Hali and The House

Hi. How are you? Bad? Yeah. That’s the baseline these days. But hey, that’s why you’re here: for me to tell you it’ll alllllll be okay.

[Update: I, unfortunately, cannot tell you that.]

Two interesting and, to me, connected things happened last night. [One is about sports, and one is not, so if you’re not crazy on sports stick with me.]

First, the New York Knicks started their first Eastern Conference Finals in 25 years by crapping the bed in historic fashion. They had a double digit lead with 2:50 left in the game, allowed five straight three pointers, and even when bailed out by a toe-on-the-line that changed Indy’s game winner to an overtime-forcer, still lost the game.

It was right there. They had the game, and maybe the series, and maybe the Finals, all on an easier path than now… and they fumbled it away. Mistake after mistake, slow closeout after slow closeout, they orchestrated a loss that was as painful as possible. If just one of their silly turnovers or flailed shots or bad defensive plays is different… they win, they’re up, and New York City streets are binging and bonging.

But they didn’t. And today, hanging over the city, was a dull pain. Not of loss.

Of anticipation.

You know this moment. It’s that time in between pushing the trunk closed and realizing your fingers are in the way. Between noticing your keycard doesn’t work and getting asked to your manager’s office “to chat.” It’s the moment between The Bad Thing and The Bad Thing’s Consequence.

In a seven game series, losing Game 1 isn’t everything. Unless you lose the series… and then it’s the first in a long chain of What Ifs that will haunt you for another 25 years. If the Knicks win the series it’s a speed bump — Haliburton doing his choke motion prematurely becomes a meme. If they lose the series… questions. And pain. It might take decades to just get back to where they are now.

A few hours later, over in Washington DC, the Republicans of the House passed their “one, big, beautiful budget bill.” They voted in the middle of the night, after many many amendment votes forced by the Democrats¹ , and they won 215-214.

The Democrats needed one vote to tie and force the Republicans to convince a hardline-right holdout to support the bill. They needed two to beat it.

But three Democrats missed the vote — because they’ve died in office THIS TERM. Since the 2024 election!

And look, death sucks. It is painful and tragic. But when you’re in your 70s or 80s… it’s not surprising. Congressman Gerry Connolly passed away from cancer this week at 75 — the absent tying vote to stop that budget bill. And this is the House. You have to run again every term, and Connolly did. He ran in the 2024 election as a 74-year-old man already diagnosed with cancer.

A political party that was serious about winning would schedule sitdown meetings with every member born before 1955 and ask them to find or name a successor who grew up with the internet being a thing. Connolly won his district by 33% multiple general elections in a row — it’s one of those districts you just gotta pick someone good.

But these are the Democrats, so they won’t pick someone good. They’ll hold on to a group of great grandparents who will stumble through the destruction of our government while making vague statements about how upset they are. Maybe they’re not worried about the incoming autocracy because they know they won’t be around to see it.

This budget is bad. Bad for a lot of reasons you can read in a lot of explainers. (Helps rich! Hurts poor! Cuts services! Enshrines theocracy!) And it mostly passed because 99% of Republicans are in slavish lockstep to a guy who doesn’t even believe what they believe and polls at 38%. But it also happened because the the Democrats are literally sacrificing votes at the altar of gerontocracy.

So how does this tie into the Knicks and the Pacers? Because the Dems had that vote. They had that fight, they had the ability to force the Republicans to convince Thomas Massie to vote yes — a near impossibility. But they fumbled it away, seat after seat, piece after piece, until that final buzzer sounded and the loss was real. They lost one a big one, and it hurts, and it’s going to have real consequences. But it’s just the beginning. We might all look back in horror when it’s all over, realizing this was one of of those inflection points you never get back.

The car door is swinging. Soon we’ll find out how many fingers are in the way.

1  Amendment votes can seem pointless when you’re up against a bill you know is going to pass, but they force people on the other side to go on record for the parts of the bill that are gonna suck when they kick in. Really helps in campaign ads to go “Hey this Republican guy specifically voted for it to be harder to get SNAP benefits!”