Congress plunges nation into government shutdown

[Teh One Who Knocks]

ANDREW TAYLOR - The Associated Press


http://i.imgur.com/YQF4KeT.jpg

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress plunged the nation into a partial government shutdown Tuesday as a long-running dispute over President Barack Obama's health care law stalled a temporary funding bill, forcing about 800,000 federal workers off the job and suspending most non-essential federal programs and services.

The shutdown, the first since the winter of 1995-96, closed national parks, museums along the Washington Mall and the U.S. Capitol visitors center. Agencies like NASA and the Environmental Protection Agency will be all but shuttered. People classified as essential government employees — such as air traffic controllers, Border Patrol agents and most food inspectors — will continue to work.

The health care law itself was unaffected as enrollment opened Tuesday for millions of people shopping for medical insurance.

The military will be paid under legislation freshly signed by Obama, but paychecks for other federal workers will be withheld until the impasse is broken. Federal workers were told to report to their jobs for a half-day but to perform only shutdown tasks like changing email greetings and closing down agencies' Internet sites.

The self-funded Postal Service will continue to operate and the government will continue to pay Social Security benefits and Medicare and Medicaid fees to doctors on time.

The Senate twice on Monday rejected House-passed bills that, first, conditioned keeping the government open to delaying key portions of the 2010 "Obamacare" law that take effect Tuesday, and then delayed for a year the law's requirement that millions of people buy medical insurance. The House passed the last version again early Tuesday; Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the same fate awaits it when the Senate reconvenes Tuesday morning.

"You don't get to extract a ransom for doing your job, for doing what you're supposed to be doing anyway, or just because there's a law there that you don't like," Obama said Monday, delivering a similar message in private phone calls later to Republican House Speaker John Boehner and other lawmakers.

Boehner said he didn't want a government shutdown, but added the health care law "is having a devastating impact. ... Something has to be done."

It wasn't clear how long the standoff would last, but it appeared that Obama and Reid had the upper hand.

"We can't win," said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., adding that "sooner or later" the House would have to agree to Democrats' demands for a simple, straightforward funding bill reopening the government.

The order directing federal agencies to "execute plans for an orderly shutdown due to the absence of appropriations" was issued by White House Budget Director Sylvia Burwell shortly before midnight Monday.

Around the same time, Obama appeared in a video message assuring members of the military they'll be paid under a law he just signed and telling civilian Defense Department employees that "you and your families deserve better than the dysfunction we're seeing in Congress."

The underlying spending bill would fund the government through Nov. 15 if the Senate gets its way or until Dec. 15 if the House does.

Until now, such bills have been routinely passed with bipartisan support, ever since a pair of shutdowns 17 years ago engineered by then-Speaker Newt Gingrich severely damaged Republican election prospects and revived then-President Bill Clinton's political standing.

Boehner had sought to avoid the shutdown and engineer passage of a "clean" temporary spending bill for averting a government shutdown.

This time tea party activists mobilized by freshman Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, mounted a campaign to seize the must-do measure in an effort to derail Obamacare. GOP leaders voiced reservations and many Republican lawmakers predicted it wouldn't work. Some even labeled it "stupid."

But the success of Cruz and other tea party-endorsed conservatives who upset establishment GOP candidates in 2010 and 2012 primaries was a lesson learned for many Republican lawmakers going into next year's election

[RBP]

I've decided that I don't give a fuck about the government shutting down temporarily.

[Pony]

^that

[perrhaps]

Let's see. Got up this morning and took the rott outside. Went back in, had coffee, played in my usual morning WPT website no limit, hold'em tournament. Finished 27th out of 210, took the dog for a 1 1/2 mile walk, ate breakfast, and went to work.

Know what? Despite the dire bleats from Barry, the world hasn't quite ended yet.

[Muddy]

Barack will try and take some services from the common man to try make a point.. Like cutting White House tours, but still get 35 xmas trees.

[PorkChopSandwiches]

https://scontent-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/1375054_659904367361772_2014279997_n.png

[FBD]

:lol: yeah, how is it a shutdown when 60% or more is still running. :roll:

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Barack will try and take some services from the common man to try make a point.. Like cutting White House tours, but still get 35 xmas trees.

This ^^

They will shut down things like the National Parks and tours of government buildings like the White House because those are things that the public will notice and get somewhat upset over. All the while, all the fucking bloated BS in Washington marches forward.

[PorkChopSandwiches]

Its all just a distraction

[MrsM]

This may affect my trip to DC later this month - Just saying that it's not just tourist attractions that will be closed.

[FBD]

This ^^

They will shut down things like the National Parks and tours of government buildings like the White House because those are things that the public will notice and get somewhat upset over. All the while, all the fucking bloated BS in Washington marches forward.

and nevermind all of the national parks that are privately run and managed and dont need a dime of government money to remain open :roll:

[Muddy]

This ^^

They will shut down things like the National Parks and tours of government buildings like the White House because those are things that the public will notice and get somewhat upset over. All the while, all the fucking bloated BS in Washington marches forward.

He's hitting the airways at 12:45.

[Acid Trip]

He's hitting the airways at 12:45.

Maybe he should be convening Congress and trying to come to a compromise instead. Talking shit about the GOP controlled house on TV/radio will only make it worse.

My bad, that requires actual leadership abilities. :shrug:

[PorkChopSandwiches]

:lol:

[PorkChopSandwiches]

https://scontent-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc1/579104_348590008611013_1012163553_n.jpg

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Awesome :thumbsup:

[PorkChopSandwiches]

I see Ted Cruz is donating all his pay during the shut down to charity. Why arent the rest of these shitheads demanding their pay be held? They make me sick for the most part.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

http://i.imgur.com/HbzMwHI.png

[Muddy]

https://scontent-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc1/579104_348590008611013_1012163553_n.jpg

Total publicity stunt. These guys pay isnt where they become millionaires.. It's all the deals they write on the side.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Total publicity stunt. These guys pay isnt where they become millionaires.. It's all the deals they write on the side.

It's the principal :shakehead:

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Chris Moody, Yahoo! News


House Republicans are planning no new proposals on the first day of a shutdown to fully fund the government, but they will introduce three small bills that would continue funding for veteran benefits, national parks and museums, plus a fourth measure that would allow the District of Columbia to continue operating using its own revenue.

Although the move won't end the budget impasse, the measures could ease some of the pain while lawmakers continue to try to find a path out of the standoff, and House leaders were preparing for votes Wednesday evening.

Senate Democrats, however, rejected the new offer outright. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Tuesday afternoon insisted, as he has throughout the entire process, that the Senate would accept nothing short of a bill that funds all government operations.

"The government is shut down," Reid said on the Senate floor. "And if they think they're going to nit-pick us on this, it won't work."

Earlier Tuesday, the morning of the first federal government shutdown in 17 years, the political brinkmanship reached a stalemate when the Senate rejected a House request for a conference committee to take up a proposal to fund the government through Dec. 15 and delay a key part of Obamacare.

The Democrat-controlled Senate voted to table the House bill passed overnight that proposed the committee. The House bill also included language that would prohibit congressional staff members from receiving subsidies for their health care plans and delay Obamacare’s individual mandate to buy health insurance for one year.

By transitioning to a conference committee, the House and Senate would each appoint members to work out a deal to fund the government and end the shutdown. But appointing a committee would take the talks from public view to closed-door negotiating rooms where lawmakers and staffers could hash out their differences in private.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor joined members of the chamber's appointed conference committee in a meeting room where they called on Senate lawmakers to join them for negotiations.

"We invite Senate Democrats to come and join us and resolve our differences," Cantor said.

Democrats continued to decline alternative offers until the House passes a full funding bill.

Meanwhile, Obama blasted Republicans on Tuesday in a Rose Garden statement for using a mandatory spending bill to dismantle the health care law, the president's landmark legislation.
“They’ve shut down the government over an ideological crusade to deny affordable health insurance to millions of Americans,” Obama said. "This, more than anything else, seems to be what the Republican Party stands for these days."

This week's shutdown came after House Republicans refused to pass a bill to set federal spending levels unless the federal health care law was defunded or delayed. Senate Democrats and President Barack Obama repeatedly said they would not accept any spending bill that tampers with the law.

Last week, the House passed a bill to completely defund the health law. When the Senate rejected it, the House passed another version that would have abolished a tax on medical devices and delayed the law for a year. When the Senate rejected that, House Republicans passed another bill that would have delayed the individual mandate and revoked health insurance subsidies for congressional staffers. After the Senate said no to that, the clock ran out and the government shut down. That’s when the House asked for private negotiations — surprise, the Senate turned that down — and that’s where the parties stand now.

The back-and-forth between the parties will continue throughout the day, as House Republicans recalibrate their strategy and Senate lawmakers huddle for partisan meetings this afternoon.

Unless they can find a compromise, the government will remain shut down until further notice.

The Republican strategy of coupling anti-Obamacare legislation with the threat of a government shutdown is unpopular, according to a national Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday. American voters oppose the GOP's tactic by a ratio of 72 to 22 percent, according to the poll.

[Muddy]

It's the principal :shakehead:

Sure.. A principle they'll ram up their constituents asses for the next 40 years trying to get elected. :unimpressed:

[RBP]

Let's be clear about the pay issue. They are on retroactively paid vacation. In the previous 17 shutdowns, nobody got stiffed, they all got paid, and the longest shutdown was only 3 weeks.

So don't feel too sorry for them.

[DemonGeminiX]

My Mom works for NCIS. She now has to go to work, even though she had leave scheduled for next week, and she won't be getting paid for the work she has to do from this morning until they figure this shit out. She'll get back pay once everything is settled, but really, who knows when that's gonna be?

So for those who aren't getting furloughed, they have to work, regardless whether or not they had leave/vacation time scheduled, and if they were on leave/vacation, they have to go back to work, regardless where they're at. And everybody that has to work that isn't military will not get paid for the work they have to do until this is dealt with in Congress.

It's junk like this that makes me wonder why the military just doesn't march on Washington and throw those bastards out.

[DemonGeminiX]

Let's be clear about the pay issue. They are on retroactively paid vacation. In the previous 17 shutdowns, nobody got stiffed, they all got paid, and the longest shutdown was only 3 weeks.

So don't feel too sorry for them.

3 weeks was a long time to wonder if they'd be able to pay their bills on time. Don't forget that we're talking about people with families here.

[RBP]

3 weeks was a long time to wonder if they'd be able to pay their bills on time. Don't forget that we're talking about people with families here.

Yeah I know, but they are going to get paid, they may not even miss a pay cycle. If someone with a family doesn't have even a couple weeks pay in the bank for an emergency, they need to reevaluate.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Yeah I know, but they are going to get paid, they may not even miss a pay cycle. If someone with a family doesn't have even a couple weeks pay in the bank for an emergency, they need to reevaluate.

Yes, because it always works out where people have spare money to put away in case of emergency.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

ANDREW TAYLOR - The Associated Press


WASHINGTON (AP) — The political stare-down on Capitol Hill shows no signs of easing, leaving federal government functions — from informational websites, to national parks, to processing veterans' claims — in limbo from coast to coast. Lawmakers in both parties ominously suggested the partial shutdown might last for weeks.

A funding cutoff for much of the government began Tuesday as a Republican effort to kill or delay the nation's health care law stalled action on a short-term, traditionally routine spending bill. Republicans pivoted to a strategy to try to reopen the government piecemeal but were unable to immediately advance the idea in the House.

National parks like Yellowstone and Alcatraz Island were shuttered, government websites went dark and hundreds of thousands of nonessential workers reported for a half-day to fill out time cards, hand in their government cellphones and laptops, and change voicemail messages to gird for a deepening shutdown.

The Defense Department said it wasn't clear that service academies would be able to participate in sports, putting Saturday's Army vs. Boston College and Air Force vs. Navy football games on hold, with a decision to be made Thursday.

And the White House said Wednesday that President Barack Obama would have to truncate a long-planned trip to Asia, calling off the final two stops in Malaysia and the Philippines.

Even as many government agencies closed their doors, health insurance exchanges that are at the core of Obama's health care law were up and running, taking applications for coverage that would start Jan. 1.

"Shutting down our government doesn't accomplish their stated goal," Obama said of his Republican opponents at a Rose Garden event hailing implementation of the law. "The Affordable Care Act is a law that passed the House; it passed the Senate. The Supreme Court ruled it constitutional. It was a central issue in last year's election. It is settled, and it is here to stay. And because of its funding sources, it's not impacted by a government shutdown."

GOP leaders faulted the Senate for killing a House request to open official negotiations on the temporary spending bill. Senate Democrats led by Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada insist that Republicans give in and pass their simple, straightforward temporary funding bill, known as a continuing resolution.

"None of us want to be in a shutdown. And we're here to say to the Senate Democrats, 'Come and talk to us,'" House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said as GOP lawmakers designated to negotiate the shutdown legislation met among themselves before cameras and reporters. "At each and every turn, the Senate Democrats refused to even discuss these proposals."

Late Tuesday, House Republicans sought passage of legislation aimed at reopening small slices of the government. The bills covered the national parks, the Veterans Affairs Department and city services in Washington, D.C., such as garbage collection funded with local tax revenues.

The move presented Democrats with politically challenging votes but they rejected the idea, saying it was unfair to pick winners and losers as federal employees worked without a guarantee of getting paid and the effects of the partial shutdown rippled through the country and the economy. The White House promised a veto.

Since the measures were brought before the House under expedited procedures requiring a two-thirds vote to pass, House Democrats scuttled them, despite an impassioned plea by Democratic D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, who recalled that in the last shutdown 17 years ago she prevailed on House Speaker Newt Gingrich to win an exemption to keep the D.C. government running.

"I must support this piecemeal approach," Norton said. "What would you do if your local budget was here?"

But other Democrats said Republicans shouldn't be permitted to choose which agencies should open and which remain shut.

"This piecemeal approach will only prolong a shutdown," Rep. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., said.

Republicans said there could be more votes Wednesday, perhaps to allow the National Institutes of Health to continue pediatric cancer research. The NIH's famed hospital of last resort wasn't admitting new patients because of the shutdown. Dr. Francis Collins, agency director, estimated that each week the shutdown lasts would force the facility to turn away about 200 patients, 30 of them children, who want to enroll in studies of experimental treatments. Patients already at the hospital are permitted to stay.

Republicans also said the House may vote anew on the three measures that failed Tuesday, this time under normal rules requiring a simple majority to pass.

Republicans hoped such votes would create pressure on Democrats to drop their insistence that they won't negotiate on the spending bill or an even more important subsequent measure, required in a couple of weeks or so, to increase the government's borrowing limit.

There were suggestions from leaders in both parties that the shutdown could last for weeks and grow to encompass the measure to increase the debt limit. "This is now all together," Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said.

"It's untenable not to negotiate," House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said. "I've always believed it was the debt limit that would be the forcing action."

While GOP leaders seemed determined to press on, some Republicans conceded they might bear the brunt of any public anger over the shutdown — and seemed resigned to an eventual surrender in their latest bruising struggle with Obama.

Democrats have "all the leverage and we've got none," Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia said.

Rep. Scott Rigell of Virginia said it was time to pass legislation reopening the government without any health care impediments.

"The shutdown is hurting my district — including the military and the hardworking men and women who have been furloughed due to the defense sequester," he said.

But that was far from the majority view among House Republicans, where tea party-aligned lawmakers prevailed more than a week ago on a reluctant leadership to link federal funding legislation to the health care law. In fact, some conservatives fretted the GOP had already given in too much.

[RBP]

Yes, because it always works out where people have spare money to put away in case of emergency.

Whatever. If someone told you that you could have a couple weeks off paid but they couldn't pay you until you came back, who would turn that down? Chances are they won't even miss a pay cycle.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Whatever. If someone told you that you could have a couple weeks off paid but they couldn't pay you until you came back, who would turn that down? Chances are they won't even miss a pay cycle.

Yup, I'd jump all over it....because I'm sure my mortgage company and my credit card companies and auto loan company would have no problem at all with me telling them 'hey, I'm on unpaid vacation, I'll get around paying you whenever' :thumbsup:

[RBP]

Yup, I'd jump all over it....because I'm sure my mortgage company and my credit card companies and auto loan company would have no problem at all with me telling them 'hey, I'm on unpaid vacation, I'll get around paying you whenever' :thumbsup:

Go ahead and feel sorry for them, not me. They are not on unpaid vacation, they are on paid vacation. And this notion of whenever is ridiculous. It's never gone more than 3 weeks. People have cash flow problems they work around all the time. That's all it is, it is not an income problem, it is a cash flow (timing) issue.

[FBD]

Yes, because it always works out where people have spare money to put away in case of emergency.

Were we generalizing here, I'd be in complete agreement, but this is fucking government workers we're talking about here. We all know government workers are vastly overpaid, so I'm with rbp here, I dont feel sorry for any of them whatsoever, they have been receiving enough largesse that they should be able to absorb it.

[MrsM]

Were we generalizing here, I'd be in complete agreement, but this is fucking government workers we're talking about here. We all know government workers are vastly overpaid, so I'm with rbp here, I dont feel sorry for any of them whatsoever, they have been receiving enough largesse that they should be able to absorb it.

Just because someone is in your opinion overpaid doesn't mean that they have saved enough to go weeks without income.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Go ahead and feel sorry for them, not me. They are not on unpaid vacation, they are on paid vacation. And this notion of whenever is ridiculous. It's never gone more than 3 weeks. People have cash flow problems they work around all the time. That's all it is, it is not an income problem, it is a cash flow (timing) issue.

Oh, and just so you can get your facts straight, none of the furloughed employees are guaranteed back pay. Some lawmakers are trying to get a bill passed to get the employees back pay, but it needs to be approved by both houses of Congress. If it doesn't pass, they are SOL.

http://www.govexec.com/pay-benefits/2013/10/house-lawmakers-push-back-pay-furloughed-feds/71128/?oref=dropdown

[perrhaps]

Oh, and just so you can get your facts straight, none of the furloughed employees are guaranteed back pay. Some lawmakers are trying to get a bill passed to get the employees back pay, but it needs to be approved by both houses of Congress. If it doesn't pass, they are SOL.

http://www.govexec.com/pay-benefits/2013/10/house-lawmakers-push-back-pay-furloughed-feds/71128/?oref=dropdown

Which makes them eligible for unemployment compensation, right? Which means they're equivalent to employees in the private sector.


I don't wish anyone hard times, but why should people who don't work at their government jobs for any reason get paid as if they were at work?

Any government employee who could have but didn't stockpile vacation; personal, and sick days the past two years after seeing what was going on doesn't get any sympathy from me.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

It's good to know that everyone here is perfect and is ready for any kind of financial disaster :rolleyes:

[RBP]

Oh, and just so you can get your facts straight, none of the furloughed employees are guaranteed back pay. Some lawmakers are trying to get a bill passed to get the employees back pay, but it needs to be approved by both houses of Congress. If it doesn't pass, they are SOL.

http://www.govexec.com/pay-benefits/2013/10/house-lawmakers-push-back-pay-furloughed-feds/71128/?oref=dropdown

17 shutdowns, 17 backpays. Not a single person is suggesting this will be different. Again, hype. But private sectors employees don't get paid when there is a slowdown or lack of work. Happens all the time.

[perrhaps]

It's good to know that everyone here is perfect and is ready for any kind of financial disaster :rolleyes:

I'm far from perfect, but by my family living beneath its means we had six months living expenses stashed away five years after I started working. It's not that hard if you avoid the "live now, pay later" way of life.

[PorkChopSandwiches]

It's good to know that everyone here is perfect and is ready for any kind of financial disaster :rolleyes:

I have Credit Cards :dance:

[Acid Trip]

I'm far from perfect, but by my family living beneath its means we had six months living expenses stashed away five years after I started working. It's not that hard if you avoid the "live now, pay later" way of life.

I started with a $1000 emergency fund in college. Since then I've been adding to it every paycheck and it now holds 6 months worth of living expenses.

All thanks to Dave Ramsey, author of "The Total Money Makeover".

[FBD]

I think I've got enough for two maybe 3 months expenses

[RBP]

At yesterday’s White House press briefing, a reporter asked Carney, “How does it help you get a deal if you’re calling Republicans extortionists and terrorists?”

[FBD]

"well, if you have no intention on budging from your position, like ever, then it doesnt help to make concessions now, does it?"

:roll:

[Richard Cranium]

Because none of this is about anything but the end game, scoring political points to win elections and keep these progressive shitbags in power indefinitely.

Alinsky's Rules For Radicals, 24/7 - 365

[RBP]

Because none of this is about anything but the end game, scoring political points to win elections and keep these progressive shitbags in power indefinitely.

Alinsky's Rules For Radicals, 24/7 - 365


“Power is not only what you have, but what the enemy thinks you have." (Alinsky, 1971)
“Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.” (Alinsky, 1971)
“The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.” (Alinsky, 1971)
“If you push a negative hard enough, it will push through and become a positive.” (Alinsky, 1971)
“Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” (Alinsky, 1971)

[Richard Cranium]

Another one from this regim's playbook..


Joseph Goebbels:

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”

[RBP]

I am shocked! Shock I say! :faint:

The House voted unanimously Saturday to retroactively pay back federal workers who are not receiving a paycheck because of the government shutdown.

Members approved the Federal Employee Retroactive Pay Fairness Act, H.R. 3223, in a 407-0 vote, with 25 members not voting.

Workers will not be paid until the shutdown — now in its fifth day — ends. About 800,000 workers have been furloughed.

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/326773-house-approves-back-pay-for-workers-hit-by-the-shutdown#ixzz2gra5uiWQ

[FBD]

kabuki theater

[Richard Cranium]

bukaki theater

[perrhaps]

It's bad enough that my tax $$$ pays this legion of slackers for putting in time when they're supposed to be on the clock, but it really frosts my ass to contribute to what amounts to more paid vacation.

Oh, and for anyone who worries how they'll get by before they actually have to impersonate working people, when this happened in PA a few years ago, the banks cut each others' throats to give 1.5- 2.0 % loans to State workers.