Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) had to cancel a planned procedural vote on a short-term government funding bill because he didn’t have the votes, which means that McCarthy still has no plans to keep the government open.
Ryan Nobles reported on MSNBC, “Maybe it is a good sign they are talking. There’s a real problem here. That’s the calendar. They only have roughly seven legislative business days before the government shuts down. They are nowhere near finding a bill that could pass the House and Senate and then be passed into law — or signed into law, I should say, by the president.”
Video:
Kevin McCarthy has to scrap his plan to vote on a short-term CR in the House as the Speaker seems to have no plan to avoid a government shutdown. pic.twitter.com/vnMaHJtih8
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) September 19, 2023
It is total legislative malpractice for McCarthy not to have a bill passed to keep the government open. It isn’t like the September 30 deadline was a surprise. The deadline is the same every year, but Kevin McCarthy has not had the votes at any time to pass a bill to keep the government open because members of his caucus think that they can ransom Joe Biden and ‘win’ a government shutdown.
House Republicans won’t win a government shutdown.
McCarthy tried to bribe his caucus with a Biden impeachment investigation, but that didn’t work, as several far-right conservatives want to shut the government down.
Speaker McCarthy could work with Democrats to keep the government open, but he chose to forward a continuing resolution that did not contain any input from House Democrats.
Kevin McCarthy created this mess, and in a just political system it would cost him and House Republicans their jobs.
