House GOP won’t govern. Send this to the backbenches in November

by Jackie Calmes

Fortunately for the Republicans who control the House of Representatives, few Americans have been paying attention to their antics lately, given the focus on the presidential race. That’s what they’re doing: embodying the very definition of insanity — doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Led by “MAGA” Speaker Mike Johnson, Republicans are once again threatening to shut down the government with their actions. They returned from a long holiday break after Labor Day and decided to score election points — egged on by Donald Trump — rather than seriously try to pass legislation to keep the government funded. And they’re doing so just weeks before the new fiscal year begins on October 1, even though they’ve had months to pass regular federal funding bills to avoid a last-minute surprise.

Their doomed strategy—and they know it’s doomed—is familiar: Attach a favorite right-wing priority to the funding package and try to force the Democratic majority in the Senate and President Biden to accept it under deadline pressure. Except House Republicans don’t have enough votes to pass the package, given the opposition of both party defectors and Democrats.

In previous years, Republicans’ “poison” funding bills have included proposals against Obamacare, abortion rights, immigrants and transgender people. This time, immigrants are their target again, demanding a law requiring Americans to show proof of citizenship when registering to vote. Voting as a noncitizen is already a crime, and almost no one does it.

But over this hopeless case, Republicans in the House of Representatives would like to shut down the government.

There is a silver lining. The fiscal silliness is a welcome pre-election reminder of Republicans’ inability to govern and why voters should strip them of their majority in November.

The current saga is also a reminder that if Republicans retain their majority and Trump becomes president, they will function as an extension of his pathetic White House rather than the independent branch of government the founders intended.

Trump publicly issued his marching orders in capital letters just hours before his debate with Kamala Harris last week. In a social media post, he called the citizenship requirement an “election security” measure necessary to prevent Democratic fraud. Consider it a preview of his fraud claims if he lost to Harris.

Without proof of citizenship, Trump wrote, Republicans in Congress “SHOULD NOT, IN ANY WAY, SHAPE OR FORM, PROCEED TO CONTINUE WITH BUDGET REGISTRATION. DEMOCRATS ARE TRYING TO ‘PACK’ VOTER REGISTRATIONS WITH ILLEGAL VOTER REGISTRATIONS. DON’T ALLOW IT – SHUT IT DOWN!!!”

The speaker agreed, although you’d think Johnson would tire of being humiliated by his party and its leader just to stay in Trump’s good graces. His Trump-blessed bills never seem extreme enough for the chamber’s far-right faction (they never vote for spending bills anyway), and yet the measures are too extreme for embattled moderate Republicans. (Moderates is a relative term when it comes to House Republicans.)

Lacking enough support for his spending bill, Johnson canceled a House vote Wednesday, saying he needed more time for “family talks” with Republicans. If he can muster his slim majority and the bill passes, it will be dead in the Senate.

And the madness continues.

It was only last November, just after being elected speaker, that a nearly impotent Johnson addressed a group of Christian nationalists and compared himself to Moses, chosen by God to lead House Republicans — and America — to some political promised land.

We know how the funding fight will end: Republicans will pull out. They won’t pass the bill, Johnson will accept a compromise—as McCarthy had to, relying on Democratic votes—and they won’t shut down the government just before the election. They want to go home and campaign.

After two more weeks of partisan wrangling, until midnight on or after Sept. 30, Congress will likely pass a three-month, partisan-free bill that funds the government through mid-December. Biden will sign it. Then the House and Senate will return to a post-election “lame duck” session and fight through the holidays over a long-term spending measure, with a new Congress starting in January.

And that’s where the madness could end. Democrats have long been favored, by a small margin, to regain control of the House, and their prospects for a takeover improved after Harris displaced Biden at the top of the party ticket. If voters strip Republicans of their House majority, far-right extremists will be relegated to the backbenches where they belong. “Moses” Johnson will retire as speaker. And Democrats, led by their leader, New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, will lecture Republicans on how to actually get a bill into law.

Jackie Calmes is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times in Washington, D.C.