Now, it faces the next deadline to fund the government by November 17. This fall, Congress passed a short-term funding bill with only hours to spare before the government shut down. During the May 2023 version of these negotiations, that meant coming to the edge of potential default on the debt. When I think of brinkmanship, I’m thinking about negotiating tactics that push things until the very last minute to try to secure the most concessions for your side. What has been the role of brinkmanship in these conflicts? These dynamics, layered on top of policy interests, all contribute to the problems that we’re seeing now. Beyond the far-right wing of the party, other conservative Republicans might also believe that insisting on major spending cuts and concessions from the Democrats will boost the electoral fortunes of their party.ĭemocrats are also resistant to compromising, both because they don’t want to gut programs that they put in place and also because they don’t want to make this look like a win for Republicans, who have been able to play chicken and get what they wanted. Johnson may be less willing to broker compromises with the Democrats because of his own preferences and because he needs to maintain the support of the far-right members in his party. The far-right wing recently showed its power over the party, both through ousting former Speaker Kevin McCarthy – in large part for his willingness to broker deals and compromise with Democrats – and influencing the selection of the new speaker, Mike Johnson. This is most evident among the most conservative wing of the party, which has both individual and collective reasons to oppose a compromise. So you now have many Republicans who are more willing to fight quite hard against the Democrats because they don’t want to give a win to Biden. Since the 1990s, there’s been a lot more competition for majority control, and as a result the two parties don’t want to do something that gives the other party a win in the eyes of the voter. These kinds of electoral interests occur at the individual and collective levels for members of a party. So their own electoral interests say, “Stand firm, fight till the bitter end, try to force the hand of the president.” On the other hand, House Freedom Caucus Republicans come from really safe districts, and they care more about their primary elections than they do their general elections. New House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, will have to keep his GOP caucus happy while making a deal with Democrats to pass government funding. Not every Democrat is the same as another and not every Republican is the same. has experienced rising polarization, there are still important differences within the parties.

You don’t have the overlap between parties now that existed 50 years ago.Įven as the U.S. Members of the two parties are more unified internally and further apart from the opposing party. The first: Since the 1970s, both the House and Senate have become much more polarized. The problems that Congress and the White House are having in reaching compromises highlight two aspects of contemporary politics. What do the repeated and difficult debt limit and budget negotiations in Congress look like to you? Harbridge-Yong is a specialist in partisan conflict and the lack of bipartisan agreement in American politics, so her expertise is tailor-made for the moment. The Conversation tapped an expert on congressional behavior, Northwestern University political scientist Laurel Harbridge-Yong, and asked her what she sees when she looks at the prolonged trouble Congress has had over the past few years coming to agreement on the debt ceiling and spending to keep the government open. 17, 2023, relies on pundits and their unnamed sources, on leaks, speculation, wishful thinking and maybe even the reading of tea leaves. Much of the news coverage of the discussions and negotiations aimed at averting a government shutdown on Nov.

Gridlock government