The Hitchhiker’s Guide To Today’s Votes On Avoiding A Government Shutdown And On Rejecting Socialism Two significant votes today in the House. The House is poised to align with the Senate on a bipartisan bill to avoid a government shutdown in a month. Few wanted a repeat of last year’s 43-day shutdown odyssey. The Senate passed the bill overwhelmingly last month. The House will likely do the same today with well over 300 votes. That will put government funding disputes to rest until after the midterms: December 11. The sides want to see which party controls each body before fighting over spending again. The measure simply renews all funding at existing money at existing levels. Conservatives essentially view this as a “cut” since lawmakers aren’t tacking on anything additional. However, this is a bit of a cut for the Pentagon which lacks certainty. And, is the biggest recipient of discretionary spending from Congress. The House also votes on a measure about socialism. Republicans want to get Democrats on the record disavowing socialism. If they don’t, Republicans will weaponize that vote against them in reelection ads this fall. However, Republicans included in the measure the SAVE America Act. It requires proof of citizenship to vote. Democrats view that as a poison pill and will likely reject the measure outright.

Exchange with Thune on Trump making demands to eliminate filibuster, pass SAVE America Act: Pergram: Why do you think that this fundamentally does not resonate with him? Over and over again, it seems as though he doesn't get that when you say this. You've said that since springtime Thune: Well you tell me Pergram: You're the guy who talks to him. I mean, when you have that conversation with him, does he say that I don't believe you? What's he say there?  Thune: We have in the past suggested to he and his team to come up here and visit with some of my Republican colleagues. And they did that. They sat down on getting rid of the legislative filibuster, getting rid of blue slips, and there were 15 noes. So I mean this is not an open question. It's just a fact. And the facts don't change. Now, if he can change the facts and start moving some of those senators who are noes into yeses, then we have a different conversation. But it's that's just the reality

Thune on GOP Sens Lee/Scott threatening to block recess over SAVE America Act: We’re going to have some conversations over the course of the next couple of days. My assumption again is that if somebody can show me how we get an outcome, how we get a result, how we get an answer to this, I'm all for it. But if we are gonna be sitting here in endless quorum calls I don't know if that's in everybody's best interest