Well, howdy there, Internet people, it's Bell again.

So today, we're going to talk about Doge raising the government shutdown risk.

Congress has about two weeks to put together something to fund the government and keep the doors open, or there will be a shutdown.

Conflicting reports have come out about the thinking of the Republican

leadership. One set of reporting says the leadership is pushing for a clean continuing resolution

through the rest of the fiscal year and that it would have no controversial provisions at all.

Another set of reporting says they're going the exact opposite direction and want to throw in

some of Elon's cuts. So what's the truth? Both. The leadership doesn't know which way to go. They're

considering both options. Even though the Republicans control both houses, there's always

dissension within the ranks,

and they have narrow majorities. So, the Republicans are looking at a clean resolution in hopes of

leveraging the Democrats into supporting it by removing anything politically questionable from the

equation. That helps out the GOP leadership because there's a

decent chance that some Republicans will grandstand and vote against a clean resolution,

while calling the leadership rhinos. The flip side is that if they throw the cuts in, they charge

the bill and create a situation where they know

Democrats will oppose it. If it heads to a government shutdown, they can try to blame the

Democratic Party for it. But that assumes that the GOP is reading the room correctly about

Trump and Elon's moves and that putting a bunch of Americans out of work

and withholding funds that are hurting businesses across the country turns out to be politically

popular in the long run somehow. No matter which route they go, the goal is the same. Make the Democratic

Party support their move one way or another.

...