Buckle up! A perfect storm is approaching Washington. All the ingredients are there to bring about a government shutdown at midnight on Sept. 30.

Here are seven reasons this is unfortunately likely.

First, August recess has compressed the timeline to strike a deal. When lawmakers return, they will have only 20 working days before the government runs out of funding at the end of September, drastically reducing negotiating time and raising the odds of brinkmanship.

Second, congressional Democrats are outraged over Republicans’ use of rescissions to claw back congressionally approved money. Democrats warned Republicans that passing their $9 billion rescissions package would risk a shutdown and shatter any remaining trust on budgeting. Republicans passed it anyway. Since then, prominent Democrats like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) have called for the party to refuse to cooperate on government funding.

Third, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) was met with furious backlash from his party in the spring when he voted for the last funding deal to keep the government open. He........

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