The Hill: House GOP leaders to members: We’ll be blamed for shutdown

The headline speaks for itself. Republicans, who know they will be blamed for another harmful government shutdown, still don’t have a plan to avoid it. Here’s a novel idea: work with Democrats to keep government open and reach a budget agreement that replaces the sequester. From The Hill:

“House GOP leaders are trying to convince their rank and file it would be a bad move to risk a government shutdown over blocking funding for Planned Parenthood.”

“At a closed-door conference meeting on Thursday morning, leadership presented their members with polling data from the House GOP's campaign arm showing Republicans would be blamed for a government shutdown.”

“‘They showed us some polling data about shutdown versus defunding Planned Parenthood and obviously showing in their opinion that it would be a political bad move,’ said Rep. John Fleming (R-La.), a conservative who has pledged not to vote for Planned Parenthood funds.”

“Rep. Matt Salmon (R-Ariz.), another conservative who wants to defund Planned Parenthood through a government-funding bill, also said GOP leaders think the data showed Republicans would be responsible.”

“‘They’re trying to let us know that if we submit a bill to the president that defunds Planned Parenthood and he says he’s going to veto that, that we’ll be blamed for a shutdown and that the American public doesn’t support that,” Salmon told reporters.”

“Republicans were blamed for the 16-day government shutdown in 2013 that was triggered by a fight over defunding ObamaCare. The GOP’s approval ratings plummeted during the shutdown.”

“No decisions have been finalized yet on how to deal with Planned Parenthood, the lawmakers said, and leadership still says it is listening to members and is open to ideas.”

“The House has seven legislative days remaining before the Oct. 1 deadline to fund the government and prevent a shutdown.”