This is why people hate politics: A debate that sprung up in the final hours before lawmakers approved a slapdash budget bill on Friday provides a tidy illustration of the performative bullshit that governs Congress these days.
Here's what happened: After the initial 1,500-page continuing resolution ran aground in the House on Thursday, Republican leaders began tossing parts of the bill overboard in the hopes that a lighter version would get enough votes to keep the government running until March. That effort succeeded on Friday. Left behind, however, was a provision that extended $12.6 million in annual pediatric cancer research funding through 2031.
