Sen. Ted Cruz and his House minions are
once again plotting against Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, strategizing on how to make life as miserable as possible for the two and engineer a government shutdown while they're at it. Thus far, it looks like Boehner is as helpless as the last time they dragged the nation through this. Boehner has decided on a
"listening" approach, having meetings with the far right to try to do . . . something. It doesn't sound like that's
going so well so far.
According to a Republican in the room, Boehner and some of the most veteran antiabortion lawmakers supported other legislative vehicles and warned that using the spending process would not guarantee the behavior in question would end. No particular path was ruled out. "We make decisions as a team," he told the caucus, according to notes from the Republican. […]
Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) suggested that congressional GOP leaders were not willing to fight hard enough.
"We're setting up for surrender," Mulvaney said Wednesday at a gathering of House conservatives. "Leadership is going to have to choose: Do they want it to be a talking point, or do they want to actually do something about it?"
It all sounds depressingly familiar,
because it is. It's a replay of the Obamacare shutdown fight in October 2013. Boehner and McConnell are well aware of that, which is why they're so desperate to avoid it. And just like in 2013, the only way to avoid it is for Boehner to go to the Democrats. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi knows that very well, and is
adding some pressure of her own, making it clear that she will bring the Democrats, but her demand "in exchange for keeping the government open is to have a public commencement of 'good-faith' negotiations that would lead to a bipartisan deal loosening restraints on federal spending under the 2011 Budget Control Act, commonly referred to as 'sequestration.'"
That puts Boehner in the position of deciding if he's finally going to be leader of the whole House, if he's willing to finally cut loose Cruz's minions and damn the consequences, even if it means a challenge to his speakership. So, once again, the normal functioning of government rests on Boehner's willingness and ability to do the job he was elected to. Which means the government should be working now on a shutdown plan.