Sally Kohn is a CNN political commentator and author of the book "The Opposite of Hate." The opinions expressed in this commentary are hers. View more opinion articles on CNN.

(CNN) Hey Republicans, grow up!

When my young daughter leaves her clothes on the bathroom floor or doesn't carry her dinner plate to the sink, I remind her she's supposed to. And in response, she usually makes that guttural preteen sound, rolls her eyes slightly and says, "I know!" and then does the thing she was supposed to do without being told.

Sally Kohn

I inevitably can't help asking, "If you know you're supposed to do it, then why didn't you do it without me reminding you?" Children know right from wrong, but why do they need us to remind them to do what's right?

And then, after yet again finding a pair of tiny pajama bottoms on the bathroom floor, I read the news that President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans might support legislation to keep the federal government open — not because it's the right thing to do, which surely they know it is, but because of the death of former President George H.W. Bush.

Specifically, according to reports, Republicans were threatening to grind to a halt the vast majority of our nation's government to extort $5 billion for Trump's border wall. The real price of a shutdown? Certain services and projects would stop, and Republicans would be furloughing almost a million federal workers without pay just days before Christmas. All for a wasteful border wall that even conservative analysts say won't work

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