On Sept. 19, two measures – one from each party – that would ensure the continued funding of the government past Oct. 1 failed in the U.S. Senate. Hammering out such bills always takes time, effort and compromises when the two parties are at similar strength and extremist Republicans seek to expand their influence.
The Republican-controlled House can pass such bills with their miniscule minority. But it takes 60 votes in the Senate, and the GOP has only 53.
This time, there is another factor that might stop the stopgap funding.
My local NPR outlet – KCCU at Lawton’s Cameron University – has already eliminated many of its programs, and its website masthead indicates a reduction in personnel.
The July action was a rescission vote, demanded by President Donald Trump, to take back funding that Congress had already approved.
The rescission vote kept Republicans safe from Trump’s threatened wrath if they did not cowardly kowtow. [Cowardly kowtowing Tom Cole has an apt ring to it.] They willingly sacrificed the good of their constituents to placate their orange idol.
But that rescission vote also told the folks across the aisle that Republicans cannot be trusted to negotiate in good faith. Their word is no good.
Trump, of course, is the lyingest public figure in U.S. history. But Congressional collegiality had preserved the framework of a functioning legislature. Republicans exploded that notion with their rescission vote.
By the end of the week, he was threatening to fire government employees affected by a possible shutdown instead of furloughing them.
A memo first reported by Politico and then obtained by NBC News indicated:
“With respect to those Federal programs whose funding would lapse and which are otherwise unfunded, such programs are no longer statutorily required to be carried out.”
The goal, of course, is to try to blame Democrats for the loss of federal jobs and services – at a time when the government is also trying to rehire thousands of employees fired during Elon Musk’s DOGE reign of ignorance.
Trump and company count on the short-term memory of Usanians and the populist satisfaction with easy answers to shift the focus away from Republican culpability.
Democrats, who are usually in the forefront of keeping government services serving, are fighting to ensure continued funding for health care and stopping Medicaid cuts. Pretty healthy goals unless your administration is in the forefront of destroying public health programs and individual well-being.
Trump and his legions of liars will try to spin away the blame. But who makes deals when the other side has demonstrated a willingness to break them within months?
