Meanwhile, Back in Washington

An even briefer follow-up to the follow-up. While Nancy's in Spain rubbing elbows with Greta Thunberg, and Nadler is wasting America's time perpetuating Adam Schiff's partisan fantasy, the work of America isn't getting done, other than what the President can get done on his own.

A couple of things that aren't being addressed? First, USMCA. We could easily pen a good trade deal for the entirety of the North American continent, but Nancy has other priorities, as do Nadler, Schiff, et al. Heaven forbid they should do the will of the people who put them in their lofty positions of entitlement.

But the bigger one is the appropriations bill. For the uninitiated, let me explain what that is. An appropriations bill lays out what Washington is going to spend money on. Never mind that the process is fraught with favoritism, quid pro quo, retaliation, and other political maneuvering. I won't go into great detail on the process. Suffice it to say that it's controlled by a bunch of recent college grads who work for key leaders of the two parties and negotiate for our tax dollars in a tit-for-tat game that would make us mutiny if we all truly understood it.

With the Dems firmly focused on this impeachment effort, the appropriations bill is lying fallow. So instead Congress will pass a Continuing Resolution (CR) to ensure continued government funding, so that we don't have another government shutdown. CRs are supposed to be used as a last resort to ensure that key government functions continue to be operational, and to avoid shutdowns that could result in our civil servants not being paid.

In reality, many of those civil servants are deemed vital, and thus continue to work through a shutdown and get paid. Others get paid in arrears due to collective bargaining agreements with their unions, meaning that a government shutdown just results in a paid vacation for those workers, though I imagine they might have a greater burden when they return to work.

But the bottom line is that CRs have become the norm, the way we fund the government, because there is political gain for each party in blaming the other party for each shutdown that occurs, and the implications for our civil servants get exaggerated to bolster the spin. Don't get me wrong; I'm not criticizing the civil servants. They shouldn't have to deal with this crap to begin with.

However, by passing a CR to fund the government instead of passing an appropriations bill to allocate spending, Congress is avoiding doing two things that are included in the proposed appropriations measure, but aren't covered in the CR, which just continues current funding.

First, they're withholding a pay raise for the military, including those brave souls who took down al-Baghdadi.

Second, and equally significant: the appropriations bill includes aid for Ukraine.

There is some banter in Washington that Pelosi is holding up the vote on the appropriations bill to ensure that no Democrats in the House break ranks on the impeachment vote, like two of them did on the initial vote to proceed with impeachment proceedings in Schiff's Intel Committee.

So consider this: Nancy Pelosi is potentially withholding aid to Ukraine as the quid for her Dem colleagues' votes on impeachment, as the quo.

Hmmm.