House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s last-ditch plan to keep the federal government temporarily open collapsed in dramatic fashion Friday as a robust faction of hard-right holdouts rejected the package, making a shutdown almost certain.
McCarthy’s right-flank Republicans refused to support the bill despite its steep spending cuts of nearly 30% to many agencies and severe border security provisions, calling it insufficient.
The White House and Democrats rejected the Republican approach as too extreme. The vote was 198-232, with 21 hard-right Republicans voting to sink the package. The Democrats voted against it.
The sick thing here isn’t the impending shutdown. It’s that the article implies McCarthy did everything he could to make a deal, when in fact he and his party are the sole cause of the crisis - on purpose, to later blame the Democrats for “having no leadership or policy” and causing harm to the country.
He could easily get it through the house with Democratic support but it would mean the end of his speakership.
Millions of people will suffer because one guy doesn’t want to do the right thing.