Lawmakers don’t want a shutdown, and President Trump shouldn’t either. As the House and Senate scramble to pass and reconcile appropriations bills before government runs out of money on Sept. 30, Trump’s threat of a veto over border funding is a mistake. Instead, Republicans should highlight how GOP leadership has led to bipartisan agreements.
On Thursday, the Senate passed an $857 billion spending package with overwhelming and bipartisan support. That bill includes funding for Defense, Labor, Education, and Health and Human Services for the 2019 fiscal year. Earlier, the House passed its own version of the spending bill leaving lawmakers with the task of merging them together.
If they are able to combine the House and Senate versions, then it will go to Trump for his signature. Once signed, it would be the first time in more than a decade that defense funding had been in place before the start of the new fiscal year. That would be great.
The only problem is that Trump has threatened to block 2019 appropriations if they don’t include the funding he wants for his wall on the southern border. Although this spending package doesn’t include Department of Homeland Security funding, which will likely be an ongoing debate that requires a continuing resolution rather than a yearlong agreement, Trump has yet to assure lawmakers that he would sign any spending bills without securing that funding.
Indeed, the president has threatened to veto spending bills if he doesn’t get what he wants. He tweeted on July 29 that he’d be “willing to “shut down” government if the Democrats do not give us the votes for Border Security, which includes the Wall!”
This would be a mistake.
As Republicans head into midterms rife with presidential and congressional scandal and a threatened “blue wave,” a shutdown signaling an inability to govern even with the House, Senate and White House in GOP control would be a blow to candidates and a strong talking point for Democratic challengers.
Instead, Trump would be better served by signing the spending bills and championing Republican leadership as responsible for the bipartisan agreement that funded the government on time. That would reassure GOP voters that at least part of Washington is interested in more than political grandstanding on Twitter.
