I don’t get it. Republicans are moving legislation that would continue funding the government, and Democrats are opposing it because it doesn’t legalize “Dreamers” brought illegally to the United States as children.

During the 2013 and 1995-96 shutdowns, Republicans were blamed for grinding the government to a halt. This time, it could not be more clear that the ones holding things up are the Democrats. Republicans now are generally willing to pass a “continuing resolution” that maintains funding at current levels to provide time for the Dreamers issue to be negotiated. They’ve even thrown in money for the Children’s Health Insurance Program, something they thought Democrats would like, since every time there’s a dispute on Capitol Hill Democrats accuse Republicans of harming children.

But apparently, there’s debate about who is causing the shutdown. Note that Democrats and some allies in the press are framing this as a “can Republicans govern?” issue. Were Republicans causing the problem, nobody would be talking about Democrats’ failure to govern, only about Republicans causing disruption.

The Democrats are holding spending hostage based over illegal immigrants. However heartbreaking some of their cases may be, that’s what’s going on. What I find more heartbreaking is that Democrats are forcing Republicans to delay devising a spending bill that will increase funding for our military, which desperately needs it to defend us after having its budget gutted during the Obama years.