We're one week away from the government beginning the process of shutting down, and no one is panicking.
No one on Capitol Hill ever panics when "shutdown day" approaches because no one ever treats the shutdown day seriously. In fact, the only people who treat the shutdown seriously are media types who are desperate for drama and excitement.
"Will they or won't they?"And like any good cliffhanger from the Saturday morning movie serials of my grandfather's day, the hero has to wiggle out of a situation where certain death awaits him. And like those serials, he always manages to live despite impossible odds.
Meanwhile, there are yawns on the Hill because everyone knows that the day after shutdown day will be exactly like the day before shutdown day except that the Republicans will have fractured into even more pieces.
You have to feel sorry for Speaker Mike Johnson. He means well. He's learning why they refer to the speaker's job as "herding cats." In Johnson's case, he's wrangling vipers. And even when Republicans do something right, someone in the caucus always has to muck it up.
One unidentified House Republican told MSNBC, "We’re ungovernable."
Case in point: the bill to fund the Transportation Department and the Department of Housing and Urban Development was yanked from the floor at the last minute when Speaker Johnson discovered he didn't have enough votes to ram it through the House.
There was also a bill to fund financial services and general government spending that was pulled over language that was deemed insufficiently anti-abortion. "Ungovernable" is an understatement. Radicals hold the entire caucus captive and Johnson, like McCarthy before him, is going to need Democratic support to pass this kind of spending bill.
The problem is that there are no real alternatives that sound like they’ve got the support of the full caucus. Johnson laid out three options to his members in a private caucus meeting Tuesday, according to NBC News’ Scott Wong. Those included a stopgap bill that would come with “certain stipulations,” as Axios put it, which most likely means conservative policy changes that would make the bill a nonstarter for House and Senate Democrats. The other options were passing a “staggered” or “laddered” approach to the continuing resolution, which would fund parts of the government until mid-December and parts until mid-January, or ultimately accepting whatever the Senate sends over.
There is a small group of Republicans who, because of the GOP's narrow majority, hold the whip hand in any legislation that comes to the House floor. Their motivation to blow stuff up means that rational Republicans are going to have to hold their noses and get what concessions they can from Democrats to eventually fund the government.
Related: Media Mock Speaker Johnson and His Son for Using Anti-Adult Content App
I say "eventually" because not even the GOP Dynamite Brigade can keep most of the government shut down for more than a month or so. Eventually, the government will be back in business. And the irony that escapes the Republican incendiaries is that the spending levels of every federal program are going to rise. Not because of any "betrayal" but because their recalcitrance has handed the Democrats the power.
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