Congress heads toward shutdown at midnight
The
Senate is expected to vote at 2 p.m. to reject the latest proposal from
House Republicans. The measure would delay by a year key parts of
Obamacare.
Potential ‘tsunami’ for D.C.
The Washington area could lose up to $200 million a day if a closure occurs.
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Washington braces for the first shutdown of the national government in 17 years
Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) has vowed to reject a funding bill approved by the House early Sunday because it would delay Obama’s signature 2010 health-care law for one year and repeal a tax on medical devices.
Video
The 1995 government shutdowns were bad for Republicans — but politically, the GOP could have much more to lose this time around.
Video
Congressional reporter Ed O'Keefe explains the
tax that's being targeted by House Republicans as they try to reach a
budget deal -- and put a ding in Obamacare.
[Click here for live updates on the shutdown crisis.]
By midafternoon, House GOP leaders are likely to face a decision again about how to handle the simple, six-week government funding bill that the Senate approved last week.
House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) declined to say on “Fox News Sunday” whether Republicans would consider the plan — the only one that President Obama and other Democratic leaders say they will accept. Instead, McCarthy said, Republicans were headed in a different direction, one likely to set up yet another late-night showdown as the midnight shutdown deadline approaches.
McCarthy predicted that the House will “send another provision not to shut the government down but to fund it. And it will have a few other options in there for the Senate to look at.”
[Read about the impact of a shutdown on the national economy and on the economy of the Washington region .]
U.S. stock markets opened slightly down on Monday, as analysts watched the tense standoff between the political parties, which seems likely to worsen in two weeks when lawmakers must decide whether to raise the debt ceiling.
The House opened for the day at 10 a.m. with no sign of movement but plenty of vitriol. House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) slammed the Senate for failing to move more quickly to take up the House bill. “The Senate decided not to work yesterday,” he said. “Well, my goodness, if there’s such an emergency, where are they?”
Members of both parties were quick to chime in. Democrats accused their Republican colleagues of risking a government shutdown over yet another attempt, on top of dozens of previous ones, to gut a legitimately passed health-care law.
“I say to my colleagues across the aisle: Stop trying to shut down the government of the United States of America,” said Rep. Nita M. Lowey (D-N.Y.).
But Republicans appeared to sense an opening in the delay in the inevitable Senate action. “Where, oh where has the Senate gone? Where, oh where can they be?” asked Rep. Ted Poe (R-Tex.).
In a CNN poll released Monday morning, 46 percent of Americans said they would blame Republicans in Congress if the government shuts down, while 36 percent said they would hold President Obama responsible. Thirteen percent of respondents said both congressional Republicans and the president would be at fault.
ologist, NOAA
House Republicans are weighing several options for what to do when the Senate rejects their latest bill, senior GOP aides said Sunday. The possibilities include:
●Trying again to repeal the medical-device tax. The tax, a 2.3 percent levy on sales of medical devices such as hip implants and defibrillators, is projected to raise about $30 billion over the next decade to help cover the cost of expanding health-insurance coverage.
Video
The 1995 government shutdowns were bad for Republicans — but politically, the GOP could have much more to lose this time around.
Video
Congressional reporter Ed O'Keefe explains the
tax that's being targeted by House Republicans as they try to reach a
budget deal -- and put a ding in Obamacare.
Still, repealing the tax would not stab at the heart of the health-care law, and it is not clear how much support the strategy would muster among House conservatives. Meanwhile, even many Democrats who have campaigned against the tax say they will not break ranks on the government-funding bill.
Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), for example, said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that he is willing to discuss the tax, but “not with a gun to my head, not with the prospect of shutting down the government.”
●Attacking a different part of the health-care law, such as a special board created to keep Medicare costs low. The Independent Payment Advisory Board was derided as a “death panel” during the 2009 debate over the health law. It remains so politically toxic that congressional Republicans have refused to recommend members. But this option would probably face the same hurdles as repealing the device tax.
●Proposing to eliminate health-insurance subsidies for lawmakers and their staff members. This idea is so explosive on Capitol Hill, aides in both parties say it would amount to a declaration of all-out war. It probably has no hope of passage. But if the House could approve it, Senate Democrats would be left to take the blame for shutting down the government to keep their own health benefits.
Another advantage: It would throw a bone to right-wing groups that have declared the long-standing employer subsidies a “special exemption” now that lawmakers are required to enter the new health-insurance exchanges.
Still, many rank-and-file Republicans — especially those who are not wealthy, are not married to working spouses with insurance or are caring for sick children — are opposed to this option. Senior GOP lawmakers and aides in several House leadership offices said the House is not likely to pursue it.
●Forgetting about the add-ons — putting the Senate government funding bill on the floor and letting it pass with a combination of Democratic and Republican votes. This probably would have been easier two weeks ago. But after all the drama over defunding Obamacare, it is not clear that House leaders could muster two dozen votes to help the chamber’s 200 Democrats pass the measure — at least not until conservatives have felt the pain of a government shutdown.
As Republican leaders mulled the possibilities, others in the GOP began bracing for the political fallout. A recent CBS News-New York Times poll found that 44 percent of the public would blame Republicans and 35 percent would blame Obama and the Democrats for a shutdown. Sixteen percent would blame both parties equally.
“Look, I don’t want a government shutdown,” said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), who has led the charge to use the threat of a shutdown to dismantle the health law. “I don’t think Harry Reid should shut down the government,” Cruz said on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” implying that a shutdown would be entirely Reid’s decision.
About a quarter of the public supports the idea of shutting down the government to defund Obamacare. But more than half of conservative Republicans support it, according to a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll. For lawmakers in deep-red districts, that is the slice of public opinion that matters.
On Sunday, Republicans tended to argue that they were trying to compromise with Obama and the Democrats to avoid a shutdown while pursuing conservative principles.
“I have said all along it is not a good idea to shut down government,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said on “Face the Nation.” “But I also think that it is not a good idea to give the president 100 percent of what he wants on Obamacare.”
When host Bob Schieffer noted that Obamacare is already the law, Paul said that is why Republicans are offering a “new compromise.”
Instead of “getting rid of his signature achievement,” Paul said, Republicans want merely to delay it “to make sure that it doesn’t totally destroy the insurance market in our country.”
Paul Kane, Rosalind S. Helderman, Peyton Craighill and Scott Clement contributed to this report.
In a shutdown, federal workers are deemed either “essential” — or not. We asked workers into which category they fall.
- Are you ‘essential’? Tell us why or why not.
- Government employees turn to prayer and preparedness
- Agency by agency impact | FAQ: Federal worker benefits
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