Congress is taking this shutdown pretty easy compared to other recent funding lapses.
The House last voted on Sept. 19., the Senate is gone until Monday, and President Donald Trump is heading out of the country to Asia. We all know how we got into it: Democrats trying to use leverage to force a discussion on health care subsidies. But right now, no one is trying that hard to get out of it.
“I’m surprised that [Senate Majority] Leader [John] Thune isn’t keeping us in over the weekend. And I’m frankly shocked that the House has taken a month off,” said Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del. Thune said if he thought that keeping members around would help, he’d do it.
But “fatigue is part of the motivator,” argued Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D. “If you’re getting refreshed every four or five days, you lose your own personal drive.”
We’re told that rank-and-file senators are talking. But what could come of it? “As a long-term, bipartisan gang member, I think everyone realizes it’s not like leadership can sign off on something without Donald Trump,” said Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said it’s a little bit of a “cop out” to say the Senate can’t do something without Trump. She said senators “should be going to the President and saying, ‘sir, this is what we’re proposing. We need you to back it.’”
The Alaska Republican is also worried about a controversial — and relatively low effort — way of ending the shutdown: “People want to know how I feel about getting rid of the filibuster. No, that’s not how we end a government shutdown. We’ve got to end it because we’ve come together.”