(Oct. 3) Amid the usual posturing from both parties in Congress, one side in this week’s government shutdown theater has been much more reasonable. By every historical standard, it is not the Democrats but the Republicans, with Louisiana Speaker Mike Johnson and Majority Leader Steve Scalise as their primary spokesmen, who have been dealing straight.
By very definition and by all procedural realities, the side that votes not to keep government open is the one that is “shutting down the government.” This is not complicated: A vote to finance government operations is, yes, a vote to finance government operations. Every Republican but one in the House and Senate voted to finance government operations, while the votes against the funding all came from Democrats.
Granted, sometimes one side will try to insert nonessential policy choices onto basic appropriations bills. Still, if those policy choices are not usually handled via such appropriations bills, and if they are controversial, then the side insisting on them is ceding some of the procedural-moral high ground.
Keeping the government open only by making the opposing side swallow what amounts to a poison pill is usually considered (forgive the mixed metaphor) to be somewhat dirty pool.
This, though, is where Speaker Johnson’s consistent message has been so right on target, and where Republicans in general have been on the side of angels. Johnson keeps noting that the Republicans have been trying to keep the government open through Nov. 21 via what is known as a “clean” continuing resolution: Current government spending levels and rules, across all agencies, would stay the exact same while negotiations continue, with no extraneous policy issues included.
In this latest battle, Democrats have been rejecting an absolutely clean bill, even though it continues spending levels liberal enough that it is the same amount signed into law by former President Joe Biden. There are no poison pills from the Republicans, period. Instead, it is the Democrats who have been trying to add an extraneous policy change that Republicans see as a poison pill…. [The full column is at this link.]
