House Dem: Speaker needs to deliver ‘inevitable’ to ‘flammable right wing’ on government funding

Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) said Sunday that the “flammable right wing” of the GOP won’t get what it wants in government funding negotiations this week, as another government shutdown deadline looms, tasking Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) with breaking the “inevitable” news to his ranks.

Congress passed a temporary funding measure on Thursday, extending the first government funding deadline by one week to March 8. Himes said that there are substantive deals in place to fund the government, but that they won’t make hard-line conservatives happy.

“Speaker of the House Mike Johnson needs to figure out a way to deliver the inevitable news to his volatile and flammable right wing that when they have a bare majority in one of two houses of Congress and don’t control the White House, they’re not going to get everything they want,” Himes said in an interview on “The Hill Sunday” on NewsNation.

“And that’s a very difficult message for Speaker Johnson to deliver, but it is inevitable,” he continued. “And I think that, you know, while there may be some fireworks around Speaker Johnson’s leadership either associated with that or associated with the Ukraine aid bill, I do think we’ll get it done.”

Himes blasted Johnson and GOP holdouts for threatening a shutdown in the first place, but said he’s confident a deal will be made on funding.

“Congress has had enough chaos,” he said. “Even the dedicated chaos agents in this Congress are saying, ‘Hey, let’s dial it back a little bit.’” 

“But also, let’s not celebrate the achievement of a very low bar,” he continued. “Remember, we’re halfway through the fiscal year that we’re talking about the budget for. The fact that there is ever a consideration of a shutdown is just insane.”

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