House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has a choice: risk a government shutdown on Oct. 1, just one month before the election, or defy the presidential nominee of his own party, compromise with Democrats and pass a spending package.
To date, Johnson has tried to pass legislation that would require only GOP votes, but that has failed to please anyone. He and his allies hoped that tacking on a provision to require proof of citizenship for voter registration would please his right flank, but it still wasn't enough to placate members frustrated over the bill's $1.6 trillion price tag and suspicious that the House speaker is disingenuously setting up a "fake" fight with Democrats. Moderate Republicans, meanwhile, are unhappy that the bill would punt a potential government shutdown to March and saddle a future President Donald Trump with a term-opening spending fight, while defense hawks are squawking over the extension of current military spending levels that, with inflation, would essentially amount to a budget cut.
