The clock is ticking. We’re less than 11 days away before the government funding lapses. Appropriations bills continue to flounder in the House. And the chaos and dysfunction of House Republicans, as many lawmakers — both Democrat and Republican — describe it, is leading the country directly to a now-almost certain shutdown.
A group of far-right House GOP members, in typical fashion, are holding spending bills hostage and refusing to vote for any bill that doesn’t meet every single one of their demands, which include spending cuts far below what GOP leadership agreed to and the curbing of abortion and LGBTQ rights. With the thin majority House Republicans hold, it only takes a handful of them to sink appropriations bills.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) could stop trying to give concessions to the hardliners in his caucus and choose to work with Democrats to pass a bipartisan bill. But that would likely lead, as some of the far-right members have been threatening, to a floor vote to oust him from the speakership.
Being in the minority, there’s not much House Democrats can do but wait for Republicans to figure out how to govern. But that is not stopping them from reveling in the very public, ongoing fight within the Republican caucus, making it clear early and often which party is, in fact, in disarray.
Relegated to Old News (9/23) – TP
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Article URL : https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/democrats-revel-in-house-republicans-chaos