
Therefore the terms he agrees to in negotiations are meaningless.
One more: Every bill authorizing any expenditure shall also contain a cuts in expenditures from elsewhere in the budget.
Let’s start whittling this obscenely huge government down, if only with small bites.
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