We are now in the second week of another government closure and there should be no doubt about its root cause: that members of Congress pay no political penalty for failing to do their jobs.

 Indeed, one reason there is another funding standoff is that members widely believe that the greatest political risk would come from defecting from their party’s hardline position and supporting some sort of bipartisan compromise. 

The other reason is that leaders and members of both parties have convinced themselves they will reap political benefit from the standoff that they made no serious and timely effort to avoid and are in no rush to resolve. 

There was nothing inevitable about this shutdown.  If Republican leaders had instructed the appropriations committees, which have a long tradition of bipartisan cooperation, to report their annual funding bills by the end of July, that would have left plenty of time to debate, amend and approve bills in both the House and Senate and resolve any differences between them.

But that is not what Republican leaders did. They did not set deadlines.  They did not give appropriators the political freedom to do what they thought best for the country and their districts, insisting that they pursue uncompromising partisan positions demanded by the Trump White House and guaranteed to trigger a similar obstinance on the other side.

They did not alter the leisurely congressional schedule that allowed for only 14 legislative days........

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