Even Mitch McConnell thinks House GOP's march to a shutdown is ‘stupid’

On Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell warned that it would be “politically beyond stupid” for Republicans in the House to send the nation careening toward a government shutdown just one month before a national election. One day later, House Republicans seemed to treat this as a dare. They went beyond—by a big margin.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson finally got a continuing resolution to the floor on Wednesday evening to keep the government funded beyond the end of the month. The vote wasn’t even close. Johnson could only afford to lose a handful of Republican votes if he hoped to pass the legislation. However, 14 Republicans voted no and the bill went down 202-220. 

Now, with the government scheduled to run out of cash on Sept. 30, and no proposal on the table to stop it, Republicans could be the proud owners of a government shutdown that could still be going on Election Day.