Just in case anyone mistakenly believed House Republicans treat the threat of a federal government shutdown seriously, they've produced evidence to the contrary by scheduling a hearing on Planned Parenthood on the day before a shutdown could take place.
The House Oversight Committee plans to call Planned Parenthood to a hearing on the undercover videos one day before the government is due to run out of money, according to Democrats on the committee. [...]
A Planned Parenthood spokesman confirmed that president Cecile Richards is expected to be invited to testify on Sept. 29.
Democrats on the Oversight Committee have made an excellent point that otherwise wouldn't have occurred to me.
“Based on numerous press reports over the past several weeks, this appears to be part of a broader power struggle to unseat House Speaker John Boehner, led by an extreme wing of the Republican Party that is using this issue to force a government shutdown unless the Speaker bows to their demands,” the lawmakers wrote in their Monday letter.
The Democrats go on to argue there’s no way around the fact that more than half the founding members of the House Freedom Caucus sit on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
This is significant because the 42-member House Freedom Caucus has vowed to oppose any government funding bill that does not defund Planned Parenthood.
This could be more than just the latest conservative attempt to legislate their own warped since of morality. The war against Planned Parenthood is now a proxy for undermining House leadership and funding for the federal government could be the first casualty.
If Congress is able to avert a government shutdown in the coming days, you can thank Democrats. House Republican leadership will need Democratic votes to make it happen.