One reason why a handful of House Republicans threatened to shut down the Federal Government by October 1: Calling themselves “budget deficit hawks,” they demanded huge cuts in non-military spending.    

Among the programs these cuts would have devastated: Food safety, education, law enforcement, housing, public health, Head Start and child care, Meals on Wheels.

Their attitude toward budget deficits had been vastly different while Donald Trump was President.

On August 2, 2019, Trump signed into law a two-year budget deal that raised spending by $320 billion over existing spending caps set in a 2011 law—and boosted military and domestic spending.

The bill also lifted the debt ceiling, which is the legal limit on the amount of debt the federal government can have.

The bill threatened to push the budget deficit to more than $1 trillion in 2019 for only the second time since the Great Recession of 2007-2008 and add $1.7 trillion to the federal debt over a decade.

Donald Trump

By January, 2021, the national debt had risen by almost $7.8 trillion during Trump’s four years in office. It amounted to about $23,500 in new federal debt for every person in the country. 

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) praised the Republicans’ massive contribution to the national debt.

Now, with a Democratic President  in office, Republicans—invoking the my-way-or-else “negotiating” strategy of Adolf Hitler—were threatening to plunge the United States into financial ruin unless their extortion demands were met.

The casualties of a government shutdown would include: 

• Seven million vulnerable mothers and children would stop receiving monies for food under the Women and Children (WIC) program.
• All active-duty military personnel and law enforcement officers would be forced to work without pay until appropriated funds became available. 
• If additional catastrophes occurred, FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund could be depleted, thus complicating new emergency response efforts. 
• Critical research on diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s would stall because the National Institutes of Health would be forced to delay new clinical trials.
• Air traffic controllers and Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) officers would be forced to work without pay. The added stress they would face from being unable to meet rent and food payments could dangerously affect their job performance.
• Most EPA-led inspections at hazardous waste sites as well as drinking water and chemical facilities would stop. 
• The Food and Drug Administration would be forced to delay food safety inspections for a wide variety of products across the country. 

Here’s what Republicans demanded in return for not shutting down the government:

• Severe cuts would be made to Social Security by increasing the age of future retirees.
• Disabled Americans on Medicare would be forced to wait longer to receive benefits.
• Medicare would be turned into a voucher system—which would remove the guarantee for seniors to have access to affordable medical care.
• Taxes would be cut for the wealthy and corporations.
• More requirements would be imposed on the poor trying to obtain social services.
• “Regulatory reforms that increase economic growth” (i.e. allowing corporations to ignore laws protecting employees, customers and/or the environment) would become law.
• Further funding to defend Ukraine against continuing aggression by Russia would end.

By a last-minute compromise between House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Democrats, this latest Republican extortion attempt was averted.

But current funding will expire on November 17. And then the country will face yet another date with financial disaster.

Fortunately, there are several ways to permanently address these exercises in political criminality.

REMEDY 1: LEGALLY REQUIRE CONGRESS TO STAY IN SESSION UNTIL A BUDGET COMPROMISE IS REACHED.

The federal government’s fiscal year ends every September 30. Before this deadline, Congress must write and pass the budget for the next fiscal year. If a budget agreement is not reached in time, funding for federal agencies lapse and the government shuts down. 

Yet with the shutdown deadline looming, on July 29, the House and Senate broke for their annual August recess. The Senate remained in recess until September 5; the House remained in recess until September 12.  

Congress had to enact all 12 appropriations bills or pass a Continuing Resolution (CR) to keep the federal government funded and avoid a shutdown on October 1.

NEEDED: A law requiring Congress to remain in session until a budget compromise is reached. Any Congressional member who leaves before this occurs would be immediately discharged and never allowed to return. 

PROBLEM: This would require Congressional members to impose restrictions on themselves—which they are unwilling to do.

REMEDY 2: THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT SHOULD INDICT FOR EXTORTION THOSE HOLDING THE GOVERNMENT HOSTAGE.

President Joseph Biden could order the Justice Department to invoke the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.

Passed by Congress in 1970, as Title 18, United States Code, Sections 1961-1968, its goal was to destroy the Mafia.  But in United States v. Turkette, 452 U.S. 576 (1981), the Supreme Court held that RICO applied as well to legitimate enterprises being operated in a criminal manner. 

After Turkette,  RICO could also be used against corporations, political protest groups, labor unions and loosely knit-groups of people.

RICO opens with a series of definitions of “racketeering activity” which can be prosecuted by Justice Department attorneys.

These activities include a Republican favorite: Extortion.