McCarthy is giving far-right Republicans what they want. But it never seems to be enough.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Looking down on a fast approach government shutdown what threatens disrupt the lives of millions of AmericansSpokesman Kevin McCarthy has resorted to a strategy that has so far preserved its tenuous hold on the House leadership, but has also marked it for chaos: giving far-right legislators what they want.

In his eight months running the houseMcCarthy has lived by the optimistic personal mantra of “never give up” while dodging threats to his presidency and tries to portray republicans as capable administrators of the United States government. He has long chided Washington for underestimating him.

But with the Republican majority in the House of Representatives mired in turmoil, something that will surely lead to a shutdown of the country, McCarthy has put aside the more traditional tools of the gavel to keep the rebels at bay. Instead, he has acceded to a small group led by those who instigated his overthrow, even if it means closing federal offices.

It’s an untested strategy that has left McCarthy deeply frustrated, his allies rushing to his side and his grip on power increasingly uncertain with a week left before the Sept. 30 deadline to fund the government.

“We still have several days,” McCarthy said Saturday upon arriving at the Capitol.

“I think when push comes to shove, the people who have been procrastinating all this time blaming everyone else will finally walk away,” the California Republican said. “Because closing, and not paying the border agents, or the Coast Guard, I don’t see why that is a good thing.”

Governing with a narrow majority in the House of Representatives, the president faces a more virulent strain of the far-right tactics that drove the last two Republican presidents before him, Reps. John Boehner of Ohio and Paul Ryan of Wisconsin , to retire early. Like them, McCarthy has tried various tactics to restore order. But more than ever, McCarthy finds himself swept up as far-right lawmakers, determined to bend Washington to his will, take control of the House.

McCarthy tried to win the support of conservatives by accepting their demand for impeachment inquiry in president Joe Biden and then meeting their demands for expenditure cutonly to be rejected when some of them demand more concessions.

Meanwhile, McCarthy has withdrawn from his budget agreement with Biden months ago that established the spending threshold for the year. Instead, he is trying to reduce spending more in line with the level he promised the right flank during his tumultuous fight to become House speaker.

However, all the concessions never seem to be enough.

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who is leading the fight, boasted to reporters Thursday that “if you look at the events of the last two weeks, things seem to be going in my favor.”

Gaetz said he was praising short-term funding legislation known as continuing resolution, a mechanism traditionally used to keep the government running during spending debates.

Democrats have been eager to shift the blame for the impending shutdown to McCarthy and the dysfunction in the House. Biden has asked McCarthy to stick to the annual spending numbers they negotiated to raise the country’s debt limit.

“He handed the gavel to the most extreme of his party,” said Massachusetts Rep. Jim McGovern, a senior Democrat.

With the House paralyzed and lawmakers at home over the weekend, McCarthy has turned to the plan laid out by Gaetz to begin processing some of the nearly twelve annual spending bills needed to fund the various government departments and set aside for now the idea of ​​an interim approach. while the work continues.

It’s a nearly impossible task as Congress is running out of time to come up with a short-term spending plan.

“There is no way we can pass 11 bills in eight days,” said Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democratic official, referring to the number of bills Congress would have to pass by Sept. 30.

DeLauro, a veteran lawmaker, estimated it would take at least six weeks to pass the bills in both chambers of Congress and then negotiate them between the House and Senate. He urged Republicans to adopt a continuing resolution to allow government agencies to remain open.

Republican Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, one of McCarthy’s closest allies, has noted that the Senate has advanced legislation at spending levels higher than those of the agreement reached with Biden. He maintains that House Republicans need to pass their own bills in lower numbers to strengthen their negotiating position.

For Congress to resolve the current impasse, many expect a bipartisan coalition to move beyond McCarthy’s right flank will be necessary. Surely that would provoke a challenge to his leadership.

In the Senate, Democratic and Republican leaders are working on a package that would fund the government at much higher levels than House Republicans are demanding and would include emergency disaster aid and money for Ukraine, which is some of the Republican members of the House oppose.

“Eventually, we’re going to get something from the United States Senate and it’s not going to be to our liking,” said Arkansas Rep. Steve Womack, a top Republican on the House Appropriations Committee. “Then the president will have to make a very difficult decision.”

Associated Press writer Kevin Freking contributed to this report.