If Congress doesn’t raise the debt ceiling by September 30th, then on October 1st the US Government will begin shutting down. Non-essential federal employees would go on furlough until the government reopens. Although if NPR is to be believed the government isn’t even sure at the moment which employees will be cut and which will be allowed to keep working possibly without a paycheck.
How can this be happening again?
Many believe it is because the Republican House is in open civil war for their leadership. The Hill had a story today titled, “House Republicans Demand Better Communication From Leaders”,?but the real story is that the Republican caucus is falling apart.
On one side you have the “true believers” who think spending ANOTHER million dollars to “repeal” Obamacare for the 42nd time is a good idea. On the other side you have more pragmatic voices pointing out that Congress has to actually legislate at some point and the Republicans could very well lose their majority in the House if they get the blame for a government shutdown.
Earlier this year when Senators Ted Cruz (R-Cuba via Canada via Texas) and Mike Lee (R- Utah) began making noises about using the upcoming debt ceiling as a hostage to defund Obamacare. ?At the time, GOP Congressmen warned?House Speaker John Boehner to??get in front of the issue or else the battle will be set for us.”
The Speaker and the other Republican leaders in the House decided not to take this advice. Probably because they hoped that by not addressing the issue they could attach the blame for it to Senators Cruz, Lee, and Rubio who have floated the idea. In addition, the leadership had to acknowledge that coming out for compromise on the government shutdown was and is still considered a sure way to get primaried and possibly replaced.
The consensus in the House was that the Senate would once again pass a compromise and then the House could go along reluctantly (wink wink). The problem with that thinking is that you have several Republicans in the Senate planning on running for President and the leader of the Republicans in the Senate is fighting for his unpopular political life in his home state.
Also many members of the House who reside in safely gerrymandered districts don’t fear any repercussions of a government shutdown. They will blame the shutdown on Obama, their low information voters will believe them, and the ones who don’t will be safely locked away into districts where their votes don’t matter.
?We have the opportunity of a lifetime. We have public sentiment; we have the facts and figures on our side, and we have the leverage with the debt ceiling. Let’s put it all together and make it happen … The one person who’s done more to delay implementation of ObamaCare is Obama,? ?said Representative Dennis Ross of Florida
When you have people like Mr. Ross in Congress it is hard to get anything done because these days CONGRESS is the low information voter.
The ongoing Republican civil war between the far right and centrists seems to be fueled by the fact that most of those on the far right have never served in Congress as a minority and those who are considered centrists have. ?More than half of the Republicans 233 members have never been members of a minority party, or part of a minority group, which would explain their horrible policies.
The Hill said several members described the House Republicans as “leaderless” but many Americans do not think that is an accurate statement, and tend to think the more accurate one is that you cannot lead those who will not follow. Compromise has become a slang term for losing your seat in the new Republican Party so no one does it. This attitude, if it continues, will lead to a government shutdown and will cause all of us pain and shrink the economy.
Their war on the debt ceiling, is our pain. Just like the Republicans seem to like it.
Edited by Jeromie Williams?- Photo: Jimmy Kimmel
