Yes, Donald Trump Really Is That Stupid

If Republicans refuse to vote to keep the government open, they will be setting the table for the most dangerous fiscal crisis in American history.

Incredibly, Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans are hoping to shut down the government this week even though Republicans will control the presidency and both houses of congress for at least the next two years. Speaker Mike Johnson cobbled together a bipartisan continuing resolution that includes disaster relief, farm aid, and a couple of billions dollars to rebuild that bridge in Baltimore that got hit by a container ship. It would have kicked the can down the road until March when the Trump administration, presumably, would have been in a better position to manage a new spending bill.

Here’s what Trump had to say about Johnson’s bill which needs to be passed by Friday.

Republicans want to support our farmers, pay for disaster relief, and set our country up for success in 2025. The only way to do that is with a temporary funding bill WITHOUT DEMOCRAT GIVEAWAYS combined with an increase in the debt ceiling. Anything else is a betrayal of our country. Republicans must GET SMART and TOUGH.

Apparently, Trump wants to support farmers and pay for disaster relief by stripping those provisions out of the bill and making congress pass a clean continuing resolution instead.

This is, of course, incoherent nonsense. I don’t think raising the debt ceiling would be a huge problem for Democrats – they’re going to do it anyway – but the rest, after something like a month of negotiation, is a non-starter, and Hakeem Jeffries has said as much. “House Republicans have been ordered to shut down the government and hurt everyday Americans all across this country. House Republicans will now own any harm that is visited upon the American people that results from a government shutdown — or worse.”

This has been a long time in coming. The only reason Americans are comfortable with the idea of Republican governance is because the extent of Republican dysfunction has been papered over by Democratic votes. Time and time again, Democrats have voted to prop up Republican governance while Republicans pandered to the crazies. That should have stopped in September. It must stop now. Let Donald Trump and Elon Musk (?!?) have the shutdown they are demanding. This is only the first of many Republican-owned train wrecks to come over the next few years.

Heck, if Republicans shut down the government now, the ne plus ultra of train wrecks will be coming up over the next few weeks. When the new House is sworn in on January 3rd, it will also be facing a debt ceiling crisis which kicks in again on January 1st. And if Mike Johnson can’t get the government funded now, he’s unlikely to be elected speaker on the first ballot since it will only take two Republicans voting for someone else to deny him a majority. In other words, there’s a very real possibility that the U.S. Government will default on its debt during a government shutdown while, instead of trying to fix the problem, the House Republican caucus spends several weeks getting into fistfights on the House floor and trying to elect a new Speaker.

Even if we don’t get the worst case scenario, none of this is going to be pretty. But none of this will be the Democrats’ fault, either. While Democrats should work to keep America from defaulting on its debts, that’s an act of patriotism, not politics. Government shutdowns and fights over the speakership are another story. For the next two years, Democrats have no responsibility for anything that happens, or doesn’t happen, in Washington. Democrats can’t fix Republican dysfunction. They should certainly stop enabling it.