White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Tuesday that he’s confident House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., won’t allow the government to shut down next month, when temporary funding for the government expires.
A government shutdown is “always” a possibility in this era of divided government, “particularly when you consider the dysfunction and disorganization that has run rampant in the House Republican Conference” lately, Earnest said. “But there is a new leader, and I continue to be confident that he doesn’t want to be responsible for a government shutdown six weeks into the job.”
Former Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, negotiated a two-year budget blueprint with congressional Democrats and the White House that established overall spending levels and raised the debt ceiling before handing the gavel over to Ryan. But Congress still has to delineate how to dole out the pot across government departments and agencies before the stopgap measure keeping the government running expires on Dec. 11.
When he signed that legislation on Monday, Obama called avoiding a shutdown the best Christmas present Congress could give the public.
“So this is just the first step between now and the middle of December, before the Christmas break,” Obama said Monday about the budget deal. “The appropriators are going to have to do their job; they’re going to have to come up with spending bills.
“And I’m confident that they can get it done on time. And there’s no better Christmas present for the American people,” he said.
Earnest said delivering individual appropriations bills or an omnibus spending measure without drama and on time is in Ryan’s “best interest.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has no appetite for a showdown, which is why he worked with Boehner to “clean the barn” by hammering out the budget framework, for which he and Boehner deserve credit, Earnest said.
“I continue to have confidence in [Boehner’s and McConnell’s] assurances that there won’t be a government shutdown, informed in part again by the fact that I don’t think the new speaker of the House wants to preside over a government shutdown six weeks into the job,” Earnest said.
Instead of thanking Boehner for taking a headache off his plate, and taking the blame from restless conservatives unhappy with the way the deal was hammered out quietly among leadership, Ryan has said the process “stinks” and has indicated he will allow dozens of amendments to be considered to the spending bill in a bid to include all members of the House.
For the White House, though, that could complicate the process and allow members to attach policy provisions, or “riders,” to the bills.
