Week 4​

Who's Bankrolling the Shutdown Showdown? - EXPOSEDbyCMD

Far-right House Republicans and related groups have some pretty tall demands for approving a stopgap budget bill and averting a government shutdown. There’s only one catch: Their demands have nothing to do with the federal budget.

www.exposedbycmd.org

Caucus members are claiming that they will oppose any short-term continuing budget resolutions unless their demands for addressing “wokeness” in the military, “weaponization” of the Department of Justice and FBI, and building a border wall are met.

The “No Security, No Funding” framework used by the Freedom Caucus for its demands is echoed in materialsbeing circulated by right-wing groups including the Conservative Partnership Institute (or CPI, which effectively provides staffing for the Freedom Caucus), the secretive Council for National Policy’s Conservative Action Project, the America First Policy Institute, the Heritage Foundation, Club for Growth, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the Family Research Council, and the Eagle Forum, all of which are pushing for a government shutdown unless their ideological demands are met.

Although these groups’ arguments focus on reigning in government spending, their demands have hardly anything to do with the federal budget since they’re all based on culture war priorities.

For example, a recent letter circulated by the Conservative Action Project and signed by more than 100 individuals — including representatives from the groups mentioned above — contends that any spending bill must include policy reforms that would “stop the woke cancer that has infected the Pentagon.” Signatories include Trump lawyers Cleta Mitchell and Ken Cuccinelli — influential MAGA legal operatives at the CPI — as well as several elected representatives, mostly from Arizona.

Click to expand...