As members of Congress get back to work, there’s a major priority on lawmakers’ to-do list: There will be a partial government shutdown in a couple of days without a bipartisan solution. In fact, on Friday, current funding is poised to run out for the departments of Agriculture, Energy, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, and Veterans Affairs.
As things stand, a breakdown appears increasingly unlikely. After the latest White House meeting between President Joe Biden and congressional leaders, the key players seemed optimistic about avoiding a shutdown. While GOP leaders insisted that they weren’t prepared to pass another temporary spending bill, they’re apparently abandoning such talk, which in turn lowers the odds of a shutdown.
But as a solution slowly takes shape, it’s worth appreciating why so many Republicans have brought us to the brink of another avoidable disaster.
It might be tempting to think the parties disagree on the amount of government spending, but in this instance, that’s not the problem: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Mike Johnson agreed to topline spending numbers in early January.
The problem is not how much to spend; it’s what GOP members want to add to the spending bills. The headline a New York Times’ report on this summarized the matter nicely: “Republican Demands and Divisions Drive Impasse Toward a Shutdown.”
The spending showdown that has brought the government to the brink of a partial shutdown this week is being fueled by Republicans in Congress, who, after failing in their efforts to slash federal funding, are still insisting on right-wing policy dictates. House Republicans loaded up their spending bills with hundreds of partisan policy mandates, a vast majority of which had no chance of passing the Democratic-controlled Senate or being signed by President Biden.
The practical considerations are not irrelevant: GOP members will not succeed in pursuing these goals, but their pursuit of…
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