Shutdown near certain, but for how long?
It's no longer a question of whether a government shutdown is coming.
It's now a question of how long will it last.
That all became clear on Wednesday when U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy told other Republicans he wouldn't allow a vote on a short-term bipartisan U.S. Senate spending plan that would have likely won enough Democrats and Republicans to keep the government operating.
While it would have kept the government operating, U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Austin, told conservative radio host Glenn Bleck that cutting a deal with Democrats like that would have resulted in "World War III within the Republican Party."
Instead, McCarthy is crafting a spending plan with new border security demands that might pass the House by the weekend, but has no chance of passing the Senate. With no deal in place by Sunday, large parts of the government will shutdown because they don't have funding.
Most notably, the 1.3 million members of the U.S. military — including more than 110,000 men and women stationed in Texas — would stop getting paychecks until Congress passes a spending plan. In a place like Killeen, home to Fort Cavazos, that impact can be devastating for a community that relies heavily on soldiers as customers, as Adam Schindler of KXXV in Central Texas reported.
But how long might it last? Well, the longest government shutdown is also the most recent. That late 2018 shutdown lasted 34 days. But shutdowns have also happened for just a day or two. During the 1980s, the federal government shutdown 8 different times as President Ronald Reagan fought Democrats in Congress. But those shutdown were all for just a day or two.
 | Jeremy Wallace, Texas politics reporter |
Who's up, who's down
Up: Jimmy Carter.
Despite being in hospice care since February, the former president appears set to make it to his 99th birthday on Sunday. Carter, the last Democratic presidential candidate to carry Texas in 1976, is the longest-lived U.S. president.
Down: Will Hurd.
The Republican presidential candidate from San Antonio again missed the cut to be part of another GOP presidential debate on Wednesday. Hurd, a former Congressman, said on social media he is pressing on to New Hampshire to continue campaigning, but acknowledged his campaign is at "an inflection point."
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What else is going on in Texas
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Pick of the day
Photo by: Jeremy Wallace
The number of GOP presidential candidates not named Donald Trump who will debate in the second GOP presidential debate in California starting at 8 p.m. CST on Wednesday.
What else I'm reading
Disinformation about "open border" policies is helping spur a massive wave of Central American migrants to take the perilous journey north to the U.S.-Mexico border, according to a poll by America's Voice, a national advocacy group pushing for immigration reform. The poll, obtained by The Dallas Morning News, indicates many Central American residents are encouraged to travel up to the U.S.-Mexico border based on false narratives. Alfredo Corchado reports that in Central America, 1 in 4 have heard the "border is open," and believed most migrants can apply for asylum if they make the trip.
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