The Week: San Francisco Tidies Up for Xi

The streets of San Francisco were brought into good order for Xi. Maybe the chairman can visit the southern border next?

Congress, with overwhelming bipartisan support, passed a continuing resolution to avoid a government shutdown. Speaker Mike Johnson structured the resolution so that four of the twelve funding bills will expire in mid January and the other eight in early February. This represents a tiny victory for fiscal conservatives because the spending will no longer expire at the end of the year. That will spare the country the spectacle of another “Christmas tree” omnibus package in which legislators add a bunch of pork during the holiday season when most people aren’t paying close attention. Johnson had to rely on Democrats to pass the CR in the House, which was supposedly a sin so grievous when Kevin McCarthy did it that it required his removal from the speakership. But Johnson, like McCarthy, had no better choice. Government shutdowns don’t spur spending reforms, and they don’t benefit Republicans politically, either. The intransigent House Republicans demanding spending cuts have their hearts in the right place, but their minds are detached from political reality. Democrats control the Senate and the White House, and Congress wasn’t going to undo decades of fiscal irresponsibility this week. The project of true spending reform will require years of effort and bipartisan buy-in to be successful.

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The streets of San Francisco were brought into good order for Xi. Maybe the chairman can visit the southern border next?

Congress, with overwhelming bipartisan support, passed a continuing resolution to avoid a government shutdown. Speaker Mike Johnson structured the resolution so that four of the twelve funding bills will expire in mid January and the other eight in early February. This represents a tiny victory for fiscal conservatives because the spending will no longer expire at the end of the year. That will spare the country the spectacle of another “Christmas tree” omnibus package in which legislators add a bunch of pork during the holiday season when most people aren’t paying close attention. Johnson had to rely on Democrats to pass the CR in the House, which was supposedly a sin so grievous when Kevin McCarthy did it that it required his removal from the speakership. But Johnson, like McCarthy, had no better choice. Government shutdowns don’t spur spending reforms, and they don’t benefit Republicans politically, either. The intransigent House Republicans demanding spending cuts have their hearts in the right place, but their minds are detached from political reality. Democrats control the Senate and the White House, and Congress wasn’t going to undo decades of fiscal irresponsibility this week. The project of true spending reform will require years of effort and bipartisan buy-in to be successful.