Feehery: Why there’s always a new, self-made crisis in Washington

Now that the debt ceiling crisis has been resolved, it’s on to the next self-made Washington crisis. 

Nothing makes the mainstream, Washington-based media industrial complex more excited than a crisis.   

It’s good for the political class too. They can raise more money, get more clicks and otherwise draw more attention to themselves during a crisis.  

I am of course talking about the routine jockeying of the appropriations process we’re set to embark upon in less than half a year. 

Soon, CNN will have a clock counting down the days until the government shuts down. Then, you’ll know we have reached peak crisis.  

Of course, there are many other crises out there. Climate activist Greta Thunberg warned five years ago that humanity would be wiped out in five years unless the use of fossil fuel was ended. Of course, if the humanity did end in a week, we could take the pending Social Security crisis off the table, but I have my doubts. 

There is the China crisis that Secretary of State Antony Blinken is seeking to forestall. He just grabbed 30 minutes of Xi Jinping’s time to beg the Chinese leader to return our phone calls. With all the China-bashing that’s so popular in Washington these days, I don’t blame Xi for getting his nose out of joint.   

There is the never-ending Ukraine-Russia crisis. This hasn’t exactly gone Vladimir Putin’s way, and you can tell that most people have lost interest because there aren’t as many Ukrainian flags being hung outside of the Capitol Hill neighborhood where I live. I am sure it is still a crisis, but I doubt it will lead to World War III, so not as big a crisis as it used to be, apparently.  

The debt ceiling crisis (now resolved) shouldn’t be confused with America’s debt crisis, which nobody wants to talk about. To deal with our debt crisis, we must deal with entitlement spending, including Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid and other welfare programs. Because any debt deal would likely involve higher taxes and defense cuts, neither Republicans nor Democrats have any interest in confronting this crisis that slowly but surely gets worse and worse. But hey, what’s $35 trillion among friends? 

The COVID-19 crisis was mostly manufactured by a public health establishment that proved spectacularly unsuited for handling such a crisis, and now we have a crisis of faith in the whole system (way to go, guys). 

The democracy crisis was mostly manufactured by the Biden administration to help it swing independent voters into the Democratic camp for the midterm elections (it worked as a campaign tactic, by the way).  

According to Washington, D.C., government officials, there is no crime crisis in the nation’s capital, despite the daily dose of carjackings, robberies and the routine murder of young people that seems to escape the attention of the national media. No crisis here, folks. Just move on and drink your latte. 

So, get ready to watch how the government shutdown crisis will evolve.   

A small sliver of House Republicans won’t allow the Appropriations Committee to mark up agreed-to budget numbers for the 12 spending bills, and that will require the committee to mark up bills that spend a lot less than what the Senate is going to spend.   

That’s all fine and a normal part of the negotiating process. But here’s the thing. Because a few of these conservatives aren’t happy with debt limit agreement, they are threatening to stall work on everything, including those spending bills, which will make it that much more difficult for Congress to consider the bills through regular order. 

All this positioning either makes it more likely that the federal government will shut down for a few days (which always makes for a fun time) or makes it a lot more likely that Congress will have to pass an omnibus spending bill at the end of the year. Or both.  

We have seen this movie before, and the more we see it, the less interesting it becomes. But that’s the next crisis coming to a cable station near you.  

Feehery, a partner at EFB Advocacy, blogs at thefeeherytheory.com. He served as spokesman to former House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), as communications director to former House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and as a speechwriter to former House Minority Leader Bob Michel (R-Ill.).