September 25, 2023 03:48 PM UTC

Shutdown Moves Inevitably Closer as Boebert Flops Like Fish

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• by: Colorado Pols

Members of the House of Representatives return to Capitol Hill on Tuesday and may get down to the business of casting votes as soon as tomorrow evening (but probably not, given House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s “Freedom Caucus” problem).

Not much has changed on the looming government shutdown question since McCarthy adjourned early last Thursday. McCarthy is in the same no-win situation. The Speaker can push a hard-right proposal favored by the House “Freedom Caucus” and rocket surgeons such as Rep. Matt Gaetz, but that idea is certainly DOA in the Senate. Alternatively, McCarthy could push for a bipartisan continuing resolution to keep the government open past Sept. 30, but going that route would likely doom his speakership and lead to hard-right Republicans calling for an election to select a new Speaker.

As POLITICO explains, McCarthy seems likely to try door number one:

Over the weekend, McCarthy rolled out his latest bid to pivot away from an embarrassing stretch where members of his own party left plan after plan in tatters, taking down two procedural votes and otherwise making a mockery of his ability to lead the House GOP.

McCarthy may attempt to package several full-year appropriations bills together for a vote in the House, much to the delight of Gaetz, but this appeasement of the far right is a non-starter for the rest of his caucus–not to mention DOA in a Democratic-controlled Senate:

There’s no guarantee McCarthy will be able to muster the votes to move forward — in fact, you’d have to bet against it, particularly after a top ally, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), announced Sunday that she remains a “hard no.”

And even if Republicans move forward with the full-year bills, that does nothing to avert a government shutdown next weekend. Gaetz and a handful of like-minded hardliners insist that they won’t vote for any continuing resolution to keep the government open temporarily — even one that reportedly includes a 27 percent cut to non-defense spending.

McCarthy, meanwhile, has shown no sign he’s ready to move forward with a CR that could pass with Democratic votes, lest the hard-right rebellion turn into an outright mutiny.

On the topic of Gaetz, he and Rep. Lauren Boebert were supposed to have been the featured guests at a La Plata County Republican Party fundraiser on Saturday. Instead of returning to Colorado, however, Boebert stayed in Washington D.C. We’ll get to that in a moment, but her absence at the La Plata County Lincoln Dinner led to a rough story from the Durango Herald:

Boebert and U.S. Rep Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who was slated to make a guest appearance at the Lincoln Day Dinner, decided to skip the major fundraiser, [Durango activist Harrison] Wendt said.

“Boebert and Gaetz stayed in DC. They’re not even in La Plata County right now. She put out a video today on some news organization where she said, ‘I’m here to serve my constituents and not perform political theater,’” he said. “But unfortunately, the GOPers spent hundreds, hundreds of dollars to see Matt Gaetz and Boebert. And now they won’t be there.”

Here’s a resulting headline that will surely bake Boebert’s noodle:

But this headline, as strange as it seems, is an indicator of Boebert’s hopelessly contradictory message as the shutdown rapidly approaches. Don’t take our word for it: on Friday evening, Boebert was on Newsmax telling host Eric Bolling that she was staying in Washington “working to avoid a government shutdown.”

This is basically the 180-degree opposite of what Boebert told Steve Bannon the next day:

BOEBERT: It is very well possible that we will see a one week, ten day, twelve day, maybe a fifteen day–hopefully not–shutdown of the federal government to get this right. [Pols emphasis]

With House Republicans set to vote on bills with no chance of survival in the Senate, hence doing nothing to prevent a shutdown growing more inevitable by the hour, welcoming the shutdown is probably Boebert’s first honest admission about a disaster that she and her Freedom Caucus colleagues are not only doing nothing to prevent but are the prime movers in instigating. The harm that will rapidly ensue from a federal government shutdown in Boebert’s district is the last thing America’s most vulnerable Republican incumbent needs, and that’s why she’s pretending she doesn’t want a shutdown with some audiences while welcoming it in the presence of America’s Greasiest Traitor™ Steve Bannon.

Only one of these expresses how Boebert really feels. She is lying to one or the other audience. We suspect she gave her real opinion to Steve Bannon and lied to Eric Bolling, but it really doesn’t matter. Because nobody trusts liars.

When the time comes to end the posturing and do the work, Boebert will not be part of the solution.