House Adjourns Until September, Shutdown Likely

 

Squeaker of the House Kevin "Qevin" McCarthy continues to be jerked around by the extreme rightist so-called "Freedom Caucus" that's looking to shut the Federal Government down on September 30. To facilitate that effort, the House has adjourned until September 12, leaving only 11 legislative days to pass all 12 of Government's appropriation bills for fiscal 2024. Members of the radical Freedom Caucus are already saying that they'll block not only the appropriation bills, but any continuing resolution to keep the Government running to push their culture war agenda. From NPR:

"The House and Senate might not be able to agree to terms to fund the federal government by the Sept. 30 deadline, and that's OK to an influential bloc of hard-line House conservatives who are playing an outsize role in both the spending process and the fate of Kevin McCarthy's speakership.

'We should not fear a government shutdown,' Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., declared at an event outside the Capitol this week. 'Most of the American people won't even miss it if the government is shut down temporarily.'

Good is a member of the House Freedom Caucus, and he never voted to elect McCarthy speaker in any of the 15 rounds of voting it took for the California Republican to secure the gavel in January. Good is one of about two dozen lawmakers on the right who intend to use their influence to pressure the speaker to hold the line on spending this fall.

'Our speaker has an opportunity to be a transformational historical speaker that stared down Democrats, that stared down the free spenders, that stared down the president and said, 'No, we're going to do what the American people elected us to do,' Good said."  (our emphasis)

By holding the appropriations bills hostage, the MAGAts in the House want to force the acceptance of a right-wing culture war agenda, such as elimination of funding related to LGBTQ+, and racial diversity:

"The appropriations dispute is complicated by the fact that for many Republicans both in and out of the House Freedom Caucus, the annual must-pass spending bills are about much more this year than saving taxpayers' money.

Indiana Rep. Jim Banks, who is running for Senate, chairs a new 'Anti-Woke' Caucus made up of about two dozen Republicans who have lobbied appropriators to include additional policy riders to eliminate, prohibit or defund social programs or priorities that they say promote a 'far-left ideology' on race and gender with the federal government.

The group sent letters back in April to leaders of all 12 subcommittee chairs outlining programs they opposed. For example, they called for eliminating $3 million for the House Office of Diversity and Inclusion in the spending bill that funds Congress. The committee eliminated the funding in late June.

The culture war divisions have also sparked contentious moments in committee. Last week during a markup of the spending bill for the departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development, Republicans successfully stripped funding for three LGBTQ+ centers located in three separate Democrats' districts."  (our emphasis)

This group of radical MAGAts are delusional enough to think that the majority of the electorate   -- even those in Republican swing districts that voted for Biden -- favors their culture war agenda, having been gerrymandered into their solidly conservative districts where their views are popular. If the shutdown happens, Squeaker McCarthy will be looking at those swing districts for 2024, knowing they will be lost to Dems. Then he'll have to find a way of dealing with the "Freedom Caucus" he's foolishly given so much power to.