It looks like the U.S. government is likely headed for another shutdown at the end of September, as House Republicans can't find a compromise on federal spending and members of the GOP caucus are blaming House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Beyond the usual roster of McCarthy detractors on the MAGA-fied far right, members closer to the Republican establishment are now starting to speak out against their leader.
"Promises were not kept," Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., told Fox News on Tuesday. "I would say I would put me in the column of being very frustrated."
On Tuesday, House GOP hardliners blocked debate on the annual defense appropriations bill in a procedural vote. Mace represents a closely divided district in South Carolina, which is home to a large number of military voters, and likely believes she cannot afford a shutdown.
Only five Republican members defected on the procedural vote — the kind of routine measure that normally falls along party lines — but that was enough to deny McCarthy a majority. "To me, everything is on the table," Mace said that she is "not the only member upset" and added, "To me, everything is on the table," a possible sign that some moderate Republicans are prepared to vote with Democrats on certain necessary measures.
"I don't like feeling like I was misled or lied to on particular pieces of legislation," Mace said, evidently referring to McCarthy, adding that she had worked on "legislation that has fallen on deaf ears, has been ignored, no matter the promises that I was made by the leadership. So put me in the very unhappy column today."
If a government shutdown happens, Mace concluded, she believes political blowback will follow: "Republicans always get blamed."
Watch below, via Fox News:
