US government shutdown day 10, President Trump threatening to cut Democrat federal programs

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(ASSOCIATED PRESS) — Mike Johnson is the speaker of a House that is no longer in session. The Republican leader sent lawmakers home three weeks ago after the House approved a bill to fund the federal government. And they haven’t been back in working session since. In the intervening weeks, the government has shut down. President Donald Trump threatened a mass firing of federal workers. And a Democrat, Adelita Grijalva, won a special election in Arizona but has not been sworn into office to take her seat in Congress. “People are upset. I’m upset. I’m a very patient man, but I am angry right now,” Johnson said during one of his almost daily press conferences on the empty side of the Capitol. “The House did its job,” said Johnson, of Louisiana. There’s nothing left to negotiate, he says, arguing it’s up to the Senate, which is also controlled by Republicans, to act. “That ball has been sent to the other court.” The House’s absence is creating a risky political dilemma for Johnson. It’s testing his leadership, his grip on the gavel and the legacy he will leave as speaker of a House that is essentially writing itself off the page at a crucial moment in the national debate. There are few easy choices on the schedule ahead. If the speaker calls lawmakers back to Washington, he opens the doors to a potentially chaotic atmosphere of anger, uncertainty and his own GOP defections and divisions as the shutdown drags toward a third week. But by keeping the representatives away, lawmakers risk being criticized for being absent during a crisis — “on vacation,” as House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries puts it — as the military goes without pay and government services shut down. Johnson’s initial strategy to avoid the government shutdown was a well-worn one — have the House pass its bill, leave town right before the deadline and force the Senate to accept it. Jamming the other chamber, as it’s often called. And it often works. But this time, it’s a strategy that is failing.