Acknowledging the one GOP "grandstander" holdout, Vice President J.D. Vance addressed House Republicans on Tuesday, pressing them to pass their "clean" continuing resolution to keep the government funded through the end of this fiscal year at last year's levels.
That first year of the Trump administration spending plan would be at the level of the last year of President Joe Biden's administration — a spending level that was fine to Democrats then — but Democrats now say they will all vote against it unilaterally, ostensibly voting against their own spending levels.
Vance's push was "very well-received," House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told Politico leaving the private meeting before addressing the weekly House GOP news conference Tuesday.
"We'll have the votes; we're going to pass the CR," Johnson told reporters. "We can do it on our own. But what I am saying Democrats ought to do the responsible thing, follow their own advice in every previous scenario and keep the government open. It's their choice.
"I wish it could be a unanimous vote that the House chamber did that. That would be a great thing for America.
"But they're not going to do that," he added, "because they're on this — they're lost in the wilderness."
Johnson noted the "moment of clarity and great contrast" with Democrats "in panic mode right now," along with fiscal hawk Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who President Donald Trump rebuked as a "grandstander" Monday night in a Truth Social post and vowed to stir up a primary against him in the 2026 election, or Senate if he sought the seat of retiring former Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
"We already lost one vote, we can't lose another," Vance warned the GOP, referring to Massie's vow to vote against continued spending at the Biden-era level.
Johnson noted Democrats' opposition Friday to a clean CR came before they even saw the bill that was released for the first time Saturday.
"Every single word of that is a lie; they just made it up," Johnson told reporters of Democrats' public statements claiming the CR was coming with cuts laid out by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under Trump.
"It's all a lie. This clean CR contains no poison pill riders."
A House GOP domestic policy bill would come after clearing the runway through September, Vance promised the House GOP members in the private meeting, sources told Politico.
Also, Vance vowed the massive policy spending cuts from DOGE would be able to move forward for the next time the can kicked down the road is reached in October, sources added to Politico.
The House CR vote is planned for 4 p.m. ET on the floor, and Senate Democrats have shown reluctance to stop it and forcing a government shutdown that would have begun Friday at midnight.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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