House Speaker John Boehner moments after announcing the House GOP's latest extortion demands:
QUESTION: Is a clean CR off the table? Is that not going to happen?
BOEHNER: That's not going to happen.
In other words, there will be a shutdown at midnight, because the Senate has already said it will not be bullied into accepting extortion demands from House Republicans. For a shutdown to end, however, at some point someone needs to blink. And when a reporter asked Boehner if he meant that the House won't vote on a clean CR tonight, or if they won't vote on a clean CR ever, he refused to answer:
QUESTION: That's not going to happen when? That's not going to happen tonight before midnight, or it's not going to happen ever?
BOEHNER: The House will act this evening and we'll send it over to the United States Senate. Thanks.
So on the one hand, you have Senate Democrats
saying they will never, ever be extorted, and John Boehner saying that the GOP won't back down, at least not tonight, but he won't really say anything about the future. Even if you set aside all the substantive issues at play, it's pretty clear which side thinks they have the stronger hand to play—and it's not the GOP.
The federal government will shut down unless the House passes a clean continuing resolution before midnight tonight. Email your House member now.