Congressman Dean Phillips (D-MN) signaled his intention on Monday to vote for the Continuing Resolution being proposed by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) in order to avoid a government shutdown before the Thanksgiving holiday. Phillips, who is also mounting a desperate bid to challenge President Joe Biden for the White House in 2024, is a much-needed vote in order to prevent the shutdown. 

At least eight Republicans have said they plan to vote against the legislation when it comes to the floor.

Phillips’s plan also marks a break with President Biden, whom the Minnesota Democrat is challenging for the party’s nod for president. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre in a statement called Johnson’s plan an “unserious proposal” and a “recipe for more Republican chaos and more shutdowns — full stop.”

Rep. Phillips mentioned that he would "be voting yes" on the bill via a text message that he sent to The Hill when asked about his intentions. The CR presented by Speaker Johnson would fund some portions of the government to mid-January and fund others all the way to February. Both parties have expressed disappointment or disapproval of the CR proposed by Speaker Johnson due to funds not being sent to Ukraine for the Democrats and the lack of spending cuts for the Republicans. Speaker Johnson will need to work both sides of the aisle pretty hard if he wants this resolution to pass, but the expectation is that the number of votes needed will not be as high as the previous resolution that passed back in September.

It appears that House Democrats have voiced their intention to support the CR from Speaker Johnson if passed.

NEW -- House Democratic leadership says they'll support the Johnson clean CR. pic.twitter.com/vtRhrjRMjY

— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) November 14, 2023

However, the House Freedom Caucus has sternly opposed the CR, saying in a press release that they:

“...opposes the proposed ‘clean’ Continuing Resolution as it contains no spending reductions, no border security, and not a single meaningful win for the American People. Republicans must stop negotiating against ourselves over fears of what the Senate may do with the promise ‘roll over today and we’ll fight tomorrow.’”

Speaker Johnson released a statement on X, stating his CR was a necessary step in order to obtain a successful outcome for their "conservative victories" in the House.  

This two-step continuing resolution is a necessary bill to place House Republicans in the best position to fight for conservative victories. The bill will stop the absurd holiday-season omnibus tradition of massive, loaded up spending bills introduced right before the Christmas…

— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) November 11, 2023

But alas, once again, we have arrived back at the impasse that RedState correctly predicted back in September when the last CR was passed by the thinly-held Republican House with then-Speaker McCarthy. The frustration felt then is once again being felt now when it seems that the political machine in Washington can't do its basic job. 

Now that the hard news part is out of the way, let me opine as to why this is just one giant cluster f***k and why the entire Western world is looking at us and playing drinking games while watching us attempt to do something as basic as keeping our government running. 

The most powerful nation in the world, for now, literally cannot keep its own giant, bloated, and corrupted government running long enough to get the people's business done. As RedState covered previously, with this current bill we found enough money to fund our government for 45 days and keep Ukraine fighting for even longer. How pathetic are we?

But the bigger issue here is that we as a nation have become so dysfunctional that every year or so it seems we are faced with a spending bill crisis that threatens to shut down the government. The US Government has only shut down 10 times in our history, most recently in 2013, 2018, and 2019. In fact, Congress has only passed all their spending bills according to their rules just four times in almost 50 years, and it has been 20 years since Congress passed a budget on time. 

This is utterly pathetic, and the blame goes to the "uni party" of Washington. My great friend Chuck Pierce always refers to the political machine in Washington as the "uni party" because when it comes down to the basics, the Republicans and Democrats act as one. The losers are always the American people and our bank accounts and wallets because the uni party is out for themselves. The American people are an afterthought when it comes to governing and spending our money, and we are always wondering when the hell it is going to change or stop. 

As is the case here, there are always Democrats and Republicans who will just do the bare amount of work to kick the can down the road, and they never seem to come up with a plan in the interim to address the future problem when it comes home to roost.