When the Republicans won control of both houses of Congress, new Majority Leader Mitch McConnell assured everyone that there would be no shutdowns of government. He either lied, or misjudged the insanity of the far right-wing of his own party -- because that is exactly what the Republicans are preparing to do (at least partially).With their new majorities, the GOP thought they finally had the power to force the president and the Democrats to do what they wanted. And they decided to start by forcing President Obama to do away with two executive orders he issued -- the first in 2012 that exempted "Dreamers" (immigrant children brought here when very young and raised in the U.S.) from deportation, and the second in 2014 that exempted the families of those Dreamers from being deported.
The Republicans (and their xenophobic teabagger base) have never liked those executive orders, and they thought they now had the power to get rid of them -- and the vehicle they chose to do that with was the funding of the Department of Homeland Security. When the budget for 2015 was passed, the Republicans refused to include that department in the budget. Instead, they passed a separate funding bill in the House for Homeland Security -- a bill that included provisions to overturn both of the president's executive orders.
They obviously thought the functions of this department was so critical (including Border Patrol, Customs enforcement, and airport security) that the Democrats (and the president) wouldn't dare to stop the bill, and let the department's funding cease (which will happen at the end of this month). They were wrong.
President Obama has said he will veto the bill if it reaches his desk. But it doesn't look like it will get that far. Senate Democrats have filibustered the bill, and it doesn't look like there is any chance of stopping that filibuster as long as the "poison pill" provisions are in the bill. The Democrats are demanding a clean bill -- without the provisions that would overturn the president's executive orders.
The Republicans have put themselves between a rock and a hard place. They must either pass a clean bill, or allow the Department of Homeland Security to shut down at the end of this month -- and neither option is acceptable to their teabagger base. Speaker Boehner could probably scrape together enough GOP votes to pass the bill with Democratic help, but that would just anger the teabagger members of his House GOP caucus -- and he is already having a very hard time trying to keep those members in line.
It's starting to look like that department will be shut down at the end of this month. House teabaggers say they are willing to allow that to happen, and Boehner says he is also willing to allow the shutdown. They still seem to think the Democrats and the president will blink first in this political game of "chicken". I don't. I think the department will be defunded and shut down -- at least for a few days. Then the Republicans will fold and pass a clean bill. After all, this is one of their favorite government departments and they won't let it be shut down for long.
It's going to take some public anger (at least for a few days) to give Boehner the political courage to defy his teabagger element in the House, but it will happen. All the Democrats have to do is stand fast.
(The caricature above of GOP congressional leaders is by DonkeyHotey.)
