“He doesn’t have to make deals because he can always shut down the government if they don’t cave, knowing that the media will blame the Republicans for the shutdown and the public will be fooled into thinking that is the case.”
The Republicans can easily eliminate the shutdown threat. Instead of sending one giant budget bill to the president, they can send hundreds or thousands of individual appropriations bills funding each agency or even each program. The president can then choose which to sign and which to veto. No government shutdown unless he vetoes all of them. In that case, even the most stupid voter would have to recognize it is the president shutting down the government. It is the single giant “all or nothing” spending bill, sent to the president at the last minute, that gives the president his power.
Why won’t the GOP fund the government in hundreds or thousands of individual spending bills? Perhaps they like the drama.
Or perhaps it's because they are the stupid party.