Funding for the federal government currently runs out on April 9th, but no deal has been reached as of yet even though Senate Democrats have already offered to meet House Republicans more than halfway on desired cuts. Buoyed by a Tea Party rally of dozens, freshman Republicans in particular are refusing to compromise, meaning that Speaker Boehner is probably going to have to rely heavily on Democratic votes to get this passed (which ain’t gonna happen in either chamber if many of their deep cuts remain) and avoid a shutdown that didn’t go well for his party in 1994. For now, they have passed a bill that declares their already rejected $61 billion in budget cuts somehow “law of the land” if the Senate and Pres. Obama don’t pass another spending measure (this, of course, has no practical effect since House bills can’t become laws by themselves). 

Meanwhile, the Texas House’s proposed budget is even worse: cutting jobs, gutting eductation, closing nursing homes and ending some hospital services, and a lot of other conservative political objectives (even underming the preservation of our proud Texas history). Another proposal is to privatize all state jails. But this is the kind of thing that happens when you take taxes off the table as a source of revenue. But hey, at least we’ll have guns on college campuses.

UPDATE: The Texas House budget has passed.