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Hello Indivisibles!

Leaves are falling, there’s a chill in the air, and MAGA Republicans are
trying to shut the government down. Welcome to this month’s Leah & Ezra
newsletter, where we share our takes and what’s on our minds.

I’ll be writing these for the next few months while Ezra is out (scroll to
the end for a picture of Ezra and Lila on their parental leave
adventures). And today, I want to talk about the next totally unnecessary
MAGA-induced crisis: the looming government shutdown.

What you need to know

Now you might be thinking: Didn’t we just go through this whole cycle a
few months ago? The brinksmanship, the urgent warnings, the crisis over
government funding? Why on earth is this happening again?

The short answer: Because Republicans have handed the car keys to the most
extreme members of their caucus and they’re driving us all off a cliff.

The long answer: The May default crisis was resolved in the nick of time
with a deal between President Biden and Kevin McCarthy. That deal set
top-line spending levels for the coming year’s budget.

Extreme MAGA Republicans have spent the last several months agitating
against the deal. Their demands are wide-ranging and radical. They want
dramatic cuts to federal programs. They want to defund the DOJ and aid to
Ukraine. They want to restrict access to medication abortion. They want
drastic cuts to social safety net programs. In short, they want to move
the goalposts for the budget process into right-wing fantasy land. As a
result, Republican House members are currently literally unable to agree
with each other on how to fund the federal government.

Now, this would not be a problem if Kevin McCarthy was willing to ignore
the MAGA caucus. Because he actually does have enough votes in the House
to pass the original deal. It’s just that he’d need Democratic votes to do
it. And he’s committed to his caucus that he won’t pass a funding bill
unless it can pass with only Republican votes.

This crisis could also be resolved if even a handful of Republicans were
willing to go against their party and sign a discharge petition to allow
Democrats to bring a bipartisan bill to the floor. A discharge petition is
a tactic that allows a majority of congressmembers to override the Speaker
and put a bill on the floor. Plenty of Republicans (especially the ones
who are worried about their reelections, like the [ [link removed] ]Unrepresentatives)
are giving quotes about being frustrated, or how they wish their party
would get its act together. Every time you hear that, just remember: it
would take literally 6 Republicans signing a discharge petition to allow
Democrats to bring a bipartisan bill to the floor. If your representative
isn’t willing to do this, then their words are meaningless.

It’s common for the media to frame shutdowns as a both sides issue. But
let’s be clear: This is not a situation where “Washington is broken” or
“the two sides can’t work it out.” The deal has been reached. The votes
for the deal are there. That’s not the problem. The problem is that
Republicans, under pressure from their most extreme MAGA members, have
unilaterally abandoned the deal. They would rather shut the government
down than simply work with Democrats to pass the budget deal they already
agreed to. 

Don’t just take my word for it -- here’s the exact same point from an
unlikely source:

[2]Matt Gaetz being interviewed in the halls of Congress with the closed
caption: It is Kevin McCarthys fault that the government is going to shut
down.

[ [link removed] ]Said arsonist Matt Gaetz, “We cannot blame the Democrats for having not
done our job to comply with the coalition agreement that we made at the
beginning of the year. That is the fault of the Speaker.”

Or to put it in the voice of my generation:

[4]An animated gif showing Taylor Swift singing I'm the problem, its me.

All of this would be comical if there weren’t such awful consequences for
the rest of us. The pain of a government shutdown is enormous. Essential
services for seniors, working families, military and first responders are
disrupted. Kids go hungry because programs like WIC and SNAP lose funding.
Disaster relief funding -- like money for the survivors of the Maui fires
-- is delayed or cut. And crucial government functions like food safety
inspections and air travel oversight risk disruption.

Everyone loses when MAGA Republicans get their way.

OK, so what do we do about it?

There are two things we need to do here: 

First, we need to get out of this mess without rewarding Republicans’
terrible behavior. If you’ve got a Democratic representative, you should
be telling them to stand strong. If you’ve got a Republican
representative, [ [link removed] ]you should be putting the heat on them -- especially if
you’ve got a Republican who represents a flippable district, or who’s in
principle opposed to their party’s shenanigans.

Second, if a shutdown does occur, we need to make sure that the public
understands that it’s a product of Republican extremism and dysfunction.
Republicans are doing something very unpopular (shutting down the
government) in order to try to get something else that’s also very
unpopular (cuts to essential programs for families, seniors, and more).
They need to pay a political price for it. Fortunately, we’ve got a plan
for that – an entire campaign in fact. [ [link removed] ]Join our Unrepresentatives
Project and help us hold the most vulnerable Republicans accountable. 

The reality is that for these folks, the election season has already
started. If this shutdown drags on, we’ve got to make sure they see
consequences for it.

In solidarity,
Leah Greenberg
Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director, Indivisible

—

P.S. I promised an update! Here’s Ezra and Lila, getting ready to head out
for a day of adventures.

[7]Ezra carrying a wide-eyed Lila in a baby bjorn

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