A government shutdown on October 1 looks more and more likely. From today's
New York Times:
House Republican leaders — bowing to the demands of their conservative
wing — will put to a vote on Friday a stopgap spending measure that
would strip all funding from President Obama’s signature health care
law, increasing the likelihood that the government will shut down in two
weeks....
House Republicans emerged from a closed-door session on the leadership’s
plans seemingly steeled for a protracted showdown, a potentially
troubling sign with the government’s funding authority set to expire on
Oct. 1. Representative John Fleming, Republican of Louisiana, said the
House is taking up the banner first raised by the Senate’s hardest-line
conservative Republicans, Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah.
“Ted Cruz and Mike Lee have been asking for this fight. The conservative
base have been asking for this fight, so we’re going to give them the
fight,” he said.
For their part, Democrats appeared almost gleeful that the Republican
leadership had chosen the most confrontational route with just days to
go before a potential shutdown....
My guess is that the GOP will allow Cruz and Lee to have their vote on Friday; it will fail; and then the GOP will focus on a budget bill and hope that the Democratic leadership in the Senate will actually do its job and allow a vote on a budget bill.
ReplyDeleteSee what happens when the lunatics run the asylum?
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that there's never a real government shutdown. Close all of the Social Security field offices and payment centers. Postpone all hearings. Close the National Parks. No VA claims. need a passport? Forget about it. No loan applications, no food inspections, etc... Then see how the public likes it.
ReplyDeleteDitto Anon 6:52
ReplyDeleteAt midnight 9/30, send in the army to the airports nd border crossings, tell the controllers to turn around anything not landing in 30 minutes and shut down the border. Nothing in or out by plane, train, boat or automobile. No food inspectors, no marshalls, no courts, no secret service, nothing federal open or doing anything (except the military protecting the border) and give the government shutdown folks a real government shutdown.
That will never happen, of course, because our system--above everything else--first and foremost protects the property rights of the richest. Poor neighborhoods can't even get the police to show up within 24 hours for a violent crime, but the richest can get the national guard to show up when a few dirty hippies want to march down into their neighborhood and yell at their expensive penthouses.
ReplyDeleteIn capitalism, capital is the most important thing...
It's going to happen, and it's going to be protracted. The GOP (or at least the fringe wing, of which the rest of the Party is unwilling to cross) doesn't care about the consequences, even to the point of not caring about the consequences to GOP candidates. "Non-essential" (and who knows how that will be defined?) Feds should prepare for a long "vacation."
ReplyDelete