A showdown on the shutdown is upon us. On midnight on October 1, the federal government will shut down if a continuing resolution is not passed.
There is a major push from the left to make sure that the agreement fashioned by Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer doesn’t repeat what he did last year, when he decided to keep the government open. Schumer was excoriated by the Democrats and his popularity took a hit as a result.
We commented back then that Schumer saved the Democrats from themselves. If a shutdown is to occur, it provides the party in power, which is the Republicans, and the president in particular, with extraordinary powers to slice and dice government spending.
There are many Republican fiscal hawks who are drooling at this potential opportunity.
Democrats may believe that a shutdown would be to their benefit, but it’s more likely that the shutdown would be blamed on them because the Republicans have submitted a continuing resolution that the Democrats will not sign, unless their demands are met. Among the demands is that the Republicans put back the funding in the budget to provide healthcare to illegal aliens.
It ain’t gonna happen.
As we said last year, after Schumer bailed them out, be careful what you wish for, Democrats, because a shutdown is going to lead to a lot of their pet projects being eliminated.