Government Shutdown – Deep Left Field

With a government shutdown now seeming more likely with each passing day, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is demanding that President Joe Biden agree to meet with him and “renegotiate” the debt ceiling budget deal they reached in June, mainly because McCarthy is under pressure from right-wing hardliners in his caucus who are insisting that federal spending for the neediest Americans be slashed to the bone.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is urging the president not to agree to any meeting with McCarthy, and she also had some choice words for the Speaker that have gone viral.

On Twitter, Ocasio-Cortez wrote:

“McCarthy already got his meeting w/ Biden and they struck a deal to keep gov open months ago. GOP held the entire US gov hostage in exchange for cuts & forced restart of student loan payments.

“Deal is done. Biden held his end. Nothing to relitigate. McCarthy can go pound sand.”

Hey, Kev: Go pound sand.

Later in the day Tuesday, Ocasio-Cortez added a jab about “boy math” to counter a meme that circulated online over the summer referencing “girl math.”

“Boy math is needing 15 attempts to count the votes correctly to become Speaker and then shutting down the government 9 months later.”

The 15 votes refers to the ballots needed to elect McCarthy as speaker, a position he holds ever-so tenuously and could lose at any moment.

It remains to be seen if McCarthy can indeed procure the votes he needs to pass any legislation whatsoever, especially since the GOP has such a narrow margin in the House of Representatives.

The federal government will be shuttered on October 1 if the Speaker cannot cobble together an agreement. Considering that McCarthy is the weakest, most feckless House leader in history, there’s no need to be optimistic a deal will be struck.

Having completely abrogated their responsibility to pass a new spending bill that would keep the government running beyond October 1, House Republicans headed home for the weekend and will have five workdays to get legislation passed that will keep the federal government from shutting down.

Clown show? Yes. Clusterfu*k? Most definitely. Typical bullshit from the GOP. Yep.

Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) is sick of the incompetence and Republican recalcitrance, all of it for nothing more than political posturing.

Appearing on CNN, Swalwell was asked by host John Berman if there would indeed be a government shutdown, to which the congressman responded:

“There shouldn’t be. … Democrats are ready to give the votes to keep the government open. But right now Republicans, they have failed to protect, they’ve failed to fund, and they’ve failed to govern. They are the failures.”

Swalwell: Democrats are ready to give the votes, to keep the government open. But right now Republicans, they have failed to protect. They failed to fund. And they failed to govern. They are the failures. pic.twitter.com/DlGOrNwYC9

— Acyn (@Acyn) September 22, 2023

Swalwell added that most of the blame can be laid at the feet of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).

“He needs to choose competence over chaos. He needs to choose for the first time in his life to be a leader rather than a spectator speaker.”

McCarthy and his minions in the House caucus are indeed failures, and they’re willing to shutter the government to please another failure: One-term, twice-impeached former president Donald Trump, who is desperate to change the subject from his multiple indictments and 91 criminal charges.

The shutdown doesn’t have to happen. But as long as the GOP remains in control of the House, it probably will. Why? Because failures only know how to fail and losers are destined to lose.