The U.S. government narrowly avoided a shutdown this week, and while some are touting that as a bipartisan victory, others — like Bill Maher — are left rolling their eyes over the “stupid game of chicken” that played out on Capitol Hill this week.
On Friday’s “Real Time With Bill Maher,” the host kicked off his monologue by sarcastically celebrating the start of the government’s new fiscal year.
“It’s the fiscal New Year, so people are going nuts. That’s the big story. I hate to have to bore you with all this s—, but that’s all America’s talking about,” Maher said. “The temporary funding bill got passed, we are not going to have a government shutdown. So that’s good.”
As a reminder: In an 11th-hour vote on Thursday (fiscal New Year’s Eve, if you will) the House and Senate extended government funding through Dec. 3. President Biden then signed off on the measure, averting a shutdown that, according to Maher, isn’t necessarily something to celebrate — because it never should have come down to the wire like that to begin with.
“You’re cheering?” Maher said as his audience clapped in approval. “Because we made it through to December 3 — that’s what they did. The Democrats wanted to raise the debt ceiling but no, just until December 3, that’s all. It’s the equivalent of putting duct tape on your shower nozzle until you actually call the plumber.”
He continued: “A stupid, stupid game of chicken that they always play whenever a Democrat is the president and the Republicans can make him look like an a–hole. And of course at the last minute, the Democrats had to back down. Nancy Pelosi blinked, which is itself new.”
See Maher’s full monologue in the video up top.