By
It is undoubtedly good news that the federal government did not shut down on Saturday night at midnight. No one benefits from government shutdowns, and it was a positive development when House Speaker Kevin McCarthy unexpectedly changed his position and unveiled a stopgap spending bill that Democrats could support.
The American public can now feel confident that its federal government will remain open — for nearly seven weeks.
But Sen. Chris Murphy sat down with MSNBC’s Jen Psaki after the crisis was averted, and the Connecticut Democrat raised a point that struck me as notable:
“I’m glad that we are not shutting down the federal government, but what a low bar for House Republicans that we celebrate the fact that they can just barely keep the lights on with hours to go before a shutdown occurs.”
This had the benefit of being true. While 99 congressional Republicans across both chambers ended up ignoring their party leaders’ wishes and opposing the temporary spending bill, most GOP members ultimately voted to prevent a shutdown. That’s the good news.
The bad news is that Republican lawmakers waited until the last possible day to prevent a crisis they nearly created for reasons they’ve struggled to explain. To see this as responsible governing is impossible.
And the worst news is that these unfortunate series of events are only part of a larger story that suggests GOP governance is a cringeworthy mess. A Washington Post report summarized recent developments nicely:
At every turn this past week, when the spotlight was on them, Republicans showed the public their worst: marching toward a government shutdown wholly of their own making and then suddenly reversing course in the hope of avoiding one; botching their first hearing in an impeachment inquiry into President Biden that was launched without serious forethought or evidence of criminal wrongdoing; squabbling and shouting by presidential candidates during a nationally televised debate that mostly ignored the elephant not onstage.
That elephant, of course, is Donald Trump — who’s facing four criminal indictments across three jurisdictions, whose company is facing a $250 million fraud lawsuit in a civil trial that began today, and who also recently suggested that the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff deserved to be executed.
The most sympathetic response to a summary like this one is that last week was an unusually difficult one for the Republican Party at the federal/national level. The problem with such a defense is that last week, while dramatic, was a relatively normal one.
Ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, GOP leaders and candidates assured the electorate that a Republican majority on Capitol Hill would be amazing. The party knew exactly what to do, they said. Everyone would be so impressed, they said.
But 10 months into the House Republican majority, who’s celebrating? It’s a majority defined by a prolonged fight over the speaker’s gavel, months of infighting, investigations that have gone nowhere, a debt ceiling standoff that never should’ve happened, fixations on mindless trivia such as imaginary bans on gas stoves, and a shutdown threat that’s been delayed but remains on the table.
Who would seriously argue that GOP officials are using their majority responsibly and effectively?
Democratic Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut recently told The New York Times, in reference to congressional Republicans: “Can’t govern, don’t want to govern.” If the GOP intends to prove her wrong, it has a lot of work to do.