You’d think that because Republicans control the House, Senate, and White House, they’d be the ones who are first and foremost held responsible for the impending government shutdown, with the obvious exception of right-wing outlets like Fox News. But you’d be wrong. From the Boston Globe:
From the article:
WASHINGTON — Democrats, whose brand as a party is based on government’s potential to positively affect lives, are seriously contemplating a government shutdown for the first time since Republicans won back Washington in last year’s elections.
Spurred on by a fired-up base who have declared themselves “the resistance” and the historically low approval ratings of President Trump, Democrats are now considering withholding their votes to fund the government until they get a deal to protect young unauthorized immigrants brought to the country as children.
The government shuts down Friday at midnight if Congress doesn’t act.
And here’s a clip from ABC World News Tonight:
It’s the Republicans’ own fault they’re in this bind in the first place. In their endless delays of passing a real budget, and by attempting to pass anything and everything through the House and Senate by reconciliation (rather than, you know, compromising with the minority party in order to get a normal and not minimal amount of votes), the Republicans are now in a position in which the government will shut down Friday night if they don’t pass something. They need Democratic votes. Are they doing much in the way of negotiating? Nope. And yet it’s still Democrats’ fault.
It seems lots of people have forgotten that Trump thought a government shutdown was a good idea back in May, probably because he didn’t know what it even meant:
And, judging by this tweet,
it would appear that, yes, Trump is either stupid enough (very probable) to believe a government shutdown would also shut down the American military, or he’s deceitful enough (also very probable) to lie about it.
Now, Republicans came up with a plan to keep the federal government funded through February 16 in order to (supposedly) work on negotiations with Democrats on CHIP, but that no longer seems likely:
With a possible government shutdown looming this weekend, the House had planned to vote late Thursday on a stopgap spending bill that would keep government funding flowing to Feb. 16 as delicate negotiations continue to protect young, undocumented immigrants brought illegally as children from deportation.
But by midday Thursday, the chances of a shutdown appeared to be rising. Efforts to negotiate a broader budget deal that would protect young undocumented immigrants, raise spending for military and domestic programs and fund children’s health care had been making progress until Mr. Trump referred to African nations as “shithole countries” last week. The ensuing uproar upended budget and immigration talks and emboldened Democrats. On Thursday, senior House Democrats introduced a resolution to censure the president for his words.
Republicans, hoping to keep the government open while tempers cool, turned to a one-month stopgap spending measure, but that gambit may be nearing a dead end. Illustrating the trouble, Virginia’s two Democratic senators, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, whose constituents include hundreds of thousands of federal workers, announced together that they would oppose the temporary spending bill. They had been seen as among the most likely yes votes in the Senate, where Republican leaders need at least nine Democrats to support the bill.
And guess who else decided to weigh in on the matter:
There are a lot of Democratic and left-leaning voices that seem convinced voters will not blame them for a shutdown. We know that among Republicans and especially the Trump cultists, this isn’t true. The whole point of right-wing media, and to a lesser extent the ‘both sides’ function of the mainstream press, is to shift blame to Democrats when convenient. Despite controlling congress for years under Obama and being obstructionist, the Republicans, now controlling the White House and congress, are claiming it’s the Democrats who are the real obstructionists. I’ll bet just about anything it works—if not completely, then at least well enough.