OPINION: It’s showtime, Congressional Republicans; what’s the script?

It’s a Christmas miracle! That’s right, the U.S. House of Representatives actually passed a short-term spending bill to avert a federal government shutdown. Given the 11th-hour meddling of our incoming president and his emotional-support billionaire, it’s a miracle the GOP-controlled House managed to get anything done.

Keep in mind that passing a short-term spending bill is the fiscal equivalent of feeding coins into a parking meter. It doesn’t solve any big, systemic problems. It just buys House Republicans a little more time.

Now pay close attention because, less than a month from now, both houses of Congress and the White House will be under Republican control. What will this GOP trifecta actually deliver for rank-and-file Americans?

Will the guys in the red hats offer meaningful tax cuts for middle class families? Will they increase the tax deduction for new business start-ups? Will they bring down the cost of health care? Offer child care credits so beleaguered parents can get out of the house to earn a paycheck?

What, exactly, will all this GOP leadership do for the hundreds of millions of Americans who are not independently wealthy?

If history is a guide, the answer is, “Not much.” In fairness, Republican congressmen are pretty good at naming post offices and highway bridges, but delivering jobs and opportunities for their constituents is not a strong point.

As Washington Post columnist Megan McArdle points out, the GOP’s latest flirtation with a government shutdown shows the party’s lack of a meaningful agenda.

“In the game of politics, it is not enough for your enemies to lose. You actually have to win. Try to think back to the last time the Republican Party had an agenda that didn’t boil down to ‘no’? It’s pretty difficult, isn’t it?

“But ‘no,’ by itself, is not an agenda. And that’s basically all the Republican Party is selling right now, to voters and to itself. No to wokeness, no to foreign aid, no to gun control and vaccine mandates — no, in fact, to anything the left says, including ‘Happy Holidays.’”

OK, Megan McArdle is a columnist for an effete East Coast newspaper, so don’t take her word for it.

Instead, consider what Chip Roy, a ruby-red Republican congressman from Texas, had to say in an impassioned floor speech late last year: “I want my Republican colleagues to give me one thing – one! – that I can go campaign on and say we did. One! Anybody sitting in the complex, if you want to come down to the floor and come explain to me one material, meaningful, significant thing the Republican majority has done.”

Roy probably caught hell from his fellow Republicans for that outburst of intellectual honesty, but he deserves credit for calling out his party’s failure to steer America toward a better tomorrow.

At the heart of the GOP’s feckless approach to governance is its childlike devotion to the whims of America’s former and future president. Recall that earlier this year, Congress was poised to approve a tough, bi-partisan border security and immigration bill — until the GOP presidential candidate ordered his toadies to scuttle it.

It could have been a major step toward cooling a very hot issue, but it was abandoned so a vain, narcissistic man had something to complain about. Run along now, Congressional Republicans, and fetch your master’s pipe and slippers.

Here’s an idea: The leader of the most powerful country on earth could actually work to improve the lives of common citizens, rather than catering to billionaires in the corporate class.

Want an example?

Under President Joe Biden, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services authorized Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices for the first time in history. Senate Republicans, ever-protective of Big Pharma’s profit margins, tried to kill the measure, but Vice President Kamala Harris cast the tie-breaking vote for approval. If the next president and his Congressional lapdogs keep their paws off the program, millions of senior citizens and others on Medicare will soon enjoy lower prices for some of the most common — and expensive — prescription drugs to treat heart disease, cancer, diabetes, blood clots and more.

That’s what a win for rank-and-file Americans looks like.

With Republicans about to take full control of Washington, it’s an open question whether their lord and master will allow them to rack up any more wins for little people like you and me.

Brock has been a Daily News columnist for more than 22 years. He has lived on the Palouse even longer.