Today is the last day before a government shutdown.

At some point, it appears that everyone just gave up on any hopes of a resolution being found. Last night, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy confirmed that there is simply no way House Republicans would be able to come together to pass any form of the Senate's continuing resolution.

McCarthy's problem is two-fold. He all but straight-out said he wanted to avoid a shutdown when he said, “A shutdown would only give strength to the Democrats." That was an early sign to several conservatives that he wasn't willing to do what needed to be done when it came to government spending. 

His second problem is that he did so with an extremely slim majority, and more than enough of his own caucus didn't like him to begin with to stall his efforts to pass a spending plan.

As much as some in the Republican Party want to say this is on the Democrats for not wanting to secure the border or for wanting to give Ukraine a blank check, the problem is exactly what I said yesterday it was: There is no plan. 

Some conservatives have a plan: Temp funding now, hold the line on appropriations and, for the love of God, stop waiting until the last minute to try to rush things through. This idea of governing by crisis, waiting until the 11th hour, has done nothing but get liberal spending levels even when conservatives allegedly have power. 

With Republicans like the ones who act this way, who needs Democrats?

Which brings us to today. To quote the Nintendo 64 classic Zelda game, Majora's Mask:

Now, I'm under no illusions that the end of the world strikes at midnight. I'm not a government-worshipping Democrat who believes that the only way society continues is if the federal government completely runs our lives. We are, luckily, a nation of people who are capable of living - and even filled with the desire to live - our lives without the government in every nook and cranny of day-to-day existence.

There are millions who will be impacted, of course, for the short amount of time the government is shut down. It's a very sad situation, though it is one made immensely worse by the economic conditions we live under thanks to the Biden administration. But there are millions more who also are aware that our government can't go on like it is, that they can't continue to spend the way they are, and that fundamental change has to happen. 

But it can't the way the Republicans are acting. Leadership waits until the 11th hour to do anything, anti-McCarthy holdouts are trying to kill leadership's plans but have no plans of their own, and the majority in between want to do something, but can't.

The Republicans are a mess right now.