By Jonathan Bernstein
Bloomberg
Funding for the Department of Homeland Security is about to expire, and Republicans are bickering about what to do next. It’s time for a quick course in Shutdown Showdown 101.
House Republicans passed a funding bill last month loaded with veto bait — riders that would block President Barack Obama’s executive actions on immigration. Senate Democrats (with support from one Republican, Dean Heller of Nevada) have filibustered, not even allowing the Senate to begin work on the bill. If nothing is resolved by the end of the month, Homeland Security will technically shut down. Most of its functions are “essential” so will continue anyway, though others won’t, and some employees may not be paid until the impasse ends.
But these (partial) shutdown showdowns always end. In this case, it may be before the department is set to close, or sometime later in March or even April. And some final agreement will be supported, however reluctantly, by the Republican House speaker, the Republican Senate majority leader and the Democratic president.
John Boehner and Mitch McConnell know that. So they also know tea-party types will blame one or both of them as sellouts and squishes. If they had only fought longer or with sufficient grit (the demagogues will say), the Democrats would have caved, and Republicans could have claimed a complete victory.
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