From: Judy Miriga
Good People,
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, speaks to members of the media after meeting with President Barack Obama at the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2013. Republicans insisted they wanted to shut down the nation’s 3-year-old health care overhaul, not the government. beginning with Speaker John Boehner’s refusal to permit the House to vote on Senate-passed legislation devoted solely to reopening the government.
“Take a vote,” Obama urged Boehner in his speech. “Stop this farce and end this shutdown right now.”
It might not be so simple, however. Moderate Republicans have said they think they could provide enough votes to join with minority Democrats and push a bill through the House reopening the government with no restrictions on the health care law.
Common sense dictates that, President Obama is within the margin prerogative of the law, to serve people and lead Responsibly with Integrity, and from day one, he remained committed and focused doing what he promised he will do and as obligated and mandated by the American people accordingly.
In an interview afterward, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., scoffed at the president’s stance.
“He can’t get his way exactly the way he wants it because he doesn’t control the entire government,” McConnell said on CNBC’s “The Kudlow Report.”
People are bored knowing that unforeseen consequences are now getting the feel of Government Shutdown. As far as we are all concerned therefore, the few special interest Congressional Republican members purposefully exempted themselves from the law of land against Obamacare which is a done deal and have no business in the business of the house on BUDGET.
The most basic rule is that all Americans, with only a few exceptions, must have health insurance, or pay a penalty. People who already have insurance, through an employer or any other source, already comply with the law. All Americans must comply with the law and no one is above the law. President Obama has right to take legal action against those trying to undermine the law. It will be illogical if the Congressional members earn salary during this Government shutdown. Being the ones who put us on this mess, it is not right that the disadvantaged pushed into poverty while the rich have a fields day.
Speaker Boehner is sending a clear message to America that America is divided between the halves and the halve-not and that the law is predominantly for those rich special interest who they pledge royalty to instead of the People and Government of America. This is unacceptable…………..If John Boehner disputes this analogy, then, he and his GOP fellows will open the Government unconditionally without any more waste of time and pass the Budget to avoid default.
As for President Obama, the law doesn’t require him or any other federal employees to do anymore negotiations on Obamacare. The law on Obamacare has already kicked-in and taken hold in the Government system…..since, it has taken effects from October 1st 2013. In fact, when Obama leaves office in 2017, it is Healthcare Reform which is his biggest credential achievements and if he wishes, that shall remain his landmark “Obamacare” success story for real. Obama will have jazzed-up and stroked a fair favorable deal for both the rich and poor alike. Therefore, Obamacare is a done deal………
When will Speaker Boehner get his fact right???
Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson
Executive Director
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc.,
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com/
– – – – – – – – – – –
Obama Pins Government Shutdown on Boehner
Published on Oct 3, 2013
President Barack Obama says House Speaker John Boehner is the only thing standing in the way of reopening the federal government. Obama is speaking at a small business just outside of Washington on the third day of the shutdown. (Oct. 3)
During Speech, Obama Pins Shutdown on Boehner
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJGHcj8GU1U
Published on Oct 3, 2013
President Obama traveled just outside the Beltway on Thursday to Rockville, Maryland, to give a speech highlighting the challenges posed by the shutdown and a potential debt ceiling default on the private sector. “Stop this farce,” the president demanded of House Republicans, “and end the shutdown right now.”
Obama got to his key point quickly: The effects of the shutdown are much deeper than disputes over memorials on the National Mall. “Those hundreds of thousands of Americans, a lot of whom live around here,” he said, “don’t know when they’re going to get their next paycheck. That means stores and restaurants around here don’t know if they’ll have as many customers.” And further: farmers aren’t getting loans. Children can’t go to Head Start. “The American people elected their representatives to make their lives easier, not harder,” Obama said. “There’s one way out of this reckless and damaging Republican shutdown: Congress has to pass a budget that funds our government with no partisan strings attached.”
Catastrophic Consequences of a U.S. Default Explained
By Matt Nesto
October 4th 2013
By Matt Nesto | Breakout – 3 hours ago
As we close out the first week of the government shutdown, a bigger and even more toxic disaster is creeping into the fray that could make the contentious budget battle look like a slap fight. The Treasury Department said Uncle Sam will be broke by October 17th unless something is done. Treasury secretary Jack Lew hammered home that point Thursday by releasing an unusually ominous statement that warned of catastrophic risks to the economy.
House Speaker John Boehner has said he won’t let the government default on its debt, but until steps are taken to raise the nation’s debt ceiling, the possibility of default is still theoretically alive.
“If they seriously default on the debt, what we’re really talking about is a depression,” says veteran financial sector analyst Richard Bove, VP of research at Rafferty Capital Markets. In the attached video he explains how the fallout would be a lot worse than the recession suffered in 2008 and the aftershocks would be felt for at least a decade.
“The first thing you have to do is look at who holds the debt,” Bove says of the $16.7 trillion of bonds the U.S. currently has outstanding. “The first, biggest owner (of U.S. debt) is the social security fund, so you’d have all of these people who are receiving social security payments who now have to question whether they’ll get their payments.”
Clearly, that would cause a huge disruption to millions of Americans. But Bove says that is only the beginning since the second biggest holder of Treasuries (at about 12% of the total) is the Federal Reserve, which has “91% of its assets backed by U.S. government debt.”
If the value of those assets were to decline, which they indisputably would in a default, Bove says the net effect would be that “we have nothing of value backing the dollar.”
They’re actually “Federal Reserve Notes” as well as the number one asset of choice held in the reserves of governments and businesses all over the world. A plunge in Treasuries would also devalue the dollar, which would instantly make everything we buy more expensive, and in turn destabilize countries and economies all over the world.
“Eleven-percent of all U.S. debt is owned by the Chinese,” he says. “That $1.4 trillion represents about a third of the reserves of the People’s Bank of China, so what we’ve now said to the PBOC is, ‘Watch out, we may hit the value of a third of your assets and you can’t do anything about it.'”
And this isn’t even half of it.
As Bove explains, money market funds, which are used by virtually every person with a savings or investment account, are also “heavily loaded with Treasuries.” So are most bond funds and so-called balanced funds (growth and income funds). A default on U.S. debt would not only cause money funds to “break the buck” –not be able to pay 100-cents for each dollar invested)– but would also cause forced selling by countless other funds that are mandated to immediately sell any asset that has defaulted.
“That could easily put $750 billion of Treasuries on to the market” Bove says, inferring that rates interest rates would also spike, and normal borrowing/lending transactions would end.
Speaking of banks, the U.S. banking industry holds over a trillion dollars worth of Treasuries and another trillion dollars of government issued mortgage-backed securities, Bove says. If those bonds were to go down in value, he says the banks would also have to “write down the value of those assets and, in essence, wipe out their equity.” It would make the banks insolvent.
To summarize, Bove asserts that a default is unthinkable because it would trigger a huge reduction in the value of U.S. debt, which would go beyond disrupting social security payments. A default would upend money markets, destroy bond funds, slam the brakes on lending, cause interest rates to spiral, make our banks insolvent, and deal a blow to our foreign trading partners and creditors around the globe; all of which would throw the U.S. and the world into economic disarray.
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/breakout/u-treasury-default-catastrophic-consequences-explained-170230218.html
—————————————————
Dems say it’s time for GOP to unite, end shutdown
Obama cancels Asia trip as Democrats pressure GOP to ‘come together’ to end shutdown
By Andrew Taylor and Nedra Pickler, Associated Press |
Photo
House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio walks to a Republican strategy session on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, Oct. 4, 2013. Boehner is struggling between Democrats that control the Senate and GOP conservatives in his caucus who insist any funding legislation must also kill or delay the nation’s new health care law. Added pressure came from President Barack Obama who pointedly blamed Boehner on Thursday for keeping federal agencies closed. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Fri day, October 4th 2013
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama decided to stay home from economic summits in Asia as Democrats stepped up pressure on congressional Republicans to rein in their tea party faction and reopen the government with no strings attached.
House Republicans said that with Congress and the president in town this weekend, now is the perfect time to start negotiating a plan to reopen the government.
“All I’m asking for is let’s sit down, like the American people would expect us, and talk to one another about getting the government open and dealing with the significant problems that we face,” House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, told reporters Friday. “This isn’t some damn game.”
GOP leaders said Friday the House will be in session Saturday so that Republicans can continue passing bills that would reopen selected parts of the federal government. The White House responded by issuing fresh veto threats, saying Congress should reopen the entire federal government.
The Labor Department, meanwhile, did not issue the monthly employment report for September that was due Friday because of the shutdown.
The White House called the partial government shutdown that entered its fourth day Friday “completely avoidable” and complained the shutdown was interfering with the president’s efforts to promote trade and U.S. influence in emerging world markets.
Democrats pointed to disagreements within the Republican Party, where reluctant congressional leaders were prodded into a showdown over government funding and Obama’s health care law by rowdier conservatives, such as Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
To get the government up and running again, “it will take some coming together on the Republican side,” said the House’s lead Democrat, Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California.
“It’s very hard to negotiate with the Republicans when they can’t negotiate with themselves,” Pelosi said Friday.
Senate Chaplain Barry Black opened Friday’s business with a plea for God to “give our lawmakers the vision and the willingness to see and to do your will.”
“Remove from them that stubborn pride which imagines itself to be above and beyond criticism. Forgive them for the blunders they have committed, infusing them with the courage to admit and correct mistakes,” Black said.
Obama criticized Boehner for not bringing up a vote to finance the full reopening of the government without conditions.
“This shutdown could be over today,” Obama said Friday as he stopped for lunch with Vice President Joe Biden at a local sandwich shop near the White House. “We know there are votes for it in the House.”
Boehner and other Republicans put the blame on Obama. They say he should recognize the flaws of “Obamacare” and negotiate solutions as part of a deal to end the shutdown that forced the furlough of some 800,000 workers, more than a third of federal civilian employees.
Boehner said Obama was being “irresponsible.”
On Friday, the Republican-led House was keeping up a drive to finance certain agencies and programs on a piecemeal basis — a strategy rejected by Obama and the Democratic-led Senate.
“We are not picking winners and losers,” said Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. “I think what we are doing is exercising stewardship over the taxpayers’ dollars. …I’m ready to go to work today and get it done.”
The House planned a vote to fund a popular program providing food aid to pregnant women and their children, as well as ongoing disaster relief.
Furloughed federal workers would get retroactive pay under a bill the House plans to vote on Saturday. Some top Democrats have supported that idea alongside Republicans.
Obama had been scheduled to leave Saturday for economic summits next week in Indonesia and Brunei. His decision to cancel those plans underscored how entrenched both sides were in a partisan showdown with no end in sight.
“The cancellation of this trip is another consequence of the House Republicans forcing a shutdown of the government,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said in a statement. “This completely avoidable shutdown is setting back our ability to create jobs through promotion of U.S. exports and advance U.S. leadership and interests in the largest emerging region in the world.”
Lawmakers said the shutdown that began Tuesday when the government began its new budget year seemed to be quickly merging with a more critical showdown over the nation’s expiring line of credit, raising the stakes for the still-fragile economy.
Obama and his Treasury Department said failure to raise the nation’s borrowing limit, expected to hit its $16.7 trillion cap in mid-October, could precipitate an economic nosedive worse than the recent Great Recession. A default could cause the nation’s credit markets to freeze, the value of the dollar to plummet and U.S. interest rates to skyrocket, according to a Treasury report.
Obama cataloged a litany of troubles that could be caused by the failure to raise the debt ceiling, from delayed Social Security and disability checks to worldwide economic repercussions.
“If we screw up, everybody gets screwed up,” he said.
The speaker’s office reiterated Boehner’s past assertion that he would not let the government default on its debt. “But if we’re going to raise the debt limit, we need to deal with the drivers of our debt and deficits,” his spokesman, Michael Steel, said. “That’s why we need a bill with cuts and reforms to get our economy moving again.”
Pelosi spoke on “CBS This Morning,” and Blackburn spoke on MSNBC.
___
Follow Andrew Taylor on Twitter at https://twitter.com/apandrewtaylor and Nedra Pickler at https://twitter.com/nedrapickler
Associated Press – 2 hours 8 minutes ago
Analysis: Republicans get opposite of stated goals
By DAVID ESPO | Associated Press
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, speaks to members of the media after meeting with President Barack Obama at the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2013. Republicans insisted they wanted to shut down the nation’s 3-year-old health care overhaul, not the government. They got the opposite, and now struggle to convince the public that responsibility for partial closure of the federal establishment lies with the President Barack Obama and the Democrats. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Photo
In this Sept. 25, 2013, photo, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, emerges from the Senate Chamber after his overnight crusade railing against the nation’s new health care law at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2013. Republicans insisted they wanted to shut down the nation’s 3-year-old health care overhaul, not the government. They got the opposite, and now struggle to convince the public that responsibility for partial closure of the federal establishment lies with the President Barack Obama and the Democrats. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans insisted they wanted to shut down the nation’s 3-year-old health care overhaul, not the government. They got the opposite, and now struggle to convince the public that responsibility for partial closure of the federal establishment lies with President Barack Obama and the Democrats.
There’s ample evidence otherwise, beginning with Speaker John Boehner’s refusal to permit the House to vote on Senate-passed legislation devoted solely to reopening the government.
In the days leading to the impasse, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said he would do “everything and anything possible to defund Obamacare,” including a filibuster against legislation to prevent a partial closure of the federal government.
In the House, Rep. Jack Kingston told reporters his Georgia constituents would rather have a shutdown than Obamacare, and Rep. Tim Huelskamp added recently that in his Kansas district, “If you say government is going to shut down, they say, ‘OK, which part can we shut down?'”
Ironically, Republican leaders urged the rank and file not to link a defunding of Obamacare to federal spending for fear the unavoidable outcome would be a shutdown that would harm the party politically.
Yet Boehner, who survived a conservative-led attempt on his tenure in January, and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who faces a primary challenge from a tea party-backed rival in Kentucky, were unable to prevail. Instead, they were steamrolled by Cruz, his allies in Congress and Heritage Action, Club for Growth, the Tea Party Express and other groups that have used the issue to raise funds.
The strategy in effect, Republicans negotiated exclusively with themselves in the days leading to the shutdown as they sought the demise of “Obamacare.”
First, they passed legislation demanding the health care law be defunded in exchange for a bill providing essential government funding.
When the Senate rejected that, they scaled back.
Instead, they sought a one-year delay in the law, combined with the permanent repeal of a tax on medical devices and creation of new barriers to contraceptive coverage for women purchasing insurance.
That, too, was torpedoed in the Senate.
The next GOP demand was for a one-year delay in the requirement for individuals to purchase coverage, along with a provision that would oblige the president, vice president and members of Congress and their aides to purchase insurance under the same system as the rest of the country without receiving the customary employer contribution from the government, for which they work. The principal impact of that is to raise the cost of insurance dramatically for thousands of congressional aides and political appointees of the administration.
That, too, fell in the Senate.
There have been ideological retrenchments, as well.
Despite their long-held positions against government mandates, House Republicans agreed beginning last week to leave in effect requirements in the health care law they have refused to embrace in the past. Among them is a requirement for insurers to cover individuals with pre-existing conditions and another to allow children up to age 26 to remain on their parents’ plans.
All are politically popular, although rarely mentioned by Republican lawmakers who say the country clamors for a total repeal of the law.
Despite pledging in the 2010 campaign to “repeal and replace” the law known as Obamacare, Republicans have yet to offer a comprehensive alternative. Efforts to create one have been hampered by opposition from conservatives to some of the mandates they tacitly agreed last week to leave in effect.
Conceding as much, Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., said that as a conservative, he had often found during Obama’s presidency that his choice was “between something bad or (something) horrible.”
Republican unity, so valuable in pushing to reduce spending in the past three years, shows signs of fraying.
Even before the shutdown began, some moderates said it was time to shift the fight against Obamacare to another arena and allow the government to remain open. A handful of conservatives, backed by outside groups, rebelled when GOP demands for changes in the law were scaled back.
“I feel like we’re retreating,” said Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga., while the conservative group Heritage Action said it opposed the last in a series of GOP maneuvers because it fell short of “fully defunding the president’s failed law.”
Restlessness grows.
In the Senate, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., says routinely, “We’re in a box canyon,” and Sen. John McCain of Arizona observed, “We can’t win” when it comes to using a federal spending measure to squeeze out concessions on health care.
Ironically, Obama and Senate Democratic leaders have said repeatedly in recent days they are willing to negotiate changes in the health care law — on another day and another bill.
Even Democrats privately concede that a tax on medical devices isn’t likely to survive long, given that 79 members of the Senate backed its repeal on a nonbinding test vote last spring.
What survives is the expansion of the health care law that was passed in 2010, the opportunity for uninsured Americans to obtain private insurance at a cost oftentimes subsidized by the government.
___
EDITOR’S NOTE — David Espo is chief congressional correspondent for The Associated Press.
An AP News Analysis
Shutdown in 3rd day with bigger trouble looming
Government shutdown in 3rd day and bigger worry looms ahead for Obama, Hill leaders
By Alan Fram, Associated Press | Associated Press –
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama laid the blame for the government’s partial shutdown at the feet of House Speaker John Boehner on Thursday, escalating a confrontation that is running the risk of a potentially damaging clash over the nation’s borrowing authority.
The Treasury Department warned that a deadlock over raising the nation’s debt limit could touch off a new recession even worse than the last one that Americans are still recovering from. Worry about prospects for resolving the debt question within the next two weeks deepened as the shutdown standoff dragged on.
The shutdown showdown grew more personal Thursday.
Speaking at a construction company in Washington’s Maryland suburbs, Obama cast the House speaker as a captive of a small band of conservative Republicans who want to extract concessions in exchange for passing a short term spending bill that would restart the partially shuttered government.
“The only thing preventing people from going back to work and basic research starting back up and farmers and small business owners getting their loans, the only thing that is preventing all that from happening right now, today, in the next five minutes is that Speaker John Boehner won’t even let the bill get a yes or no vote because he doesn’t want to anger the extremists in his party,” Obama said.
Boehner answered by batting blame back toward Obama and his “my-way-or-the-highway approach.” Boehner said that if the president would negotiate to fix flaws in “Obamacare,” the shutdown could end.
“The president’s insistence on steamrolling ahead with this flawed program is irresponsible,” said Boehner, R-Ohio.
Majority Leader Eric Cantor said the House would continue on its course of passing separate bills to remedy “situations that are in critical stages” because of the partial government shutdown that began Tuesday.
The House was expected to vote to for more money for National Guard and Reserves and for veterans programs during the day, and officials said legislation to help Head Start and possibly the WIC (Women, Infants and Children program) could soon be drafted, as well.
Senate Democrats made clear they will not agree to reopen the government on a piecemeal basis. “You can’t fall for that legislative blackmail or it will get worse and worse and worse,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York.
Senate Democrats and Obama said the House must send them a measure that would restart all of government with no strings attached.
“Take a vote,” Obama urged Boehner in his speech. “Stop this farce and end this shutdown right now.”
It might not be so simple, however. Moderate Republicans have said they think they could provide enough votes to join with minority Democrats and push a bill through the House reopening the government with no restrictions on the health care law.
But under pressure from House GOP leaders, they failed to join Democratic efforts on Wednesday aimed at forcing the chamber to consider such legislation.
In the Senate, GOP Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said the problem was “Democrats’ refusal to apply simple fairness when it comes to Obamacare.”
Democratic and Republican leaders in the Senate blocked each other’s proposals for addressing the stalemate Thursday. Democrats rejected GOP proposals to reopen the national parks, speed up processing of veterans’ claims and restart some medical research that’s been put on hold. Republicans stymied a Democratic plan to bring the entire government back to work.
“Obviously tea party Republicans don’t really want a way out of this government shutdown. They like it the way it is,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
Republicans who initially sought to defund the health care law in exchange for funding the rest of government have scaled back their demand, but say they need some sort of offer from Obama.
A meeting between Obama and congressional leaders at the White House Wednesday evening offered no glimmer of progress.
“All we’re asking for here is a discussion and fairness for the American people under Obamacare,” Boehner, R-Ohio, said after the meeting.
The White House said Obama would be happy to talk about health care — but only after Congress moves to reopen the government.
If the shutdown dispute persists it could become entangled with the even more consequential battle over the debt limit. The Obama administration has said Congress must renew the government’s authority to borrow money by Oct. 17 or risk a first-ever federal default, which many economists say would dangerously jangle the world economy.
Treasury’s report Thursday said defaulting on the nation’s debts could cause the nation’s credit markets to freeze, the value of the dollar to plummet and U.S. interest rates to skyrocket.
For now, Republicans planned to continue pursuing their latest strategy toward the shutdown: muscling bills through the House that would restart some popular programs.
Votes were on tap for restoring funds for veterans and paying members of the National Guard and Reserves. On Wednesday, the chamber voted to finance the national parks and biomedical research and let the District of Columbia’s municipal government spend federally controlled dollars.
As the politicians battled, mail continued to be delivered, air traffic controllers remained at work and payments were being made to recipients of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and unemployment benefits.
Taxes were still due, but lines at IRS call centers went unanswered.
Halted were most routine food inspections by the Food and Drug Administration. Some loan approvals for many low- and middle-income borrowers were thrust into low gear by the Housing and Urban Development Department. National parks were closed.
Workers were furloughed based on how essential their jobs were to the nation: Only 3 percent of NASA employees were kept on, while 86 percent at the Homeland Security Department were working.
Underscoring the rising intensity of the partisan battle, the Senate chaplain opened Thursday’s session with an unusually pointed prayer.
“Deliver us from the hypocrisy of attempting to sound reasonable while being unreasonable,” said Dr. Barry Black. “Remove the burdens of those who are the collateral damage of this government shutdown.”
___
Associated Press writers Connie Cass, Jim Kuhnhenn and Andrew Taylor contributed to this report.
Lawmakers feeling heat from government shutdown
Lawmakers feeling heat from Americans angry about gov’t shutdown, yet some say may last weeks
By Andrew Taylor, Associated Press | Associated Press – Wed, Oct 2, 2013 11:18 AM EDT
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers locked in a political stare-down Wednesday were buffeted by rising anger from across the nation about a partial government shutdown that ruined vacations, sapped businesses and closed military cemeteries as far away as France. Some on Capitol Hill ominously suggested the impasse might last for weeks, but a few Republicans seemed ready to blink.
Republican Rep. Peter King of New York accused tea party-backed lawmakers of trying to “hijack the party” and said he senses that a growing number of rank-and-file House Republicans — perhaps as many as a hundred — are tired of the shutdown that began Tuesday morning and will be meeting to look for a way out.
But GOP leaders and tea party-backed members seemed determined to press on. The House GOP leadership announced plans to continue trying to open more popular parts of the government. They planned to pass five bills to open national parks, processing of veterans’ claims, the Washington, D.C., government, medical research, and to pay members of the National Guard.
The White House immediately promised a veto, saying opening the government on a piecemeal basis is unacceptable.
“Instead of opening up a few government functions, the House of Representatives should re-open all of the government,” the White House said in an official policy statement.
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.
Funding for much of the U.S. government was halted after Republicans hitched a routine spending bill to their effort to kill or delay the health care law they call “Obamacare.” The president accuses them of holding the government hostage.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz, a tea party favorite, said there would be no solution until President Barack Obama and Democrats who control the Senate agree to discuss problems with the nation’s unfolding health care overhaul.
“The pigsty that is Washington, D.C., gets mud on a lot of people and the question is what are you going to do moving forward,” Chaffetz, R-Utah, said on CBS’ “This Morning.”
Meanwhile, another financial showdown even more critical to the economy was looming. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew told Congress that unless lawmakers act in time, he will run out of money to pay the nation’s bills by Oct. 17. Congress must periodically raise the limit on government borrowing to keep U.S. funds flowing, a once-routine matter that has become locked in battles over the federal budget deficit.
Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the second-ranking House Democrat, said Democrats would overwhelmingly accept a short-term spending measure to reopen the government and increase the nation’s debt limit while other political differences are worked out. “That would be a responsible way to go,” Hoyer told CNN.
At issue is the need to pass a temporary funding bill to keep the government open since the start of the new budget year on Tuesday.
Congress has passed 87 temporary funding bills since 1999, virtually all of them without controversy. Now, conservative Republicans have held up the measure in the longshot hope of derailing or delaying Obamacare.
House Speaker John Boehner blamed the shutdown on President Barack Obama’s “scorched-Earth policy of refusing to negotiate” with Republicans.
“Washington Democrats have slammed the door on reopening the government by refusing to engage in bipartisan talks,” Boehner, R-Ohio, wrote in an op-ed for Wednesday’s USA Today.
Fed-up Americans took to Facebook and Twitter to call members of Congress “stupid” or “idiots.” Some blamed Republicans while others blasted Obama or Democrats “who spend our tax dollars like crack addicts.”
Bruce Swedal, a 46-year-old Denver real estate agent, tweeted to Congress members: “You should not be getting paid. In fact, you all should be fired!”
Some 800,000 federal workers deemed nonessential were staying home again Wednesday in the first partial shutdown since the winter of 1995-96.
Across the nation, America roped off its most hallowed symbols: the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, the Statue of Liberty in New York, Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, the Washington Monument.
Its natural wonders — the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, the Smoky Mountains and more — put up “Closed” signs and shooed campers away.
Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia said he was getting pleas from businesses that rely on tourists. “The restaurants, the hotels, the grocery stores, the gasoline stations, they’re all very devastated with the closing of the parks,” he said.
The far-flung effects reached France, where tourists were barred from the U.S. cemetery overlooking the D-Day beaches at Normandy. Twenty-four military cemeteries abroad have been closed.
While U.S. military personnel are getting paid during the shutdown, thousands of civilian Defense employees are being furloughed.
Even fall football is in jeopardy. 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.
The White House said 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, the 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 Tuesday hailing implementation of the law. He said the Affordable Care Act “is settled, and it is here to stay.”
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, with no strings attached.
Republicans insisted that Democrats must agree to negotiate over the health care law as part of the funding deadlock.
Meanwhile, the District of Columbia was pursuing its own solution. The D.C. Council authorized using contingency funds to keep the city’s employees working, so that trash pickup, libraries and more could go on during the federal shutdown.
___
Associated Press writers Connie Cass, Lauran Neergaard and Merrill Hartson contributed to this report.