The end of the government’s fiscal year is coming up on September 30. If lawmakers can’t come together to pass their mandatory spending bills by the end of this month, we’ll have yet another government shutdown. 

This week, the Washington Post says: “A federal government shutdown could happen soon.” Bloomberg reports: “US government shutdown would hobble SEC oversight...” A column in the Hill calls this “shutdown season.” 

Past shutdowns have left hundreds of thousands of federal workers furloughed and weakened our standing on the world stage. A shutdown impacts our daily lives in important ways, from pauses in food inspections to shortages of TSA workers at airport security lines that keep your flights safe.  

Americans like to think we are the world’s greatest democracy, but that’s a hard claim to make when we can't even keep the lights on. 

To make matters worse, on Tuesday night, five far-right Republicans teamed up to stall passage of the nation’s defense spending bill, which funds the men and women in uniform who defend our nation. Democratic Rep. Mike Garcia of California noted that members “handed a win to the Chinese Communist Party.” Republican Mike Lawler of New York said perfectly: “This is stupidity. The idea that we’re going to shut the government down when we don’t control the Senate, we don’t control the White House. These people can’t define a win. They don’t know how to take yes for an answer. It’s a clown show.” 

Has partisanship become so corrosive that a Republican-controlled House of Representatives can’t even pass a Republican defense spending bill to safeguard our national security?  

Meanwhile, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer vowed that if House Republicans manage to pass a short-term spending bill, the Democratic-controlled Senate won’t clear the bill. 

You’re not alone If you're frustrated with the “clown show” in the nation’s capital. A new Pew Research report reveals that Americans have these words to describe government: “divisive,” “corrupt,” “messy” and “chaos.” Pew bleeps out another choice word.