On the fifth day of the ongoing government shutdown, House Speaker Mike Johnson appeared on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” and complained about the lack of activity on Capitol Hill. “It’s kind of quiet around here,” the Louisiana Republican said. “It has been for the last several days, and it’s very unfortunate.”
In case this isn’t obvious, Congress is “kind of quiet” because the GOP-led House isn’t in session. In fact, as recently as Friday afternoon, one congressional leader announced that House members would have this week off, too, rather than return to the Hill and try to get something done.
That congressional leader, of course, was the same House speaker who complained about how “quiet” things have become under the Capitol dome.
A few days later, Johnson tried to assure the public that congressional Republicans are “working around the clock,” which seemed rather amusing given that Johnson just gave House members another week off for no apparent reason.
Nevertheless, as the shutdown approaches the one-week mark, The Associated Press reported that Republican lawmakers “believe they hold the upper hand.” There is some evidence to the contrary. NBC News reported:
The U.S. government is shut down, and Americans are more inclined to blame President Donald Trump and Republicans for it, according to four independent, national polls conducted just before or during the funding lapse.
In fact, the data is surprisingly consistent: National surveys from The Washington Post, New York Times/Siena, Morning Consult and Marist/PBS News/NPR all found Americans more inclined to blame Republicans than Democrats. (Note: I’m no longer allowed to use Oxford commas, but the Morning Consult poll is separate and distinct from the Marist/PBS News/NPR one.)
Asked Friday about the Post’s poll, Republican Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas told CNN that he discounts the results because of many other surveys that he insisted “say just the opposite.” Asked to name one, he couldn’t.
That’s probably because no such polls exist.
As we discussed last week, the politics of the latest shutdown are a bit tricky. On the one hand, it’s Democrats who are demanding concessions, which might suggest they’re likely to be held responsible.
On the other hand, it’s not nearly that simple. The concessions Democrats are demanding are popular — they’re fighting to make health care benefits affordable for American families — and they’re going up against a Republican Party that controls the House, the Senate and the White House. What’s more, it’s GOP officials who’ve spent the last three decades shutting down the government — or at least threatening to do so on a very regular basis — and they’ve created a political brand that’s widely recognized by much of the public. To be sure, public attitudes can change, and people can be persuaded to adopt different positions. The public doesn’t appear to be on Republicans’ side now, but it’s difficult to guess whether these polls will look the same a week or a month from now. It’s precisely why so many officials and partisans continue to scramble to make their case to Americans. But at least for now, if GOP lawmakers “believe they hold the upper hand,” they’re looking at a landscape that doesn’t appear to exist. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
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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