Government Shutdown May Be Ahead: UPDATE Deal Reached

Government funding runs out in nine days, at midnight on Sept. 3, unless the House and Senate pass new spending legislation before then.

But House Democrats unveiled a short-term spending bill on Monday that Senate Republicans immediately denounced, raising the prospect of a government shutdown weeks before the November election, reports The Washington Post.

From my perspective, any shutdowns are never long enough and don't cover enough of federal government operations. 

The US government is far too vast and a government lockdown as long as the COVID lockdown of the private sector would suit me just fine. That is extremely unlikely. The longest shutdown has been only from December 2018 until January 2019.

It is really about politics. The Republicans and Democrats are really both big spenders. They just want the money to flow to different groups.

The House Democrats’ legislation would keep the government funded through Dec. 11. But it omits $30 billion sought by Trump and Senate Republicans to replenish a bailout program for farmers that Democrats oppose. 

At one point last Friday, House Speaker Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Mnuchin had appeared to reach a tentative deal but that collapsed.

-RW

UPDATE

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin reached a deal Tuesday to take the threat of a government shutdown at the end of the month off the table.