In what’s become an American tradition, we’re a little over 24 hours out from the federal government shutting down. Just to make things more interesting, this time it’s in the middle of a surging global pandemic. And it’s all because Trump is throwing a tantrum over the size of the individual relief checks in the bill, even though his own Treasury Secretary is the one who negotiated the agreement.
His options right now are terrible: cave and sign the bill without getting the $2,000 checks he’s going on about; veto the bill and get overridden so fast it’ll make his head spin, or do nothing and let the government shut down to accomplish . . . what exactly I’m not sure.
Technically Congress could pass another continuing resolution to keep the government open for a few days, but the Senate in particular isn’t designed to work that fast and there’s no guarantee Trump will sign it.
Predictions?