Analyst dubs Speaker’s stopgap funding bill a ‘disaster’

Political analyst Larry Sabato criticized Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) two-tier stop-gap government funding bill as a “disaster” on Saturday, after days of internal negotiations over the best way to fund the government.

“It’s a disaster. Everybody knows it’s a disaster,” Sabato said in a CNN interview Saturday. “Even if it passes the House, which is hardly assured — there will be all kinds of plans and objections and the rest of it — the Senate isn’t going to go along with this and the President isn’t going to go along with this.”

Johnson’s plan makes some government funding run out on Jan. 19 with the remainder running out on Feb. 2, a novel strategy meant to discourage omnibus bills.

“This two-step continuing resolution is a necessary bill to place House Republicans in the best position to fight for conservative victories,” Johnson said in a statement on Saturday. “The bill will stop the absurd holiday-season omnibus tradition of massive, loaded up spending bills introduced right before the Christmas recess.”

“Separating out the CR from the supplemental funding debates places our conference in the best position to fight for fiscal responsibility, oversight over Ukraine aid, and meaningful policy changes at our Southern border,” he continued.

It’s already faced pushback from Democrats as well as some Republicans.

The funding extension doesn’t change government funding levels in the meantime, effectively leaving the current continuing resolution passed at the end of September unchanged — a blow to conservative Republicans who wanted additional cuts.

Sabato said the last-second measure is the result of the House GOP focusing on kicking out and electing a new Speaker instead of funding the government. The “laddered” funding bill is the first major legislation of Johnson’s term as speaker.

“They’ve got one week to go because they wasted three weeks with their clown show picking a new speaker. Really a great start for Speaker Johnson,” he added, sarcastically. “Really great.”