It’s that time of year in our nation’s capital again, friends. The federal government is about to run out of money, lawmakers are fiddling around like Isaac Stern, the right-wing yahoos are yelling for a shutdown and, as always, poor old Mitch McConnell is caught in the middle.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), who was handed his job amid tumult last year and immediately established he was almost as capable of handling the responsibility as my dog Elwood, announced this week he was pulling from consideration a temporary spending package that would keep the government’s doors open past the Sept. 30 budget deadline, past the Nov. 5 election, and through March 28, 2025.
But a whole mess of Johnson’s fellow Republicans, including the party’s presidential candidate, Donald J. Trump, are itching for a shutdown – thinking that, somehow, it will enhance GOP chances on election night.
McConnell, the Louisville Republican who will soon be leaving what seemed to be his lifetime post as Senate GOP leader, a man who has been through this rodeo too many times before, is having none of it.
“A government shutdown is always a bad idea — at any time,” McConnell told reporters this week, adding that the upper chamber now has to wait until the House acts before taking a whack at the situation.
It has now been going on 27 years — 1997, to be exact — since Congress last passed all 12 appropriations measures in full by the Sept. 30 deadline. Ever since, the government has been forced to operate at times under continuing resolutions or omnibus spending bills. On three occasions the whole kit and kaboodle shut down, including a period from Dec. 21, 2018 to Jan. 25, 2019 – the longest closure in history, as the two parties sparred over then-President Donald Trump’s obsession with constructing a wall along the southern border. Republicans finally caved.
The impact of a federal government shutdown is pretty obvious. While some employees considered “essential” will remain on duty, there will be fewer folks to meet the nation’s needs. For instance, airports will be severely disrupted with TSA agents on furlough, leading to delays and cancellations. National parks and museums will close, food inspections will be slashed. Closure will have a negative economic impact and financial markets will almost certainly give it a thumbs down.
Those are just a few examples. It will be an absolute mess.
There’s a lot involved in this go-round. Budget hawks, citing the growing deficit, are demanding cuts. This effort is being led by (you’ve probably guessed this by now) Rep. Thomas Massie (R-SomewhereOrOtherLewisCounty).
Massie, who isn’t totally wrong here, by the way, argues that Congress is once again staging a “political theater” over spending measures and that, yet again, a CR or an omnibus will emerge, asserting, “I refuse to be a thespian in this failure theater.”
“Why do we always spend at least as much as we did last year and why do we never cut spending?” he asked. “It’s because Democrats want to grow the welfare state and Republicans want to grow the military-industrial complex. And eventually we’re going to get together and they’re both going to go up, I guaren-damn-tee it.”
Massie offered a laundry list of budget items he opposes and are opposed by most majority Republicans, but they’re likely to be funded eventually anyway.
“…the tool that we have is the funding,” he said. “Why are we funding things we don’t like? We don’t have to. Well, it’s because we’re addicted to spending. And this (Johnson’s proposed temporary spending plan) doesn’t do anything about the addiction at all.”
The cut-spending crowd is joined by those on the hard-right who refuse to support any sort of continuing resolution on principle, further narrowing Johnson’s margins.
That’s one issue – but it’s the flip side that seems to be attracting the most attention. Johnson has included in the CR a provision called the SAVE (Safeguard American Voter Eligibility) Act, which would require prospective voters to prove American citizenship before casting a ballot.
Now, in the minds of many folks that might not sound unreasonable. In fact, it’s so reasonable that non-citizens are already prohibited from voting in federal elections, and studies show non-citizen voting occurs so infrequently it is essentially non-existent. The inclusion of the SAVE Act in the funding measure represents a contemptuous effort to stimulate anti-immigration racists and bring them to the polls. And those folks are likely Republican votes.
Complicating the matter, should Johnson follow through and keep it in the CR, is the fact that Democrats control the Senate. Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer, of New York, has already made it clear that inclusion of the provision is a non-starter with the funding deadline around the corner. It would place every legitimate, dark-skinned voter under undue suspicion, thus presumably keeping at least some away from the polls, a prospect anyone with faith in the democratic process would want to avoid.
But guess who’s pushing it and is advocating a governmental shutdown if the SAVE Act provision isn’t adopted.
Writing on his Truth Social website, the Lord of Mar-a-Lago, one Donald J. Trump, wrote, “If Republicans in the House, and Senate, don’t get absolute assurances on Election Security, THEY SHOULD, IN NO WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM, GO FORWARD WITH A CONTINUING RESOLUTION ON THE BUDGET. THE DEMOCRATS ARE TRYING TO “STUFF” VOTER REGISTRATIONS WITH ILLEGAL ALIENS. DON’T LET IT HAPPEN – CLOSE IT DOWN!!!”
Trump has previously ordered his minions to shut down the government during his earlier, disastrous term in office, blissfully unaware that the tactic almost always comes back to bite the GOP in the rear end, a happenstance most sane people might want to avoid.
But who are we talking about here?
Regardless, it’s up to Johnson to push the ball forward. He wants to get the temporary spending bill passed based on Republican votes alone, a heavy desire since the departure of a few GOP votes, like Massie, would render that impossible. He’s best off dealing with Democrats, but in this day and age consorting with the other side of the aisle is a mortal sin.
Johnson will probably keep the SAVE Act to gain passage. The Senate will pull the provision, pass a clean CR and send it back to the House, which will then approve the package with the help of Democrats.
Maybe.
And time’s a-wastin’.
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Written by Bill Straub, a member of the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame. Cross-posted from the NKY Tribune.
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