Mired in disagreement and an insurgent campaign from far-right lawmakers, there's no way for House Republicans to avoid triggering a costly government shutdown that hurts the American people — unless House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) gives in and makes a compromise with Democrats, regardless of threats to remove him from the Speakership if he does so.
That's the view of former moderate Republican Rep. Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania, who broke down the situation on Thursday's edition of CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360."
"Congressman Dent, who gets blamed if there is a government shutdown?" asked guest host John Berman.
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"Well, unfortunately for House Republicans, it will be them, because you have Senate Republicans and Democrats united, House Democrats are aligned with the Senate and the president," said Dent. "And it's really just a handful of House Republicans who are going to cause this shutdown. And of course the Republican Party in the House will be blamed. And it's not going to be very pretty."
"I don't know how long the damage will be, but it's not good," Dent continued. "My fear right now that this shutdown could last for some time. And I don't know what the over/under is on this, but I'm taking the over. And I suspect this could last more than a week. I hope it doesn't. But it could be a prolonged debate because right now, the House just doesn't have the capacity to pass anything. Republicans don't have the ability to pass anything on their own."
"As Gloria [Borger] said, Democrats aren't prepared to help them because of the impeachment inquiry, at least on the motion to vacate [McCarthy's chair]," added Dent. "They would help on the spending issue. So Republicans are in a real bind right now in the House, and I'm not sure how they're going to get out of this unless they just bite the bullet and do the bipartisan approach, and they can get out from under it."
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