The Omnibus Crashes Under Its Own Weight And Public Outrage

Over the last 24 hours, with thanks to Elon Musk, Vivek Ramiswamy, the power of artificial intelligence and free speech, an Omnibus bill masquerading as a Continuing Resolution (CR) to avoid a government shutdown has been reduced from a $110 billion pork-filled 1,547 page bill to ~118 pages (see below).

In the midst of the backlash directed at both Republicans and Democrats, The Globe reached out to Nevada Congressman Mark Amodei to inquire whether or not he would vote on the bloated CR in light of both Musk and Ramiswamy’s warnings. His office replied that he would “wait for the final version to make a decision and was not influenced by Elon Musk.”

We also reached out to Nevada’s two Democratic Senators Catherine Cortez-Masto and Jacky Rosen on X (formerly Twitter) and asked that they consider a clean bill to specifically fund essential government operations.

Within hours, Senator Masto indicated she would not sign a bill that would increase congressional salaries, which were set to increase in the original CR.

Sneaking pay raises for members of Congress into a bill that pays our troops is wrong. And let me be clear: I oppose raising pay for Congress.

This is an issue that should be voted on separately.

— Senator Cortez Masto (@SenCortezMasto) December 18, 2024

After the CR was reduced in scope and size, House Leader Hakeem Jeffries promised a government shutdown.

.@RepJeffries: "The Musk-Johnson proposal is not serious. It's laughable. Extreme MAGA Republicans are driving us to a government shutdown." pic.twitter.com/PoHVNeInsv

— CSPAN (@cspan) December 19, 2024

The U.S. government has “shutdown” 10 times since the early 1980’s. The longest shutdown in history was from December 21, 2018 to January 25, 2019. History.com highlights the facts: “the funding argument was over Trump’s proposed plan to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico. The shutdown led the government to furlough 800,000 federal workers. Democrats refused to fund the wall, and ultimately Republicans relented. The shutdown ended a month after it began with no funding in place for a border wall.”

At that time, Democratic lawmakers weren’t clutching Nancy Pelosi’s pearls about federal workers affording Christmas presents. To them, the ends of their political charade in 2018 justified the means.

This latest charade by Democratic leadership should be met with a walk down memory lane. The country has survived 10 government shutdowns in the last 44 years, but the country cannot survive without a secure border and a growing $36 trillion debt.