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The Brew: Congress Tries Giving Itself $69,000 Raise for Christmas; Pixar and Disney Retreat from Trans Indoctrination

By Al Perrotta Published on December 19, 2024

Happy Thursday!

Today’s Brew starts out on Capitol Hill.

Continuing Resolution: Meet the New Swamp. Same as the Old Swamp … Or Did the Swamp Take One on the Chin?

Christmas is six days away, but Congress is already offering enormous gifts to the Washington establishment and a lump of coal to the American taxpayer.

A 1,547-page continuing resolution that will keep the government running is loaded with provisions that should put anyone who supports it on Santa’s naughty list.

For example, Congress is giving itself a $69,000 pay raise — that’s per person, not spread across all 435 members — plus they want to exempt themselves from Obamacare. And in a rather insidious move, tucked away in the massive document is a provision that would block subpoenas for House data. For example, as Benny Johnson points out, if We the People want to dig into the shenanigans of the J6 Committee, we’d be out of luck.

https://twitter.com/bennyjohnson/status/1869426984134291902

Here’s another Deep State payout. The CR continues the Global Engagement Center for another eight years. That’s the Biden administration-created organ that’s used to pressure social media companies to censor you and me. Yes, they not only want to put a rag in our mouths to silence us, but they want us to continue paying for it. Insult, meet injury.

The CR is so full of pork that the Muslims in Congress shouldn’t go anywhere near it. For example, whoever crafted the bill put in up to $2 billion to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. That’s a private bridge that collects tolls and was knocked down by a global shipping conglomerate. Why should we foot the bill for fixing it?

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Wait, there’s more. The Republicans control the House, and yet the bill includes language straight from the radical, woke left. Benny Johnson caught this, too. When discussing criminals, the bill exchanges the term “offender” for “justice-involved individual.”

In July, House Speaker Mike Johnson promised there would not be another Continuing Resolution come Christmas. He’s now changed his tune.

“Right now, Democrats still control and that’s the problem. So, we have to get this thing done so we don’t have the shutdown, so we get the short-term funding measure, and we get to March where we can put our fingerprints on the spending,” he told Fox News. “That’s when the big changes start. And we can’t wait to get there.”

Problem is, by now Mike Johnson is like “All I Want for Christmas Is You.” We’ve heard that same song over and over and over and over again. It’s tiring, and lacks the Christmas charm.

If Congress Doesn’t Pass CR, Government Will Shut Down Friday (As Opposed to Virtually Shutting Down the Next Two Weeks Over the Holidays Anyway)

If Congress doesn’t pass a Continuing Resolution, the government (well, a truly small fraction of it) will shut down Friday night — the weekend before Christmas. When Christmas is in the middle of the week. When a good chunk of federal workers will be taking off the days before and after, and government buildings will be ghost towns anyway.

Plus, a new Congress more in tune with the American people gets sworn in two weeks from tomorrow.

Those 1,500 pages of the CR should be used to fuel a bonfire at the Pageant of Peace across the street from the White House. Perhaps the fire will be big enough to warm the relationship between Kamala Harris and Jill Biden.

But Wait … Did Elon, Vivek, and Trump Get the Bill Killed?

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy — plus their boss, President-Elect Donald Trump — blasted the bloated CR.

Trump declared he was “totally against” the bill. He and Vice President-Elect J.D. Vance released a statement Wednesday afternoon condemning the CR and calling for a “clean” bill.

The most foolish and inept thing ever done by Congressional Republicans was allowing our country to hit the debt ceiling in 2025. It was a mistake and is now something that must be addressed.

Meanwhile, Congress is considering a spending bill that would give sweetheart provisions for government censors and for Liz Cheney. The bill would make it easier to hide the records of the corrupt January 6 committee—which accomplished nothing for the American people and hid security failures that happened that day. This bill would also give Congress a pay increase while many Americans are struggling this Christmas.

Increasing the debt ceiling is not great but we’d rather do it on Biden’s watch. If Democrats won’t cooperate on the debt ceiling now, what makes anyone think they would do it in June during our administration? Let’s have this debate now. And we should pass a streamlined spending bill that doesn’t give Chuck Schumer and the Democrats everything they want.

Republicans want to support our farmers, pay for disaster relief, and set our country up for success in 2025. The only way to do that is with a temporary funding bill WITHOUT DEMOCRAT GIVEAWAYS combined with an increase in the debt ceiling. Anything else is a betrayal of our country…

Vivek Ramaswamy of the Department of Government Efficiency outlined some of the abuses in the bill, and explained how the House can outline what needs to be done in just 20 pages.

Elon Musk, the other head of DOGE, waged a day-long war against the Continuing Resolution, declaring at one point that “any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in two years!” Fox News reported late Wednesday afternoon that the bill was on the verge of being pulled from the House floor due to those threats.

Musk declared victory, posting on X, “Your elected representatives have heard you and now the terrible bill is dead. The voice of the people has triumphed!”

Is it too soon to celebrate? We’ll see. But we do know Congress did not vote on the continuing resolution last night.

A Victory in the Cultural Battle to Protect Our Kids

Another small step toward a return to sanity: Pixar has dropped a transgender storyline from its upcoming animated children’s show Win or Lose. The eight-episode series “follows a co-ed middle-school softball team named the Pickles in the week leading up to their championship softball game,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Disney confirmed a transgender story line was removed from a later episode, saying in a statement:

When it comes to animated content for a younger audience, we recognize that many parents would prefer to discuss certain subjects with their children on their own terms and timeline.

Uh, isn’t that exactly what we’ve been telling Disney for several years — and why the Mouse labeled us all haters? Wasn’t that exactly why the administrators there declared war on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis?

The character remains, but several lines referencing gender have been nixed.

Win or Lose is scheduled to premiere on Disney+ in February.

Along The Stream…

Watch or listen to the fascinating testimony of Michael Franzese, recently delivered at Westside Christian Church in California, in “Former Mobster Testifies to God’s Grace and His Conversion.”

Speaking of Christian testimonies, read Jules Gomes’s fascinating comparison of former and future NIH heads Francis Collins and Jay Bhattacharya in “A Tale of Two Christian Doctors.”

 

Al Perrotta is The Stream’s Washington bureau chief, coauthor with John Zmirak of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration, and coauthor of the counterterrorism memoir Hostile Intent: Protecting Yourself Against Terrorism.