September 21, 2023
I have to tell you something about this looming government shutdown scheduled in just a few days.
Remember – don’t get mad at me…I’m just reporting what’s happening.
House Republican leadership has just decided to send lawmakers home for the weekend. You heard me correctly…instead of staying on Capitol Hill and working out the deep divisions in the GOP caucus when it comes to how to fund the government – they’re going home.
Republican leadership says they’re so far apart on any deal within just the Republican party – that everyone needs a break to cool off. Now they will be “on call” to return to Capitol Hill if there is a breakthrough in negotiations.
Keep in mind, the House Speaker is not engaging with Democrats at all when it comes to how to fund the government. He has been working on getting very conservative priorities into a short-term spending plan to keep the government open. Obviously, many of those policies are hard NOs for House Democrats. And at this point, McCarthy can’t even his whole caucus on board with his plan because the far right conservatives want even more conservative measures included.
Now – remember – whatever gets passed out of the House must also pass the Democrat controlled Senate. So if a spending plan from the House is packed full of only conservative priorities, it will not pass the Senate and then we’ll be back at square one with the government shutting down on October 1st.
