Even in a town known for its kabuki theater, this one takes the kimono.
“We want to avoid a shutdown,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
“No one wants the government to shut down,” said House Speaker John Boehner.
“There’s no reason why we should have a government shutdown,” said President Barack Obama.
If this were so, a government shutdown would have been averted long ago. If negotiators were driven by logic, the possibility of a shutdown never would have arisen. Instead, they decided to go to Defcon 1 over a skirmish involving a fraction of 1 percent of the federal budget.
It’s enough to stir nostalgia for Newt Gingrich and Bill Clinton. At least when they shut down the government in 1995, they did it over big stuff. The dispute over crumbs in the current year’s budget is particularly discouraging when you consider that the parties have yet to begin talks on future budgets — where they are trillions of dollars apart.
Even Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., chairwoman of the House Unreasonable Caucus, saw the absurdity. She told Fox News that the two sides “are not that far apart” on the numbers and “will have to split the differences ideologically.”
Instead, both sides played a reckless game of chicken. The idea was to push things to the last minute — any sign of agreement before then would be a surrender — but when you play chicken, there can be tragic miscalculations.
Both sides had an incentive to go to the brink: They were, as usual, rallying their ideological bases.
As Reid and Boehner met with the president Thursday evening, an email from Guy Cecil, director of the Senate Democrats’ campaign committee, landed in the inboxes of Democratic contributors. “Republicans — catering to each and every demand of the tea party — are intent on shutting down the federal government,” he warned. The email linked to a form asking for credit-card contributions as part of the “Shut Them Down Project.” Wrote Cecil: “We need to raise $100,000 in the next 36 hours to call out the GOP extremists.”
Republicans justifiably protested the Democrats’ use of the shutdown for financial gain, but the Grand Old Party was up to its own tricks. Outside the Capitol, several Republican lawmakers encouraged tea party protesters who were chanting “Cut it or shut it” and waving pro-shutdown signs. “It’s time to pick a fight,” Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., told the crowd.
Blame for the brinkmanship should be liberally spread. Republicans wouldn’t accept a deal that cut the budget by more than they originally proposed. The White House wouldn’t accept a short-term extension even though it was largely consistent with administration priorities. And both undermined negotiations with trash talk.
“The Republican leadership has the tea party screaming so loudly in its right ear that it can’t hear what the vast majority of the country demands,” Reid told the Senate Wednesday morning.
“The president isn’t leading,” Boehner countered at an afternoon news conference.
Late Wednesday, Reid reported that “I have confidence that we can get this done” — only to rescind that the next morning. “I am not nearly as optimistic — and that’s an understatement — as I was 11 hours ago,” he proclaimed.
Just before that, Boehner was on “Good Morning America,” redrawing a hard line. “There’s no daylight between the tea party and me,” he reported.
The two couldn’t even agree what they disagreed about. Reid reported to the Senate that “our differences are no longer over how much savings to get.”
Countered Boehner: “There is no agreement on a number.”
Later, Reid accused: “There are people cheering for a shutdown.” Asked if he was questioning whether Boehner wanted a deal, Reid replied: “Yes, I am.”
Then, late Thursday, the pair issued a joint statement saying they had “narrowed the issues.”
But on Friday morning, Boehner sent out a press release again accusing the White House of trying “to shut down the government.” Aides to Reid and Boehner issued statements again disagreeing about what the disagreements were.
At one point, The Washington Post’s Paul Kane attempted to draw back the curtain on the theatrics. “What we’ve seen each day is in the morning (you) start with a lot of bravado, and at nighttime you guys seem to get back towards optimism,” he told Boehner. “For the third straight day, it’s started off with rhetoric.”
“Oh, really?” Boehner asked. He assured Kane that “all of us want this to be finished.”
If only their actions backed that up.
Dana Milbank is a columnist for The Washington Post. His email address is danamilbank@washpost.com.