I just watched a clip of House Speaker Mike Johnson reading a partial list of the Senate Democrats’ hostage demands. These are the things they claim to want before allowing non-essential government workers to return to their jobs, if they still have them. You vhill give us what we vhant or else!
Johnson’s says that’s not happening, and it’s easy to see why. It’s nonsense garbage which has nothing to do with the so-called stand in defense of “health care.” I’m not convinced they are after any of this stuff. It all reminds me of the scene in Die Hard where Hans gives the FBI his ‘demands.’
- Hans: The following people are to be released from their captors: In Northern Ireland, the seven members of the New Provo Front. In Canada, the five imprisoned leaders of Liberte de Quebec. In Sri Lanka, the nine members of the Asian Dawn movement…
- John McClane: [listening on the radio] What the fuck?
- Karl: [mouthing silently] Asian Dawn?
- Hans: [covers the radio] I read about them in Time magazine.
Yesterday, on the Substack, I pondered whether this was all just a coy way of trying to defund immigration enforcement operations. Close the government, halt the checks, and watch as ICE and other officers go on couch patrol until the money starts flowing again. It’s obviously more complicated than that, but it ain’t about health care.
Shuttering the government has a markedly larger impact on government health care programs than the things they claim to be after.
And while I’m sure Dems want all the defunded stuff back (there’s no such thing as too much spending), listen to this partial list of demands from Dems before they’ll sign on to a CR that will no longer be clean.
Last night on Granite State Live, I mused that there might be a line item somewhere for transgender clog dancing in Lichtenstein. Burkina Faso? Something like that. DOGE unearthed a lot of crap that tapped a similar vein. Many hundreds of millions (billions, truly) funneled in the name of projects in foreign lands under obscure pretenses, while the same party seeking to redirect these resources whines about problems at home (that they created).
“In Northern Ireland, the seven members of the New Provo Front. In Canada, the five imprisoned leaders of Liberte de Quebec. In Sri Lanka, the nine members of the Asian Dawn.”
I’m glad Speaker Johnson continues to suggest to us that he has a backbone. He needs to share that with the Republicans, who will begin to wilt if the shutdown circus continues for too much longer. I don’t see how Democrats think they can win by taking health care coverage or services from Americans until we make it available to non-citizens. All while Mr. Trump is working diligently to reduce the number of aliens, which is a much greater concern to the displacement-left and their Congressional maps.
The key is information. You need to reach more people, not just those who already listen. You need to bend the ears of the complacent middle who thought their job was done when they woke up on November 6th, 2025, and learned that Trump had won. You need those black and Latino men. The young people who shifted in unprecedented numbers. They all need to hear the truth.
We are all, because of the way the Democrats and the swamp remanaged how the federal government interferes in our daily lives, being held hostage. And for what? Ambiguous, shadowy, distributions to distant lands whose funding suggests that some things the government does need to stay shut down, even after the budget issues are resolved.
That, much of what is closed is unnecessary, and that some of it could be shuffled into the control of the states, who can then decide if it is worth the cost to them on an individual basis.
While we wait, ask the question: Why can’t you argue for these things in their respective budget bills, where they belong? And don’t say there isn’t enough time. You chose to waste time and shut down the government when you could have been debating those budget bills. So far, you wasted three weeks.
Why would anyone reward you for such irresponsible, toddler-like behavior?
Because they are used to it working, and so far, this time, it’s not.
