Sad Little Test Bill Wheezes Into View Soon

the little engine that couldn't, and didn't want to, and that furthermore wishes it was invisible and could hide from everybody but still get paid to be an engine

Tomorrow, the White House is expected to submit a $9.4 billion rescission bill to Congress, asking the legislative branch to approve executive branch spending cuts to things like public broadcasting and USAID. The actual bill isn’t available yet, so we’ll see what’s really in the thing. So far it’s looking like much of Congress is a solid maybe on the whole thing, with limited enthusiasm for taking up the expected cuts.

The national debt clock looked like this tonight:

For context, $9 billion is 0.0243% of $37 trillion. The coming controversy is a fight over as close to nothing as it’s possible to get without actually fighting over literally nothing at all, like spending a week debating a blank piece of paper. It’s the first day of tee-ball practice. It’s a wee tiny widdle teeny test vote to see who can stand up at all in the face of a mountain of debt.

The House Freedom Caucus is alone in demanding immediate action on the bill:

But congressional Republicans overall seem to be resorting to the usual. Congressional Democrats are mostly silent, for now, but will begin doomcasting about devastating cuts as soon as the actual bill lands. Babies will die!

If this extremely small set of anticipated spending cuts doesn’t sail through Congress in a hurry, we’ll know that Congress is locked on a downward path. Worth watching.

Sorry for a few days of silence, by the way. Was dragging myself around in the heat with a backpack, regretting my life choices. I bought a 12-pack of freeze-dried backpacking food a few months ago, and ended up with the the dregs of the box on this trip. After a long day of walking, nothing satisfies like…a bag of dehydrated squash and lentils. “Note to self.”