BATTLE LINES ARE DRAWN: The House Freedom Caucus is threatening to do everything it can to block the passage of a stopgap funding measure to avert a government shutdown next month unless its list of demands is met, which includes cuts to the Pentagon’s 2024 budget.

“We refuse to support any such measure that continues Democrats’ bloated COVID-era spending,” a statement posted yesterday said, arguing that returning the overall federal budget to fiscal 2022 levels would “rein in reckless inflationary spending” while “allowing for adequate defense spending.”

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