The spending stalemate that has brought the government to the brink of a shutdown is being fueled by G.O.P. demands to add conservative spending mandates opposed by President Biden and Democrats.
The spending showdown that has brought the government to the brink of a partial shutdown this week is being fueled by Republicans in Congress, who, after failing in their efforts to slash federal funding, are still insisting on right-wing policy dictates.
House Republicans loaded up their spending bills with hundreds of partisan policy mandates, a vast majority of which had no chance of passing the Democratic-controlled Senate or being signed by President Biden.
They include measures to target various pieces of Mr. Biden’s agenda, such as one to restrict access to abortion medication and another to restrict the Department of Veterans Affairs from flagging veterans deemed mentally incompetent in a federal background check needed to buy a gun.
With just four days remaining before funding lapses for roughly a quarter of the government, some of those issues are emerging as major sticking points in negotiations to reach a deal to keep the money flowing. Republicans also are objecting to a proposed increase for federal programs aimed at providing nutrition assistance for low-income families as well as for women and infants.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The spending showdown that has brought the government to the brink of a partial shutdown this week is being fueled by Republicans in Congress, who, after failing in their efforts to slash federal funding, are still insisting on right-wing policy dictates.
Complicating the picture for Speaker Mike Johnson, who met at the White House on Tuesday with President Biden and the other top congressional leaders, Republicans themselves have been divided over what to push for in spending talks.
Ultraconservative lawmakers who rarely support spending legislation have been the loudest voices in favor of cuts and hard-line policy provisions, but more mainstream and politically endangered Republicans have refused to back them.
In one case last fall, the more moderate lawmakers helped to sink a spending bill that prevented money from being spent to enforce a District of Columbia law that protects employees from being discriminated against for seeking contraception or abortion services.
Hard-right Republicans have tried to use their party’s razor-thin majority in the House as leverage to wring spending cuts and conservative policy conditions on how federal money can be spent from Mr. Biden and Democrats in the Senate.
Right-wing Republicans have grown increasingly unhappy as they have watched government funding keep flowing without cuts or policy changes, and they are ratcheting up pressure on Mr. Johnson to secure some kind of conservative victory in the current spending negotiations.
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Only because the government is spending money on citizens and social programs. They don’t mind the enormous military budget or all the oil, coal, gas, and farm subsidies.