– – – – – – – – – – – – – [CUT HERE] – – – – – – – – – – – –
It’s been a chaotic September already on Capitol Hill – we’ve barely shaken off the August recess cobwebs and the month is already halfway over. With just a handful of legislative days left to go, the Republican-led Congress is once again staring down a long list of looming deadlines, including the expiration of the Highway Trust Fund, FAA Reauthorization, and of course, funding the government.
Despite having a long, critically-important legislative to-do list, mum’s been the word from Speaker Boehner and House Republican leadership on how and when they plan to corral their unruly caucus and govern responsibly ahead of the end of the Fiscal Year.
As Whip Steny Hoyer put it on Wednesday when addressing reporters,“[For Speaker Boehner and Leader McCarthy] Not to have a plan to articulate to any of you in how we are going to keep the government open … without considering anything on the floor this week…is dysfunctional.” He also added that Speaker Boehner and his colleagues have not reached out to discuss a compromise spending bill or plans to keep the government open.
We get it, between tracking the machinations of the secretive Freedom Caucus, keeping tabs on rumors about a possible Mark Meadows-led overthrow of Speaker Boehner and avoiding fallout from another toxic GOP presidential debate – House GOP leaders have had a lot on their minds.
So if you in the press, like us, find yourself guessing what Speaker Boehner’s plan is for avoiding a government shutdown, that also appeases the seemingly unappeasable right-wing constituency within his caucus – fear not! We’ve got you covered with our House GOP Shutdown Fortune Teller. It’s 100% guaranteed to be at least as accurate at predicting what’s to come this month as the utter guesswork and smoke-signal reading that is otherwise available on the Hill.
You remember this fun and helpful game! Just follow these steps:
- Pick a name from the House Republican leadership whose mind you’d like to read
- Spell out that name
- Pick the number of legislative days (1 through 8 left!) until shutdown day, for which you need help planning
- And then, just choose a tab! The message inside is the sure-fire best way to predict what that member of the Republican leadership will decide to do that day!