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. A New York Times headline 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 the far-right priorities keeps pushing the country closer to the latest Republican-imposed government shutdown. But as the congressional disputes continue, there’s value in voters understanding what, exactly, the House’s far-right Republican majority is fighting for. Among the measures — known on Capitol Hill as “riders” — that GOP lawmakers want to add to spending bills: Again, there’s little to suggest that Republicans will get their way, and chances are, GOP leaders will abandon their earlier talk, agree to a stopgap spending bill, and prevent a shutdown. But it matters that the country is two days from the latest shutdown because a group of House Republicans believe fighting for the aforementioned goals are a worthy cause.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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