“We’re barreling towards one of many longest shutdowns in American historical past,” Home Speaker Mike Johnson mentioned Monday.
That is unhealthy information for the American individuals, and a really unhealthy search for Congress.
We’re on the two-week mark, and the earlier somebody-blink-already line within the sand — pay for the army — has all however been erased.
As The Hill reported, a Protection Division official mentioned Saturday the division recognized about “$8 billion of unobligated analysis improvement testing and analysis funds (RDTE) from the prior fiscal yr that shall be used to situation mid-month paychecks to service members” if the federal government doesn’t reopen by Oct. 15.
That’s nice for service members, and will have been a gap for compromise within the spirit of constructing issues work for People who work for us, however no. That is DC, and no probability for political posturing goes wasted.
Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) mentioned Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that the administration’s plan was “most likely not” authorized.
“I believe to pay the army throughout a shutdown would require laws. The Speaker of the Home has taken that off the desk,” Himes mentioned.
Keep in mind the large image, individuals, and cease utilizing taxpayers as pawns, or worse but, collateral injury.
If lawmakers actually needed to work within the nation’s greatest curiosity, not their respective get together’s, they might make a rattling deal, now.
It will not be excellent, either side might not “win,” however finally, the American individuals will get a functioning authorities again.
The worst case situation? The shutdown drags on till the following “drop useless” occasion — Thanksgiving. That’s when partisan bickering might actually floor the nation.
Air visitors controllers and TSA personnel are nonetheless on the job, however aren’t being paid in the course of the shutdown.
As Politico reported, such personnel have reported sick at larger charges or in any other case not proven as much as work beneath related circumstances previously.
Home Majority Chief Steve Scalise and different leaders mentioned Tuesday these impacts had already began and would escalate as time goes on and on.
“Airports shall be flooded with flight cancellations and delays amid the busiest time to journey all yr, and the listing goes on and on,” Home Majority Whip Tom Emmer mentioned alongside Speaker Mike Johnson at a information convention Tuesday.
Thanksgiving is already a journey ordeal — the crowds, the traces, the worry of cancellations on account of climate. Add unpaid staff calling out “sick” and the vacation vaults into nightmare territory.
All throughout the nation.
This mustn’t be seen as political leverage, it’s a catastrophe within the making, pure and easy. And there’s time to cease it.
“As TSA brokers and air visitors controllers present up with out pay, Democrats brag they received’t budge till planes fall out of the sky,” mentioned Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.), the GOP convention chair, citing a remark from a Democratic aide. “Actually? Severely?”
If Congress can’t go a spending invoice earlier than the Thanksgiving vacation, what is going to individuals bear in mind? Who will individuals blame? Everybody on the Hill who couldn’t get their act collectively to go a price range.
Now, who will step up and save Thanksgiving?
