The story is familiar — we've seen this movie, before. 

With just 10 days to go (as I write) until the federal budget expires on September 30, the House is once again locked in a fierce debate — including Republicans vs. Republicans — over government spending with respect to avoiding a federal government shutdown. 

With House Republicans once again locked in internecine warfare, Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan on Tuesday detailed his key objectives for a budget resolution to avert a shutdown, including the banning of additional funds for federal censorship activities, and a ban on funds for the accommodation of illegal aliens, who continue to surge across the southern border, courtesy of Joe Biden's intentional border crisis. 

[W]e want certain language on these appropriation bills. When we get to those that say, you know, no money can be used to censor Americans, if it's that kind of language, [that] no money can be used to develop a disinformation governance board at the Department of Homeland Security like they tried to do a year ago.

The fact that there even exists disagreement on the above two issues among our elected representatives starkly points out the precarious state of 2023 America. Make that Joe Biden's America.

Jordan called on House Republicans to hone in on the Biden Border Crisis as a key campaign issue.

I think you – when in politics — when you have one really good issue you can hone in on, and right now I think that issue ... is the open border we have. So let's say in this bill that funds the government for a short period of time, let's say 'no money can be used to process and allow ... new migrants into the country.'"

And after all, you got the Democratic mayor in New York saying that need we need to do something. Send that kind of bill to [Senate Majority Leader] Chuck Schumer and see what he does. 

I'll go out on a limb and guess that Chuck Schumer, being the hyperpartisan political hack he is, would defeat such a bill in a New York minute while lying about his reason(s) for doing so, from start to finish.

House Republicans' Internecine Warfare

How bad is it? Speaker Kevin McCarthy's job of bringing House Republicans together and passing a conservative bill to keep the federal government open is not dissimilar to trying to herd cats. 

At one point on Tuesday, House Republicans even voted against their own defense bill. During a contentious afternoon vote, the bill was turned back from consideration, 212-214, after five hardline conservatives helped torpedo it. 

McCarthy then walked off the House floor, telling reporters:

Look, the one thing you’re going to learn about me: I like a challenge — I don’t like this big a challenge — but we’re just gonna keep doing it until we can make it.

The House Republican dynamic is difficult — at best — with one bloc taking an all-or-nothing stance while threatening McCarthy's job at the drop of a hat, while another bloc seeks compromise in an attempt to pass legislation that would stand a chance of passage in Chuck Schumer's Democrat-controlled Senate.

The Bottom Line

I'm not suggesting one strategy is necessarily better than the other, but I do know enough about compromise to believe it's wise to sometimes take what you can get — and come back for more when you're in a stronger position.

In my not-so-humble opinion, the current state of Washington politics is one of those times.

And as for Jim Jordan's objectives, hell yeah. Include the bans on funding of censorship and accommodations for illegal aliens in an appropriations bill, and make Chuck Schumer have at — one way or another.