2023年9月22日，星期五，加利福尼亚州众议院议长凯文·麦卡锡被记者包围，他们正在华盛顿国会大厦寻找为政府提供资金和避免政府关闭的计划的最新情况。
华盛顿-面对即将到来的政府关门，这可能会扰乱数百万美国人的生活，议长凯文·麦卡锡转向了一种策略，这种策略迄今为止保持了他对众议院领导权的微弱控制，但也带来了混乱:给极右翼议员他们想要的东西。
在执掌众议院的八个月里，麦卡锡一直奉行乐观的个人信条“永不放弃”，他回避对他议长职位的威胁，并试图将共和党人描绘成美国政府的得力管家。他一直指责华盛顿低估了他。
但随着众议院共和党多数党陷入动荡，几乎肯定会使国家陷入关闭，麦卡锡已经搁置了更传统的工具木槌，以保持反叛分子的一致。相反，他加入了一个由煽动他下台的人领导的小团体，即使这意味着关闭联邦办公室。
这是一个未经检验的策略，让麦卡锡深感沮丧，他的盟友纷纷站在他一边，随着9月30日为政府提供资金的最后期限一周的到来，他对权力的掌控变得更加不确定。
“我们还有几天时间，”麦卡锡周六抵达国会山时说。
这位加州共和党人说:“我认为，当关键时刻到来时，一直不愿指责他人的人们最终会有希望离开。”“因为关闭——边境特工拿不到工资，你的海岸警卫队拿不到工资——我看不出这有什么好处。”
在众议院以微弱多数执政的情况下，议长面临着更致命的极右策略，这种策略曾在他之前追逐过两位最近的共和党议长。约翰·博纳俄亥俄州和保罗·瑞安提前退休。像他们一样，麦卡锡尝试了各种策略来恢复秩序。但麦卡锡比以往任何时候都更发现自己被极右翼议员横扫，他们决心让华盛顿屈从于他们的意志，控制了众议院。
麦卡锡试图通过同意保守派对总统弹劾调查的要求来赢得他们的支持乔·拜登然后满足他们削减开支的要求，但每当他们中的一些人坚持要求更多的让步时，就又被挡了回去。
与此同时，麦卡锡已经放弃了几个月前与拜登达成的预算协议，该协议确立了今年的支出门槛。相反，他正试图减少开支，以符合他在激烈争夺众议院议长时向右翼承诺的水平。
然而，所有的让步似乎永远不够。
有代表性的马特·盖兹正在领导这场斗争的佛罗里达州共和党参议员罗康瑞周四向记者们欢呼道，“如果你看看过去两周发生的事情，事情似乎正在向我这边走来。”
盖兹说，他正在为被称为持续决议的短期融资立法致悼词，这是一种传统上用于在支出辩论期间保持政府运转的机制。
民主党人一直急于将即将到来的关门归咎于麦卡锡和众议院的功能失调。拜登呼吁麦卡锡坚持他们协商的年度支出数字，以提高国家的借款限额。
资深民主党人、马萨诸塞州众议员吉姆·麦戈文(Jim McGovern)说，“他把木槌交给了党内最极端的人。”
由于众议院处于停滞状态，议员们周末在家，麦卡锡转向了盖兹提出的计划，开始处理为各个政府部门提供资金所需的近十几项年度支出法案中的一些，并在工作继续进行的同时暂时搁置权宜之计的想法。
这几乎是一项不可能完成的任务，因为国会已经没有时间去寻找一个短期的支出计划。
“我们绝不能在八天内通过11项法案，”康涅狄格州众议员罗莎·德劳罗(Rosa DeLauro)说，他是民主党最高拨款人，指的是众议院在9月30日之前必须批准的法案数量。
资深议员DeLauro估计，在国会两院通过这些法案至少需要六周时间，然后在众议院和参议院之间进行谈判。她敦促共和党人接受一项持续的决议，允许政府机构保持开放。
麦卡锡最亲密的盟友之一、北卡罗莱纳州的共和党众议员帕特里克·麦克亨利指出，参议院提出的立法支出水平高于与拜登达成的协议。他认为众议院共和党人需要以较低的票数通过他们自己的法案来加强他们在谈判中的优势。
对于国会来说，要解决目前的僵局，许多人预计将需要两党联合，将麦卡锡的右翼甩在身后。这肯定会引发对他领导力的挑战。
在参议院，民主党和共和党领导人正在制定一项一揽子计划，该计划将为政府提供远高于众议院共和党人要求的资金，包括紧急灾难援助和对乌克兰的资金，一些共和党众议院成员反对这一计划。
“最终，我们将从美国参议院得到一些东西，但这不会是我们喜欢的，”阿肯色州众议员史蒂夫·沃马克说，他是众议院拨款委员会的主要共和党人。"然后演讲者将有一个非常困难的决定."
Speaker McCarthy is giving hard-right Republicans what they want. But it never seems to be enough.
WASHINGTON --Staring down a fast-approaching government shutdown that threatens to disrupt life for millions of Americans, Speaker Kevin McCarthy has turned to a strategy that so far has preserved his tenuous hold on House leadership but also marked it by chaos: giving hard-right lawmakers what they want.
In his eight months running the House, McCarthy has lived by the upbeat personal mantra of “never give up” as he dodges threats to his speakership and tries to portray Republicans as capable stewards of the U.S. government. He has long chided Washington for underestimating him.
But with the House GOP majority in turmoil, all but certain to hurl the country into a shutdown, McCarthy has set aside the more traditional tools of the gavel to keep rebels in line. Instead, he has acceded to a small band led by those instigating his ouster, even if that means closing federal offices.
It's an untested strategy that has left McCarthy deeply frustrated, his allies rushing to his side and his grip on power ever more uncertain with the Sept. 30 deadline to fund the government a week away.
“We still have a number of days," McCarthy said Saturday as he arrived at the Capitol.
“I think when it gets crunch time people will finally, that have been holding off all this time blaming everybody else, will finally hopefully move off,” the California Republican said. "Because shutting down — and having border agents not be paid, your Coast Guard not get paid — I don’t see how that’s good.”
Governing with a narrow House majority, the speaker is facing a more virulent strain of the hard-right tactics that chased the two most recent Republican speakers before him, Reps.John Boehnerof Ohio andPaul Ryanof Wisconsin, into early retirement. Like them, McCarthy has tried various tactics to restore order. But more than ever, McCarthy finds himself swept along as far-right lawmakers, determined to bend Washington to their will, take control in the House.
McCarthy tried to win conservatives' support by agreeing to their demand for impeachment inquiry into PresidentJoe Bidenand then by meeting their calls for spending cuts, only to be turned back whenever a few of them hold out for more concessions.
All the while, McCarthy has retreated from his budget deal with Biden months ago that established the spending threshold for the year. Instead, he is trying to reduce spending more in line with the level he promised the right flank during his tumultuous fight to become the House speaker.
Yet all the concessions seem to never be enough.
Rep.Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who is leading the fight, crowed to reporters Thursday that, "if you look at the events of the last two weeks, things seem to be kind of coming my way."
Gaetz said he was delivering a eulogy for short-term funding legislation known as a continuing resolution — a mechanism traditionally used to keep the government functioning during spending debates.
Democrats have been eager to lay blame for the impending shutdown on McCarthy and the dysfunction in the House. Biden has called on McCarthy to stick to the annual spending numbers they negotiated to raise the nation’s borrowing limit.
“He handed over the gavel to the most extreme in his party," said Massachusetts Rep. Jim McGovern, a senior Democrat.
With the House at a standstill and lawmakers at home for the weekend, McCarthy has turned to the plan advanced by Gaetz to start processing some of the nearly dozen annual spending bills needed to fund the various government departments and shelving for now the idea of stopgap approach while the work continues.
It's a nearly impossible task as Congress runs out of time to find a short-term spending plan.
"We can in no way pass 11 bills in eight days," said Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat appropriator, referring to the number of bills the House would have to approve before Sept. 30.
DeLauro, a veteran lawmaker, estimated it would take at least six weeks to pass the bills in both chambers of Congress, then negotiate them between the House and Senate. She urged Republicans to embrace a continuing resolution to allow government agencies to stay open.
Republican Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, one of McCarthy's closest allies, has pointed out that the Senate has advanced legislation at spending levels above those in the deal reached with Biden. He argues that House Republicans need to pass their own bills at the lower numbers to strengthen their hand in negotiations.
For Congress to solve the current impasse, many expect that it will take a bipartisan coalition that leaves McCarthy's right flank behind. That would be certain to spark a challenge to his leadership.
In the Senate, Democratic and Republican leaders are working on a package that would fund the government at levels far higher than the House Republicans are demanding and include emergency disaster aid and money for Ukraine, which some GOP House members oppose.
“Eventually, we’re going to get something back from the U.S. Senate and it’s not going to be to our liking,” said Arkansas Rep. Steve Womack, a leading Republican on the House Appropriations Committee. “Then the speaker will have a very difficult decision.”
