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Some signs that maybe this Trump administration won't just be more of the same...
So apparently the US government will "shut down" on Friday if Congress doesn't pass a continuing resolution. (I put "shut down" in quotes because of course they will still continue the all-important business of sending out transfer payments and paying bureaucrats. Mostly they'll just close the National Parks.).
To keep the government running, the House Speaker (Mike Johnson, Republican) put forward a 1500 page continuing resolution that had all kinds of ridiculous shit in it, including funding pro-regime propaganda, changing the word "offender" to "justice-involved person", and of course a bunch of pork barrel projects for both parties.
A 1500 page bill right before Christmas is all very normal of course. No one expects the Congresspeople to read it. They just rubber stamp and then go home to their constituents bragging about their $100 million in funding for music tourism or whatever.
Only, this time, something happened. Spurred on by Elon and Vivek, constituents started calling their representatives and complaining. The bill looks to be in trouble. And now, reportedly, it is being replaced by a bill that's "only" 116 pages. At this point, our resident nitpickers will come in and mention that most of the important stuff in the bill is still there. The money for molasses research is just a small drop in the bucket compared to the money for hurricane relief. And they're right. But still, this is important progress. A government for the people and by the people needs to legible to the people.
Bills should be only as long as they need to be and no longer. This bill should have been a single page, continuing existing funding levels. 116 pages is still 115 pages too long, but it's progress.
It's a good sign that the swamp is less powerful than before.
p.s. Grok AI is very useful for getting information on current events.
Why does this indicate Trump will be different this time? Musk and Ramaswamy signal boosted a shorter bill, which proves they have influence, which means DOGE could be more than a publicity stunt, maybe? I'm not really getting the connection.
The number of pages of legislation seems like a very poor barometer of government judiciousness.
> Something happens that doesn't usually happen > Why does this mean things will be different?
The key isn't just smugly concluding that small bills are bad too, so who can really say? Lots of people can tell, in fact, what is in bills. From all the discussion going around there were a lot of bad things in that first bill that aren't in the second one. Elon Musk is happier, Vivek Ramaswamy is happier, that must count for something? It's tedious to read the all-knowing attitude that everything is a publicity stunt, after all, and nothing really matters (but I don't actually know the specifics I'm just guessing because nothing really matters).
Edit:
As one example, here is Congressman Jim Banks alleging that the old bill funds an agency that censored conservatives:
https://x.com/RepJimBanks/status/1869350064742875341?t=EoITrkbHKRZJ0JeO_cPqDw&s=19
Short of an argument about how Jim Banks is wrong, actually, or censorship is good, actually, killing the old bill sounds good to me!
Does it though? If they were unhappy but knew that they couldn't win, isn't their obvious play to claim victory?
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