Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) delivered an early Christmas present to Democrats Friday night by extending spending levels overwhelmingly opposed by Republicans earlier this year.

The House once again punted their obligation to fund the government through the remainder of the fiscal year, this time until March 14, 2025, extending spending levels and policy priorities negotiated in February and March 2024 with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and President Joe Biden.

Zero Democrats voted against the bill. A staggering 196 voted for it, with one voting present and 14 missing the vote to begin their Christmas break early.

One hundred seventy Republicans anxious to get home for Christmas as well voted for the bill, with 34 opposing it and 15 absences.

The whiff of eggnog is a powerful motivator.

The third time was a charm for Johnson, whose funding bill negotiated with Democrats collapsed earlier this week after Republicans from all ideological corners opposed the substance and style of the deal Johnson negotiated.

Republican lawmakers blasted Johnson for negotiating that bill with Democrats and cutting his own members out, for attaching an astonishing amount of Democrat priorities to what was characterized as a continuing resolution, and for dropping the bill in their laps at the last minute.

Those concerns with Johnson’s leadership style will not disappear ahead of a January 3, 2025 roll call vote on the House floor for Speaker.

President-elect Donald Trump and his team stepped in at the last-minute Tuesday as Johnson’s first deal collapsed. Trump demanded the stripping of the Democrat giveaways in the bill and instead to attach provisions to address the debt limit, which must be lifted or waived mid-2025.

That bill failed on the floor Thursday night, with many Republicans once again objecting to Johnson thrusting a vote in their laps at the last minute.

Ultimately, the deal that passed – a relatively clean CR with a one-year farm bill extension and farmer and disaster aid – was what many Republicans wanted in the first place. But in pitching his failed deal to Republicans Tuesday, Johnson insisted that House Democrat Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) would not deliver votes on farmer and disaster aid without significant concessions.

To get farm aid, Johnson would have to give Democrats the metaphorical farm, as Johnson told it.

Johnson did not call Jeffries’ bluff, leading to a week of chaos. And in the end, Democrats almost uniformly supported a continuation of funding levels and policy priorities they overwhelmingly supported earlier this year and in September, when those levels were first extended.

Many Republicans now wonder if instead of succumbing to Jeffries’ demands, Johnson should have pushed for more out of the gate. In hindsight, Democrats clearly would have continued supporting existing spending levels, so Johnson could have addressed the debt ceiling or attached other Trump priorities to the bill.

But instead of going on offense, Johnson blinked.

And zero Democrats opposed the final product.

Republicans’ House majority will remain tight, and there are many more consequential battles upcoming. House Republicans, and Trump, must decide if Johnson is the man they want as their general next Congress, fighting for Trump priorities and leading negotiations.

The bill must now go to the Senate, where it is expected to pass easily. The timing of Senate action was not immediately clear, although it is likely to pass before Monday, which is the soonest any effects of a shutdown would be felt.

Bradley Jaye is a Capitol Hill Correspondent for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter at @BradleyAJaye.