The government will be shut down in just four days unless Congress can find a way to avoid it.
All eyes are on House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who reached an agreement on spending levels with President Biden three months back. Still, McCarthy could not get his peers on board due to a small group of Republicans rejecting the plan—some are even calling for his speakership.
A Senate-led solution needs an expeditious, unanimous vote and votes from House Democrats to avoid a shutdown. However, on Monday, McCarthy saw another wrench thrown into his plans after former President Donald Trump encouraged the hardliners to hold out, forcing a shutdown.
“The Republicans lost big on Debt Ceiling, got NOTHING, and now are worried that they will be BLAMED for the Budget Shutdown. Wrong!!! Whoever is President will be blamed,” Trump wrote, adding: “UNLESS YOU GET EVERYTHING, SHUT IT DOWN! Close the Border, stop the Weaponization of ‘Justice,’ and End Election Interference.”
McCarthy does not want to see the government shutdown.
“I don’t think anybody wins a shut down,” he said in the Capitol last week. “Think for one moment what a shutdown does. It stops paying our troops. How do you have more leverage in that situation? I’ve watched shutdown after shutdown, everybody loses.”
On Monday evening, The Hill reported that at least three Republicans — Reps. Mike Lawler, Don Bacon and Brian Fitzpatrick expressed a willingness to join Democrats in signing a discharge petition. The petition would force the vote on a clean spending bill on the floor, so McCarthy would not have to do it himself.
A MAGA shutdown drains billions of dollars from our economy. It says to our men and women in uniform — you’re not getting paid. To women and children depending on food assistance — you're not eating.
— Nancy Pelosi (@TeamPelosi) September 26, 2023
All 3 recent shutdowns were under REPUBLICAN House Speakers. Irresponsible. -NP pic.twitter.com/Q5IhfsU7Rf
“If the clown show of colleagues that refuse to actually govern does not want to pass the CR. I will do everything we need to make sure that a CR passes, the bottom line here says we’re not shutting the government down,” Rep. Mike Lawler said per CNN. “These folks don’t have a plan. They don’t know how to take yes for an answer. They don’t know what it is to work as a team. They don’t know how to define a win. So at the end of the day, the American people sent us here to govern. They sent us here to be in the majority and be responsible. And that’s what I’m gonna do. And so if that requires, you know, taking action to get a bill on the floor to pass the (continuing resolution) because they refused to pass the rule, or they refuse to pass the CR that the vast majority of the conference supports, then that’s on their doorstep.”
Can an agreement be reached in time?
