For the umpteenth time we are witnessing first-hand the embarrassing spectacle of political dysfunction in Washington.
With the deadline to approve the fiscal year 2024 budget at five to 12, differences in the ranks of Republicans in the House of Representatives have put the country on the brink of a new shutdown.
The divisions are so deep that they were not able to even agree on a temporary resolution to postpone the budget deadline.
It was a new political setback against House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who cannot control the most extreme members of his caucus.
But even if Republicans had had the votes to approve the resolution, it would have been vetoed by Senate Democrats or the White House, due to the inclusion of anti-immigration clauses.
The Republican plan includes most of the provisions of the Border Security Act (HR2) that would resume construction of the wall, tighten asylum standards, penalize visa overstays and increase the number of Border Patrol agents, among other actions.
Because a budget agreement is out of reach, everything seems to indicate that one of the few options is to pass a resolution that maintains public spending at the same level as in 2022, without conditions.
Just last May, to avoid a national debt crisis, McCarthy ignored his most radical wing, which wanted deep cuts to social programs necessary for the most vulnerable, while President Biden ignored the demands of his most progressive group that rejected the Republicans’ stance on conditioning discretionary spending.
But things have changed. McCarthy has less room for maneuver since he operates on the edge of the political guillotine.
A new coalition needs to be forged between moderates from both parties and advance an agreement that allows the federal government and its priority tasks to be kept open, without allowing itself to be manipulated by the extreme ideological positions of the most conservative wing of the Republicans.
Unfortunately, Washington has cultivated a perverse political habit of placing the operation of government on the edge of a precipice. It happened with the debt ceiling this year, and in almost every previous one in the last two decades with the budget. It is time for voters to cast a punishing vote against politicians who put their political or ideological interests before the interest of the nation and its people.
