Congress has little time to avoid a government shutdown that is set to begin at 12:01 a.m. on Oct. 1. They are nowhere near an agreement.
After a six-week summer recess, lawmakers return to the Capitol on Monday facing a changed political landscape but a vexing, very familiar problem: figuring out how to avert a shutdown.
They have just three weeks to do so. Funding for the government runs out at the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30, and former President Donald Trump is urging Republicans to force a shutdown unless certain demands are met. A shutdown would close federal agencies and national parks, while limiting public services and furloughing millions of workers just weeks before the election.
The presidential race looms over the final stretch for Congress; it is expected to leave again at the end of the month and return after Election Day. When the House left town for its summer break on July 25, President Joe Biden had just dropped out of the presidential race, Democrats were preparing to pick Vice President Kamala Harris as their new standard bearer, and Republicans were rushing to draw up a new playbook against Harris.
House Republicans have now settled on some lines of attack, which they’ll highlight in politically charged GOP hearings and investigations into both Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, on issues from border security to the Afghanistan withdrawal.
Donald Trump is urging Republicans to force a shutdown unless certain demands are met.
Remind me what office he holds again?
Weirdo in chief.
King of the GOP. After all, what else would you call a person who controls your party with zero accountability?
Reminded of Ted Cruz running around the House and whipping opposition to a government funding deal ten years ago. This led to the historic shutdown of 2013 - the third longest in history - which lasted 16 days and furloughed 800,000 state employees while leaving another 1.3M with delayed paychecks. It was one of the proximate causes of the 2014 downturn and was explicitly listed as the reason for US Government Debt being downgraded to AA from AAA by a number of major private credit agencies.
Four years later, similar tactics under the entirely Republican dominated legislature lead to a 35-day shutdown in 2018. This daisy-chained into the COVID crisis of 2019/2020, sparking a series of flash-crashes and then a final economic plunge in February as the pandemic death toll was swelling and hospitals filled up.
All that is to say, this isn’t a “Trump” thing. Republicans hate the government, love shutdowns, and don’t really care who it hurts so long as it wins them some ideological victories. And while you can definitely argue that the 2014 and 2018 shutdowns hurt their election prospects in subsequent years, what they really salvaged from these fights was permanent reductions in the scope of the federal workforce combined with significant shifts in national priorities (federal debt reduction overtaking climate change and health care reform as top-line priorities).
The Republicans have found a way to extract long term concessions from the federal government via some short-term incumbency defeats. And since they always bounce back as a party, and these incumbents always go on to cushy gigs in the private sector after falling on their swords in the political arena, I’ve got to say that it appears to be a winning strategy in the end.
Trump may lose the Presidency, but Trumpism as a policy appears to have cemented itself within the GOP Congressional majority. Democrats still don’t seem to have a remedy for the decay these shutdowns cause, nor do they seem particularly opposed to the privatization that fills in the gaps these shutdowns create.
And here we go again.
I feel like if we just required them all to be at work, every day, until these problems were resolved, they’d sort themselves out real quick. The fact that they get to not do their jobs and still take 6-week vacations every summer - and I mean every summer, because as you note, this always happens - is fucking ludicrous.
The long recesses aren’t fundamentally bad. In fact, there is an argument that they are a good thing. Because East Coast representatives can go home every night whereas West Coast are basically trapped in DC. Which means West Coast representatives are more likely to “compromise” during marathon sessions because they want to go home.
And a good representative actually talks to their constituents during those breaks. Rather than abandoning them to go on a holiday like so many do.
But yeah. Government shutdown should very much be “You are here until it is resolved” with no pay for the representatives.
Imagine us normal folk pulling this shit at our jobs. We’d get fired on the spot.
Normal people don’t have coworkers whose actual job is to sabotage them.
But we have to. It’s tradition! Plus it’s the only real policy the gop has so they have to flaunt it.
This is called economic terrorism. Let us do what we want, or we will wreck the economy.
As usual, Rep. Jeff Jackson (D, NC) offers an insightful take on how this will play out in congress:
The government won’t shut down.
Instead, we’ll play our familiar game.
In round one, the right-flank will demand various poison pills in the government funding bill in exchange for their support. The Speaker will pretend to agree with them. He’ll even do TV interviews where he loudly tells us how much he agrees with them. He really has to sell how much he agrees with them… because of what he’ll do in round two.
Round two is the Speaker throwing his right-flank under the bus and saying no to all their demands.
There are a few ways he can do that, but the most likely path is that he’ll let their version of a funding bill pass the House and then become dead-on-arrival in the Senate. At which point, he’ll turn to his right-flank and say, “Guys, you know I tried. You watched me try. I did all those interviews where I agreed with you. But it looks like we’re outta moves here, so unfortunately I have to remove your excellent suggestions from the budget bill. Really sorry about that.”
Round three is the right-flank pretending to be upset and going on TV to blast the Speaker for his “weakness” - but in reality, losing this fight works well for them.
Why?
Because pretending to be upset on TV is their favorite thing to do, so they won’t be genuinelyupset with the Speaker because he’s giving them an excuse to do it. As I’ve seen many times, this is a group that would rather accept a policy defeat that opens a political opportunity than give up a political opportunity to achieve a policy victory.
So don’t buy the hoopla. Things will get super contentious leading up to September 30th (when the money to fund the federal government runs out), but we’ll get it done.
Jfc just what ever. Like usual playing games with commitments already made. So sick of this every time.
So tired of this con. If the dems ever sweep the house and senate, I hope they pass legislation to put a stop to this nonsense.
If the dems ever sweep the house and senate, I hope they pass legislation
Six weeks off and three weeks to do one fucking thing. I hate the government.
That’s exactly what Republicans want. Why not hate Republicans instead?
Oh you think I don’t hate them too? I won’t even associate with them as people anymore. I still hate our ineffective stacked against workers broken ass government as a whole.
Ok, fair enough.
Proposal for a new
lawexecutive order, backed by “fuck you, official action”:First order of business for the House must be to pass the budget. Not a continuing resolution, or a 3-6 month kick the can thing. Pass the fucking budget. Representatives are locked in the House, and the House Sergeant at Arms posts armed guards to prevent anyone from exiting until the budget is passed. All exit is denied. No exceptions. No, not even medical. Bring paramedics, or even doctors and any equipment they may require in, but they can’t leave either. Order Uber Eats… but they can’t leave either. Bring your friends or family, they can’t leave either. Until you do your fucking job. It’s a one-fucking-way door until you pass the fucking budget.
This constant fucking grabassery and crisis manufacture is absolutely asinine and categorically fucking stupid.
Trump would wipe out humanity if it meant he “wins”.
His cultist would let him shit in their mouths if it was to OwN tHe LiBs
Lmfao. This made lol for real
There is no doubt they’ll get this done, though there will be chaos along the way.
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Rinse, repeat.
