FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 9, 2024
Contact: Emily Phelps | press@indivisible.org
Washington, DC — Today, Indivisible’s Legislative Director Andrew O’Neill issued the following statement regarding how Democrats should react to the FY24 government funding toplines agreement:
“Given the chaos and discord within his own caucus, Speaker Mike Johnson will need significant Democratic support to pass spending bills. Democrats should not concede to any additional cuts or harmful poison pills, given the ultimate package will surely be passed with Democratic votes. The GOP doesn’t have support for their most toxic priorities, so their only strategy is to attempt to trap Democrats into passing them instead. Democrats must not fall into this obvious trap.
“Republicans have engaged in bad faith negotiations from the start. Despite their best efforts to make even more extreme funding cuts, the current government funding agreement adheres to the spending levels agreed on during the debt ceiling deal. Then they demanded an accelerated timeline for IRS funding cuts in order to limit the IRS’s ability to go after wealthy tax cheats and improve services for the rest of us. And now they’re threatening to attach poison pill riders to the government funding bills, even though we’re only 11 days away from a government shutdown.
“Instead of wasting time pandering to the Freedom Caucus, Johnson should be working to avoid a government shutdown by passing bipartisan spending bills without any toxic riders. To continue to insist on these nonstarter poison pills is a clear sign that Republicans prioritize political games over governing and that pain really is the point.”
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About Indivisible Project
The Indivisible Project (501c4) is a social movement non-profit driven by a vision of a real democracy - of, by, and for the people. Indivisible began in 2016 as a viral guide to resisting Trump’s agenda. Today, the Indivisible movement is a network of thousands of local groups and millions of activists across every state. The Indivisible Project drives campaigns for bold progressive policies, lobbies Congress, and equips activists with tools to build lasting progressive power, everywhere. Together, we fight to defeat the right-wing takeover of American government and build an inclusive democracy.