The Sunday Shows Get Ready For A Government Shutdown. (Again!)

We watch so you never have to.

We feel you, Selina Meyer.

The federal government is quickly barreling toward a government shutdown (again). So obviously that was a big discussion on this week’s Sunday shows.

Let’s dive in!

Mike Johnson

The current House speaker appeared on CNN’s State Of The Union to try to convince the public that if a government shutdown happens, it’s the Democrats’ fault.

After a week of ignoring meeting requests from Democratic leadership in Congress, Donald Trump has agreed to meet with them later today. But even Jake Tapper could see, based on everything that’s happened so far, the obvious outcome, and used a very cliché analogy in an interview with Johnson:

TAPPER: So, at this meeting […] is President Trump looking to make a deal, or is it going to be like when Michael Corleone met Senator Geary, my offer is this, nothing?

Johnson didn’t deny this is the plan, by the way. He just bloviated about Dems wanting “to reinstate free healthcare for illegal aliens paid by American taxpayers,” which Tapper pushed back on, before going back to clarify it’s the Republicans’ plan for Dems to cave for nothing.

TAPPER: So, just to be clear, there’s not going to be any negotiation at this meeting? This is just going to be you and Thune and Trump telling Jeffries and Schumer, we’re not giving you anything?

JOHNSON: […] I’m telling you where his [Trump’s] head is. He wants to bring in the leaders to come in and act like leaders and do the right thing for the American people. It’s fine to have partisan debates and squabbles, but you don’t hold the people hostage for their services to allow yourself political cover.

This from the party that’s put the full faith and credit of the country at risk numerous times for a ”border wall”? Mike Johnson’s ethics regarding governance are as questionable as his ethics on the law or spreading conspiracy theories.

Seriously, fucking spare us.

John Thune

The new, slightly younger Mitch McConnell appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press and reiterated that they will not negotiate to secure Democratic votes to pass their funding resolution.

KRISTEN WELKER: Leader Thune, aren’t you going to have to compromise with Democrats in order to get a deal and keep the government open?

THUNE: Compromise on what, Kristen? This is a simple seven-week funding resolution to allow us to do a normal appropriations process […] They’re trying to hijack it and load up all this liberal special interest stuff that they’re working with these outside groups to do. It’s politics. It is political posturing.

Really working on the spirit of “bipartisanship” there, Johnny.

Welker helpfully clarified what Democratic leaders are trying to get, and Thune seemed to make a modest concession about healthcare subsidies Democrats are trying to preserve, but Republicans want to kill dead.

THUNE: That doesn’t happen until the end of the year. We can have that conversation. […] Keep the government open, and then let’s have a conversation about those premium tax credits. I’m certainly open to that. I think we all are.

Except that Mike Johnson told Maria Bartiromo on Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures earlier that day that they are planning to let those healthcare subsidies expire at the end of the year.

BARTIROMO: How do you get back to pre-COVID spending when you’re bringing some healthcare subsidies back?

JOHNSON: We’re not. The subsidies for Obamacare would expire at the end of the year. I’m not in favor of that. I think it’s bad policy. But that’s not an issue for right now.

Oops. Guess the old “scorpion and the frog” trick might not work on Dems (this time).

Chuck Schumer

The Senate Democratic leader was on NBC’s Meet The Press once again relying on hopes and prayers.

Schumer gleefully described how Democratic leadership finally got Trump to pencil them in between OANN binge-watching and Truth Social threats after the escalators at the UN turned into terrifying stairs.

SCHUMER: So I called John Thune Friday afternoon and I said, “Come on. Let’s sit down. The only way we’re going to get this done is a serious negotiation. And we need the president as part of it, we need Speaker Johnson. Let the four leaders and the President sit down.” And Saturday evening we got a call from the White House that they would do it Monday at 2 p.m. So we’re delighted.

Truly, the most easily impressed person to ever be elected in Washington.

Schumer tried to put on his best “we need to have a serious negotiation” face and insisted nothing would get done unless Republicans worked with them. But Welker read a statement from Thune reminding Schumer (and the audience) why the GOP feels so emboldened now.

WELKER: He [Thune] says, “Rank-and-file Democrats are getting nervous, and Senator Schumer is too. The far left has painted them into an unsustainable corner, and they know it. Hopefully, Senator Schumer sees the light and listens to the same voice that walked him and his colleagues away from the edge of a shutdown in March.”

If you give bullies all your lunch money, it’s harder for them to take you seriously when you insist on putting up a fight.

But it seemed for a brief second, maybe, that Schumer has finally learned from his previous mistakes:

SCHUMER: We’re hearing from the American people that they need help on healthcare. And as for these massive layoffs, guess what? Simple, one-sentence answer: they’re doing it anyway. There’s no shutdown. They’re laying off all these people. The budget they’ve proposed says another 300,000 federal workers should be laid off. They laid off 80,000 in the Veterans Administration. They’re trying to intimidate the American people and us.

Holy shit! Has Chuck realized that Dems are the only hope to fight this authoritarianism in our two-party system?

WELKER: Is there anything you can do to stop it [troops invading Portland, Oregon] in Congress?

SCHUMER: Yes. First, we will fight it in the courts […] But second, I would hope […] that some of our Republican colleagues seeing — I know they’re loyal to Trump and does whatever he wants. But this is so far stepping over the line that I’d hope some of them would join us in legislation to prevent it from happening.

Never mind.

Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries are incapable of learning, and our democracy is fucked for it.

Have a week.

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