Speaker of the House John Boehner has confirmed what we've expected since at least the moment Republicans retained control of Congress -- the House will most likely pass a continuing resolution to avoid a government shutdown.
"It's pretty clear given the number of days we're going to be here in September that we're going to have to do a (continuing resolution) of some sort, but no decisions have been made," Boehner said, referring to a "continuing resolution," a measure that sets funding levels for all federal agencies. [...]
House Republican leaders pulled the plug on their goal to complete all 12 individual funding bills after Democrats recently proposed politically fraught amendments to remove the Confederate flag at federal grave sites.
It's true House Republicans leadership pulled all spending bills from the floor because too many of their members were prepared to cast a vote in favor of the confederate flag, but as far as avoiding a shutdown goes that is a misnomer. None of the bills passed by the House would have been signed into law absent any Democratic shenanigans. House leadership would find themselves in the same position had the issue of the flag never come up.
It isn't a revelation that Congress will be forced to pass a continuing resolution to avoid a shutdown, but this is a personal defeat for Speaker Boehner. Boehner set a goal of completing the entire appropriations process for the first time in years by mid-July; a deadline that has come and gone.
Boehner set an impossible goal.