Republicans are at the political positioning/finger-pointing stage of budget negotiations, ahead of a potential government shutdown in a few weeks. While Congress approved a budget for the next fiscal year before the August recess, it didn't pass the necessary spending bills allocating the money. The stop-gap funding bill it also passed last month is going to expire on Nov. 21, after which there are three possible scenarios, only two of which are feasible. The Congress could pass and Donald Trump could sign all of the 12 appropriations bills. That's not going to happen. The two real scenarios: another stop-gap bill going until Christmas or into the new year, or a shutdown.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell really had to stretch Tuesday to make this all the Democrats' fault. "Welcome to Washington, where Democrats try to impeach President Trump for supposedly slow-walking aid to Ukraine and simultaneously filibuster the funding for the exact same Ukraine program here in the Senate," he said in his morning floor statement. Responding, Democratic Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer pointed out, "It was the Trump Admin that delayed hundreds of millions of dollars worth of already appropriated urgently needed military assistance to Ukraine earlier this year, a fact now being investigated by House impeachment inquiry."
Ah, impeachment. That segues us to a fretting Sen. Susan Collins, who is very concerned that impeachment will cause a shutdown. "It used to be that we frequently finished up the appropriations bills before the start of the fiscal year," she said, remembering back to 1999 and Clinton's impeachment. "That was the case that year." She was a juror on that impeachment, which she reminds everyone of as frequently as possible as a way to get out of saying anything about Trump's actions in trying to blackmail a foreign leader into interfering on his behalf in the next election.
"A potential impeachment trial gives added urgency to our making as much progress as possible on the appropriations bills," Collins added, "before we could be presented with the articles of impeachment." Fret, fret, fret.
They're trying really hard to make this seem like it's all the House's fault, but that body has managed to pass 10 out of 12 of the necessary appropriations bills, which, like everything else, hit the brick wall of McConnell. "I would hope the senators accept the responsibility that they have to complete their work," Rep. Nita M. Lowey, Democrat of New York and the chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee, reminded them. It would be nice if they accepted responsibility, yes. It's likelier they won't and will just keep putting this off via more continuing resolution stop-gaps.
If Trump lets them, that is. Because that's the fourth possibility no one wants to think about: In his rage over impeachment, he shuts everything down. After all, he still doesn't have his border wall funding. And the last disaster of a shutdown that everyone blamed on him was a long time ago, beyond his damaged recollection. As always, it's going to be a fraught holiday season for the whole country.