If that happens, the GOP really will be the party of Ted Cruz and Steve King! And if that happens, in the resulting political battle over the looming threat of a government shutdown, Republicans will work hard to create a narrative in which their own drastic measures were only necessary in response to Obama’s extreme lawlessness.
So let’s recall a bit of context here: Republicans had previously been planning to possibly use government funding fights — which carry with them the implicit threat of a government shutdown — to reverse Obama’s already achieved policy gains. We know this because Mitch McConnell himself usefully confirmed it on the record in August. He said the new GOP Senate majority would attach riders to spending bills, designed to get Obama to agree to roll back his policies on the environment, health care, and elsewhere, or risk a government shutdown. McConnell made the same pledge in a private Koch confab with wealthy donors.
McConnell may or may not go through with that tactic; it may well have been just bluster for the base. He appears to want to move away from it now. But it’s looking increasingly like GOP leaders may have no choice. As Robert Costa reports, the desire among conservatives to do this is so intense that Republicans may not be able to get the votes to pass a long term budget that doesn’t do this, which means the tactic may have to be employed if only to placate them. And so, if and when the inevitable spin war erupts over the chaos that unfolds, let’s not pretend that this tactic was only hatched as a response to Obama’s overreach.
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