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Inside Mike Johnson’s ‘Failure Theater’ on Government Funding

Mike Johnson’s latest government funding plan seems to be a charade. Whether anyone will really be convinced of it is the question.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson
Johnson has managed to avoid his third government shutdown deadline since claiming the gavel. J. Scott Applewhite/AP

House Speaker Mike Johnson is bringing lawmakers back to Washington next week with a plan that would keep the government open and extract concessions from Democrats in exchange for Congress fulfilling its most basic duties. Much of the GOP conference likes the plan, including most of the far right. And even if his gambit fails, they think Johnson is putting some Democrats in a tough political spot.

The problem is everyone seems to know the plan is a charade that is doomed to fail.

As Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie told NOTUS, Congress is about to perform some “failure theater.”