As I pen this blog post, a bipartisan vote in the U.S. House voted to avert a shutdown at midnight tonight. The Senate just passed it and it’s headed to President Biden’s desk.
The bill wouldn’t have passed had Democrats not come to the rescue, bailing out a GOP plagued with infighting and lack of leadership. The 45-day stopgap funding bill passed in the House with a vote of 335-91. Unfortunately, the bill doesn’t include more aid for Ukraine, but Dems such as Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) are hopeful that more aid for the embattled nation will be passed in the future.
All week Americans were warned that if a deal wasn’t met by midnight Saturday, September 30th, active-duty and reserve military troops wouldn’t get a paycheck, federal employees would face furloughs, and services such as food stamps and other federal aid programs could face disruptions.
Interestingly, government shutdowns weren’t a “thing” until Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-GA) used the move in 1995 as political fodder against President Bill Clinton. We can thank Newt for setting the stage for later shutdown fights between GOP hardliners and Democrats.
After the Clinton administration, threats of shutdowns didn’t happen over the two terms of President George W. Bush, or during Obama’s first term. However, during Obama’s second term, then-freshman senator Ted Cruz decided to resurrect the move in an attempt to undercut the Affordable Care Act.
The last (and longest) shutdown was during the Trump administration when failure to pass a budget bill involving $5.7 billion for the border wall closed the government for 35 days.
Although I rarely agree with Mitch McConnell (R-KY), he’s been around the block a few times in Washington, and he had this to say about shutdowns: “I’m not a fan of government shutdowns. I’ve seen a few of them over the years.” he added, “They never have produced a policy change, and they’ve always been a loser for Republicans politically.”
Although analysts say that government shutdowns don’t seem to hurt one party over another, it’s obvious that this time around, the impending shutdown was (and is) due to a highly dysfunctional and divided GOP.
Among the most dysfunctional is the so-called “Freedom Caucus,” led by the likes of Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Marjorie Taylor Green (R-GA), Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Eli Crane (R-TX) and Matt Rosendale (R-MT.) The FC released a statement on Twitter claiming that the recent spending bill is filled with “the Left’s cancerous woke policies in the Pentagon,” the “weaponization of the DOJ,” as well as visceral statements about border security, illegal immigration, and fentanyl.
Such rhetoric is typical word salad from this group of neer-do-wells. They and other Trump loyalists offer no solutions but are best known for their alarmist rhetoric, conspiracy theories, complaints about John Fetterman’s (D-PA) casual attire, condemnations of gas stoves, and their obsession with Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Adding to the dysfunction is the rift between the FC and House Speaker McCarthy (R-CA). It’s been common knowledge that Matt Gaetz wants Kevin’s head, and I’m sure it’s going to happen now with the recent stop-gap vote.
Let’s face the facts: Members of the FC, Trump supporters, and far-right representatives in both the House and the Senate don’t care about serving their constituents, they don’t care about serving the American people: It’s all about the drama.
According to C.J. Warnke, the communications director for a Democratic super PAC focused on electing Democrats to Congress: “Republicans have shown time and time again that they are incapable of governing. The threat of a government shutdown is another perfect example of how dysfunctional Republicans are for the American people.”
Even House GOP members see the dysfunction rampant in their own party. “This is, in my opinion, political incontinence on our part. We are wetting ourselves […] and can’t do anything about it,” Rep. Steve Womack (R-AR) told the Washington Post. “This is insane. This is not the way a governing majority is expected to behave, and, frankly, I think there’ll be a political cost to it.”
If we as a nation want an end to the drama, let’s vote for those candidates who act like adults and deliver for America.