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.
