Delusions, paranoia, poor judgment, grandiose thinking — all are symptoms of what behavioral experts define as thought disorders. It does not take a psychiatrist to make a diagnosis on Capitol Hill, where, fresh from their extended reckless behavior over leadership, the House GOP finds itself scrambling to find some way to keep the federal government open past the end of this week. Agencies have already warned hundreds of thousands of their workers that furloughs (and unpaid labor) could be coming as early as Saturday, should Congress not approve some type of spending bill by Friday. This would be disastrous by any measure, not only for average hardworking men and women who live on a federal paycheck, but for the American people overall and for the message of utter dysfunction it sends the world, allies and foes alike.

And yet here we are.

Again.

Over the weekend, House Speaker Mike Johnson presented a temporary and needlessly messy way of keeping the doors open. The plan would split the department budgets in two, with a deadline for one group in mid-January and the other in early February, continuing spending at the current rates until then. This, he said, is a way to avoid dumping huge spending bills into the laps of Congress members right before the holidays. The message is that cuts will come later, but hard-right conservatives immediately rejected the idea of continuing “Pelosi level spending & policies for 75 days - for future ‘promises,’ ” as Rep. Chip Roy, Texas Republican, wrote on X.

Small wonder that a Biden spokesperson labeled the proposal “a recipe for more Republican chaos and more shutdowns.” The more loose ends, the better the chance that a bunch of un-herded cats (as the caucus is sometimes metaphorically described) will be pulling on the threads. Nobody likes such “continuing resolutions” as the way to temporarily fund government, but they are necessary when lawmakers are unwilling or unable to pass actual budgets. And so this week becomes a game of chicken as the extremists in the caucus — the same folks perfectly happy to sink the last speaker — kick and scream and make their talking head appearances on Newsmax, while nothing productive gets done until the last minute (if that).

In years past, we would be happy to heap some portion of the blame for budget standoffs on the Democrats, too. But not this time. The Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives owns this. The U.S. Senate, with its slim Democratic majority, doesn’t even have an opportunity to posture and crow as their members are too busy watching the other chamber spins its wheels. Johnson’s party continues to be at war with itself. It was, after all, Kevin McCarthy’s willingness to strike a deal with Democrats over spending that caused him to be booted last month. You think the Matt Gaetz types are looking out for the best interest of the country or seeking merely to call greater attention to themselves and their fierce resistance to reason?

It’s perfectly reasonable for lawmakers to grapple with difficult budget issues, from debating tax law and the proper role of a central government to reducing the deficit and managing the federal bureaucracy. Views on such topics are bound to vary. But it’s not anything close to reasonable to refuse to accept compromise and then accomplish nothing. Republicans hold a small majority in the House, and the other party controls both the Senate and the White House, so it was never likely that they could make sweeping changes. Americans are capable of understanding that — especially when they are presented with facts and logic instead of emotion-laden diatribes.

Nobody wins if the federal government is not funded, a point Kevin McCarthy made more than once. History proves this. The continuing political brinkmanship has already proved costly given that U.S. debt has already been downgraded by the rating firms which, in turn, will raise borrowing costs. More foot-dragging leads to what, some Pyrrhic victory? Bragging about a lose-lose proposition is surely the definition of disordered thinking. Speaker Johnson seems to grasp the stakes here, but there are still plenty in the House GOP who apparently haven’t been screened for sanity.