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.
In a lot of parliamentary systems that is what happens. In Australia it can result in a double dissolution election, in which every elected representative can potentially lose their job. The threat of that seems pretty effective at guaranteeing supply. Our conservatives would absolutely cripple the functions of government if they could.