Johnson reengages with Dems after failed Plan B
www.axios.com

... House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) told his members Friday that he and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) have reopened negotiations on a government funding deal, sources familiar with his comments told Axios.

Why it matters: The restarted talks come just hours before the government is set to shut down at midnight Friday.

- - - After backing out of a deal he negotiated with Democrats, Johnson tried and failed to pass a revised bill Thursday.

- - - House Democrats almost all voted against the new measure, however, complaining bitterly that Johnson didn't consult Jeffries on it.

What we're hearing: Jeffries told House Democrats in a closed-door caucus meeting Friday morning that lines of communication between the two leaders have reopened, according to numerous sources in the room.

- - - The Democratic leader said he is doing "everything possible" to get the impasse resolved Friday "consistent with our values and bipartisan agreement we have negotiated," two lawmakers told Axios. ...

--- and ---

House Speaker Mike Johnson: 'We have a plan' after government funding bill fails
www.upi.com

... House Speaker Mike Johnson expects another vote on stopgap funding to avert a government shutdown on Friday morning.

The clock is ticking on a government shutdown after House Republicans failed to pass a stopgap funding bill late Thursday. Speaking to reporters early Friday, Johnson, R-La., said "we've got a plan."

Congress has until midnight on Saturday to pass a government funding bill and avoid a government shutdown through the holiday season. ...

Time will tell ...

OpEd: Elon Musk's Latest Tantrum Shows He Has No Idea What He's Doing
www.yahoo.com

... Elon Musk is now threatening to get rid of Democratic lawmakers, but he has no idea who he's dealing with ... no, seriously he has no idea who he's complaining about. ...

'Trump is in charge!': MAGA activists push 'hyperpartisanship' and reject compromise
www.nbcnews.com

... As Congress struggles over a deal to keep the government open, the message coming from the beating heart of Trump world is clear-cut: Don't compromise.

Speakers at a conference of conservative activists here this week said that Donald Trump's election victory should be a warning to those who try to block his agenda " Republicans and Democrats alike " that they need to give way.

"We don't need partisanship now; we need hyperpartisanship now," Steve Bannon, a former Trump White House senior adviser, told a raucous audience gathered at the Phoenix Convention Center for AmericaFest. ...

Republicans embrace "our prime minister" Elon Musk
www.axios.com

... Republican members of Congress took to the Sunday shows to praise Trump lieutenant Elon Musk's involvement in last week's government funding saga, with one likening him to "our prime minister." ...

Donald Trump Built a National Debt So Big (Even Before the Pandemic) That It'll Weigh Down the Economy for Years (January 2021)
www.propublica.org

... The "King of Debt" promised to reduce the national debt " then his tax cuts made it surge. Add in the pandemic, and he oversaw the third-biggest deficit increase of any president.

One of President Donald Trump's lesser known but profoundly damaging legacies will be the explosive rise in the national debt that occurred on his watch. The financial burden that he's inflicted on our government will wreak havoc for decades, saddling our kids and grandkids with debt.

The national debt has risen by almost $7.8 trillion during Trump's time in office. That's nearly twice as much as what Americans owe on student loans, car loans, credit cards and every other type of debt other than mortgages, combined, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. It amounts to about $23,500 in new federal debt for every person in the country.

The growth in the annual deficit under Trump ranks as the third-biggest increase, relative to the size of the economy, of any U.S. presidential administration, according to a calculation by a leading Washington budget maven, Eugene Steuerle, co-founder of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. And unlike George W. Bush and Abraham Lincoln, who oversaw the larger relative increases in deficits, Trump did not launch two foreign conflicts or have to pay for a civil war. ...