The Senate last night failed to approve
the House-passed budget resolution, bringing about a government shutdown.

Orchestrated blame games have begun with the predictable partisan spinning. But some key points:

Advertisement

* Four Republican senators joined most Democrats in opposing the continuing resolution.

* The Republican leadership pitched the vote as children (continuation of the children’s health insurance program) against immigrants (the insistence of Democrats and some Republicans to do something about the “dreamers”). But CHIP expired months ago and could have long ago been re-authorized separately if the Republicans were really serious about that program. There is a bipartisan 60-vote majority in the Senate that supports a solution for the dreamers, or the DACA element of the bill.

Advertisement

* Trump (and hard liners like Sen. Tom Cotton) won’t settle for anything but punitive immigration legislation.

* There’s talk of another stopgap solution today while an effort is made to have a separate vote on DACA.

Advertisement

Everyone shares in the government shutdown at some level. But a fish rots at its head. This chaos looks most of Donald Trump’s making.

Arkansas Republican voted predictably and spun predictability, blaming Democrats for forsaking children. The spin is dishonest, but what’s new? Bottom line, for the first time anyone can recall, a party in control of the White House and Congress will preside over a government shutdown and try to blame the minority for it.

Advertisement