Here we go again. The House Republicans are running around in circles, unable to agree among themselves about what they were sent to Washington to do and we are once again on the cusp of a government shutdown. No matter who's in charge or what the circumstances are, they just can't get anything done. And for some reason, they believe this is a winning election year strategy.
The week started on a hopeful note. I was pleasantly surprised to see that Speaker Mike Johnson and House Majority Leader Chuck Schumer had agreed on a top-line budget number. This seemed to signal that Johnson and his team were serious negotiators who might be able to avoid a government shutdown. Of course, the framework was already in place from the deal struck last spring between then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Joe Biden to raise the debt ceiling. But it still spoke well of McCarthy's successor that he could be practical enough to recognize that he was going to have to negotiate.
