Worries the federal government could soon shut down continue to circulate after repeated failures in the GOP-led House to advance basic funding provisions.
Even votes on whether to simply move forward with — rather than provide final approval to — some of this funding have failed, an unexpected hurdle for processes often procedural. Republicans, who lead the House, haven’t even managed to approve something they want in this area, propelling forward a legislative process that would almost certainly necessitate consultation across parties.
Some Republicans, though, are seemingly welcoming at least the possibility of a shutdown, though key government functions like providing paychecks to large numbers of federal workers would be upended. In a hearing of the House Rules Committee last week, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) suggested the absence of a short-term deal on funding to at least keep the rhetorical lights functioning could be a net positive for these Republicans’ ambitions for negotiations because of amplifying the urgency. That’s despite the individual Americans whose livelihoods are hanging in the balance while Gaetz and those in that corner of the GOP pursue these political sideshows of policy that would supposedly prove so constructive.
Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.), who is already known as in the Trump wing of the Republican Party, recently claimed support from people in his district for the possibility of a shutdown if it meant supposedly better policies in the long-term. But how would that scenario actually transpire? “That’s what they think will happen and not many Republicans are leveling with them that shutdowns don’t work (@SpeakerMcCarthy is trying, but it’s not registering),” Sahil Kapur, senior national political reporter for NBC, said, discussing those Florida constituents. “Parties that shut down the government routinely walk away with nothing other than political pain.”
And there’s no evident caveat here that would make this group of House Republicans the exception, no matter how badly they want to brazenly lie to Americans about the border!
That’s what they think will happen and not many Republicans are leveling with them that shutdowns don’t work (@SpeakerMcCarthy is trying, but it’s not registering). Parties that shut down the government routinely walk away with nothing other than political pain. https://t.co/OxDZendGEB
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) September 25, 2023
