Congress remains divided on budget negotiations as government shutdown looms: “Our financial ship is sinking”

Lawmakers over the weekend expressed few signs of movement on a budget resolution that would keep the U.S. government funded for the remainder of the fiscal year, and the clock is ticking.

Current spending laws are due to expire on Sept. 30. That means if Congress does not reach an agreement before 12:01 a.m. on Oct. 1, the government will shut down. House Republicans on Thursday sent the chamber into recess, delaying further developments in the negotiations.

“I don’t know what to think,” said Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”  

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a Republican representative from California, is responsible for piecing together the splintered GOP caucus that is struggling to come to an agreement.

Durbin, D-IL, noted that the Senate had been “moving forward” in negotiating a deal before it was interrupted by disagreement from Republican Congress members and the “inability of the Speaker to get a majority for anything.”

A primary obstacle ahead of McCarthy is a group of Republican hard-liners in the House who refuse to budge on further spending cuts.

“All of a sudden we’re the bad guys because we want to balance our budget,” Tennessee GOP Rep. Tim Burchett said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Burchett is among the House Republicans who are, as he puts it, “sticking to our guns.” He said he would not endorse a short-term bill called a continuing resolution, or CR, which would provide a temporary budget until the government can negotiate a more permanent deal for the new fiscal year.

“I’ve not voted for a CR, a continuing resolution. I didn’t vote for one under President Trump, and I haven’t voted for any in the past,” said Burchett. “You have folks that come to Washington and say, ‘Oh, I’m going to be a fiscal conservative, I’m going to be this,’…