No government shutdown — for now

So Congress, in its infinite wisdom, avoided a government shutdown with an 11th-hour spending deal at the end of last month. That’s the good news.

The bad news is that lawmakers once again opted for a short-term stopgap and avoided tackling the tougher issues.

As has become typical, the sticking point in the debate was not related to the government’s functioning. It was an effort by conservative Republicans to remove funding for Planned Parenthood from the bill.

After too much debate and too little constructive dialogue, the spending bill was passed and signed by President Barack Obama in time to keep the lights on in Washington. Until Dec. 11, anyway.

But the country’s fiscal house could fall into disarray much earlier than that, particularly after Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R.-Calif., backed out of the race to replace House Speaker John Boehner last week.

PARTY IN DISARRAY

As of press time, the Republican Party was in disarray, with no clear candidate to step in for Mr. Boehner, who, to his credit, said he would stay on until a new speaker is chosen. Originally he planned to retire at the end of October. (It was the late-September spending bill tussle that drove him to submit his resignation in the first place.)

In just a couple of weeks, the federal highway fund will run dry unless Congress takes action. In the last six years, lawmakers have passed 34 stopgap highway funding bills. That’s embarrassing. What good is a driverless car if the roads it travels on are in shambles? Maybe those working on that car should develop hovercraft instead.

Then there’s the debt limit.

Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew has said measures used by the Treasury Department to hold off default would last at least through late October and probably longer. The default deadline is Nov. 5. In the past, Mr. Boehner has had to rely on Democratic votes to get a debt limit increase approved.

During floor debate on the spending bill last month, Republican Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma called a government shutdown “the wrong thing to do.” He added that the American people “sent us here to get things done.”

We couldn’t agree more, but, alas, talk is cheap. Only when lawmakers match their lofty words with action — on a lasting highway bill, a sustainable debt limit deal and a long-term spending bill — will anyone be convinced that a government for the people is alive and well.