The House on Tuesday passed a measure to extend government funding into December, averting a shutdown in the final stretch of the midterm campaign.
Page A6From§Eachthe early bird edition — 1 September 2026
House passes bill to keep government open through midterms; same bill leaves debt crisis untouched.
As it ran on the front
I got this notebook, banged up, coffee rings — hang on, let me find the page... here. September 1st. 'House votes to keep government open until after midterms.' Underneath that, same week, same bill, in my own handwriting: 'does nothing to fix debt crisis.' I wrote that down twice, actually, because I wasn't sure I read it right the first time.
Now I'm not an economist. I'm not even good with a checkbook, ask my wife. But I got a rubber band and two paperclips on my kitchen table, and I been playing with them all morning. One paperclip's the shutdown — that's the thing that stops, cold, right now, this month. The other paperclip's the debt — that's the thing that keeps going, quiet, in the background, whether the government's open or closed. The rubber band's the bill. Stretch it over the first paperclip, it holds. Stretch it over the second, it just doesn't reach. Same rubber band. Different shape of problem.…
…(cont) That word 'until' keeps bugging me. 'Open until after midterms.' Not 'open.' Not 'fixed.' Until. I circled it three times in the notebook — see, right there, the ink's worn through the page a little. A funding bill that runs out in December is like a lease. It's not a house. Nobody moves in for good on an 'until.'
So I go back to my notebook, and the two lines are just sitting there next to each other, real polite, not fighting, not contradicting — on the surface. 'Keeps government open.' 'Does nothing to fix debt crisis.' Both true. Both same bill. Both same day, matter of fact, same wire.
I don't know what that adds up to. I really don't. I'm just a guy with a notebook and a rubber band that only fits one paperclip.
Oh — excuse me, one more thing, before you go. This bill, it runs out in December, right after the election. The debt problem, that one, it doesn't have a December on it anywhere in my notebook. So when the lights are back on and everybody's gone home happy about the shutdown that didn't happen, what happens to the other paperclip? The one the rubber band didn't reach. Where's that written down to get fixed?
“They kept the lights on till after the election, ain't that convenient. Same bill, the debt clock don't stop ticking, but at least nobody's paycheck stalls before they vote for you again. That's not governing, that's stalling for a paycheck of your own.”
“This is a clean, bipartisan win — nobody wanted a shutdown before an election, that's just good government. The debt piece, well, that's a separate negotiation, we'll get to it — did I say separate? I meant, it's the same bill actually, never mind.”
The receipts
Trump promised to eliminate the $19 trillion debt in eight years — and left it higher than he found it The Washington Post, 31 March 2016 interview
House Passes Gov’t Funding Bill That Does Nothing To Fix Debt Crisis‘So Rule is an issue’
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.