Looking ahead to a fast-approaching government shutdown that threatens to disrupt the lives of millions of Americans, Speaker Kevin McCarthy has turned to a strategy that has so far maintained his tenuous grip on the leadership of the House of Representatives, but

That has

it was also characterized by chaos

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That strategy is give, give

hard right legislators what they want.

In his eight months leading the House of Representatives, McCarthy has lived by the optimistic personal mantra of never giving up, while dodging threats to his presidency and trying to portray Republicans as capable stewards of the U.S. government. He has long chided Washington for underestimating him.

But with the Republican majority in the House of Representatives in turmoil and the country almost certain to plunge into a shutdown, McCarthy has put aside the more traditional tools of the gavel to keep his party’s rebels in line. Instead, he has joined a small gang led by those who incited efforts to depose him.

It is an untested strategy that has left McCarthy deeply frustrated, with his allies rushing to his side and his grip on power increasingly precarious as the September 30 deadline to fund the government is less than a week away.

We still have a few days left,” McCarthy said Saturday as he arrived at the Capitol.

I think when it [is] Crucial time, folks…

will finally,

who have been putting it off all this time to blame everyone else

,

will finally, hopefully, leave, the Bakersfield Republican said. “Because the shutdown and the fact that border agents aren’t getting paid, your Coast Guard isn’t getting paid, I don’t see how that’s a good thing.

Governing with a narrow majority in the House of Representatives, McCarthy faces a more virulent variant of the hard-right tactics used by the last two Republican speakers, Rep. John A. Boehner of Ohio and Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, taking early retirement. Like them, McCarthy has tried various tactics to restore order. But more than ever, he is being swept along as far-right lawmakers, determined to bend Washington to their will, take control of the House of Representatives.

McCarthy tried to win the support of conservatives by agreeing to their demands for an impeachment inquiry against President Biden and then by heeding their calls for budget cuts, but was rebuffed when some of them wanted to make more concessions.

He has withdrawn from the budget deal he struck with Biden months ago that set the spending threshold for the year. Instead, he is trying to cut spending further, in line with the levels he promised the right flank of the Republican caucus during his tumultuous race to become speaker of the House of Representatives.

Yet all concessions never seem to be enough.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who is leading the fight for more, urged reporters Thursday: “If you look at the events of the last two weeks, things seem to be heading my way.”

Gaetz said he was delivering a eulogy for the short-term funding legislation known as a continuing resolution, a mechanism traditionally used to keep the government functioning during spending debates.

Democrats were eager to pin the blame for the impending shutdown on McCarthy and the dysfunction of the House of Representatives. Biden has called on the speaker to stick to the annual spending numbers they negotiated to raise the country’s borrowing limit.

“McCarthy handed the gavel to the most extremes in his party,” said Massachusetts Rep. Jim McGovern, a senior Democrat.

With the House of Representatives at a standstill and lawmakers away this weekend, McCarthy is turning to Gaetz’s plan to begin processing some of the nearly a dozen annual spending bills needed to fund the various government departments, and for the time being idea of ​​a stopgap solution while work continues.

It’s a virtually impossible task because Congress is running out of time to find a short-term spending plan.

“There is no way we can pass 11 bills in eight days,” Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democratic appropriator, said last week, referring to the measures Congress would have to approve by September 30.

DeLauro, a veteran lawmaker, estimated it would take at least six weeks to pass the bills in both chambers of Congress and then negotiate differences between the House and Senate versions. She urged Republicans to embrace a continuing resolution to allow government agencies to remain open.

Republican Rep. Patrick T. McHenry of North Carolina, one of McCarthy’s closest allies, has pointed out that the Senate has advanced legislation at spending levels that exceed those in the deal reached with Biden. McHenry argues that Republicans in the House of Representatives should pass their own bills at the lower numbers to strengthen their hand in the negotiations.

If Congress is to break the current impasse, many expect it will need a bipartisan coalition that will leave McCarthy’s right flank behind. That would certainly create a GOP challenge to his leadership.

In the Senate, Democratic and Republican leaders are working on a package that would fund the government at a much higher level than far-right Republicans in the House of Representatives are demanding and include disaster relief and money for Ukraine, where some Republican House members be against.

Ultimately, we would get something back from the U.S. Senate, and that won’t be to our liking, said Arkansas Rep. Steve Womack, a ranking Republican on the House Appropriations Committee. Then the speaker is faced with a very difficult decision.

Associated Press writer Kevin Freking contributed to this report.