2023-10-01 17:30:56
© Reuters. US Capitol in Washington 9/28/2023 REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
By David Morgan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States narrowly avoided a fourth partial government shutdown in a decade, but the past week has exposed the depths of political dysfunction in Washington and particularly within the fractured House Republican caucus.
Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s last-minute decision to turn to Democrats to pass a short-term funding bill has pushed the risk of a shutdown to mid-November, meaning the more than 4 Millions of federal government workers can count on continued payments for now.
But the mere fact that the government was just hours away from a shutdown — with former President Donald Trump encouraging the idea, and just four months after the country barely paid off its $31.4 trillion debt — raises concerns. on the functioning capacity of Congress.
“Congress isn’t looking very good,” said Sarah Binder, an expert on governance issues at the Brookings Institution think tank. “Arguably the only thing he needs to do every year is pass laws that fund the government.”
The near shutdown is just the latest example of Congress malfunctioning.
Hardline conservatives blocked Senate action on hundreds of military promotions because of abortion, closed the House floor for a week in June and subjected McCarthy to 15 humiliating votes before allowing his election in January. They can still impeach him because he compromised with the Democrats.
And, of course, less than three years have passed since January 6, 2021, when thousands of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in a failed attempt to overturn his election defeat to Democratic President Joe Biden. Trump is the clear favorite for the Republican nomination to challenge Biden in 2024.
An attempt to impeach Biden, led by Trump allies, has also fueled partisan anger and divided the House majority with an investigation that even some Republicans say has failed to produce tangible evidence of any wrongdoing by Biden.
‘NO WAY TO GOVERN’
Partisan divisions between the House and Senate make it unlikely that the 118th Congress will match the policy achievements of the last Congress, when Democratic majorities in both chambers passed bipartisan bills on infrastructure, U.S. technology and other issues.
Confrontation and polarization have already spread beyond politics and threaten the US financial outlook. Credit agency Moody’s warned last week that a shutdown would undermine its “Aaa” recommendation for the United States.
“Running from one fiscal cliff to the next is no way to govern. We should never have ended up in this situation in the first place,” said Democratic Rep. Earl Blumenauer.
The House and Senate have been on divergent paths on funding since McCarthy agreed to set fiscal 2024 spending at $1.59 trillion four months ago.
DYSFUNCTION
House Republicans have split into infighting over the hardline group’s demands for $120 billion in cuts.
“The Dysfunction Caucus in action,” Republican Rep. Don Bacon told reporters earlier this month after hardliners blocked consideration of a defense bill that finally passed Thursday.
“Government is not a soap opera,” Republican Rep. Monica De La Cruz of Texas said Friday, expressing her frustration with Biden’s border policies and opposition to a failed Republican stopgap bill that included restrictions border.
Before Saturday, bitter political relations between the parties, and within the Republican Party in particular, devolved into attacks, some aimed at hardline Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz, a prominent bipartisan funding advocate who has threatened to call for McCarthy’s ouster.
“He’s not a conservative Republican. He’s a charlatan,” Rep. Mike Lawler, a centrist New York Republican, said of Gaetz after the failed Republican vote.
Gaetz responded in a podcast appearance: “I’m going to take my blanket and curl up in a corner and call my therapist and figure out how to deal with all the hurt feelings.”
Some House Republicans worry about personal rivalries and a general lack of confidence in a 221-212 majority that can afford to lose no more than four Republican votes on legislation that is opposed by Democrats.
Just one in three respondents to an August Reuters/Ipsos poll said they had a favorable view of the House or Senate.
Of the majority leaders, McCarthy had an approval rating of just 21%, while Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer – the top Democrat in Congress – had a 26% approval rating.
These ratings were well below the 40% of respondents in September who said they had a favorable view of Biden or Trump.
Democrats believe McCarthy wasted time presiding over the chaos.
“The majority has overwhelmingly demonstrated, over the last few days and over the last few months, an unwillingness to govern, an inability to govern, and chaos — general chaos,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee.
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