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| With four days to go before the federal government is due to run out of money, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., left, looks at a countdown clock during a news conference on Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2013, where Senate Democratic leaders blamed conservative Republicans for holding up a stopgap spending bill to keep the government running. From left are, Reid, Senate Budget Committee Chair Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin of Ill., Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., the Democratic Policy Committee chairman. |
WASHINGTON
(AP) -- Moving closer to the brink of a government shutdown, House
Republicans vowed Thursday they won't simply accept the stopgap
legislation that is likely to remain after Senate Democrats strip away a
plan to dismantle President Barack Obama's health care law.
The
defiant posture sets the stage for weekend drama on Capitol Hill after
the Senate on Friday sends the fractious House a straightforward bill to
keep the government operating through Nov. 15 rather than partly
closing down at midnight Monday.
Speaker John
Boehner of Ohio and several rank-and-file Republicans said the House
simply won't accept a "clean" spending measure, even though that's been
the norm in Congress on dozens of occasions since the 1995-96 government
closures that bruised Republicans and strengthened the hand of
Democratic President Bill Clinton.
"I don't
see that happening," Boehner said. Still, he declared that "I have no
interest in a government shutdown" and he doesn't expect one to occur on
Tuesday.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said the Democratic-led chamber will not relent.
"The Senate will never pass a bill that guts the Affordable Care Act," Reid declared.
A
partial government shutdown would keep hundreds of thousands of federal
workers off the job, close national parks and generate damaging
headlines for whichever side the public held responsible.
Washington
faces two deadlines: The Oct. 1 start of the new budget year and a
mid-October date - now estimated for the 17th - when the government can
no longer borrow money to pay its bills on time and in full.
The
first deadline requires Congress to pass a spending bill to allow
agencies to stay open. The mid-month deadline requires Congress to
increase the government's $16.7 trillion borrowing cap to avoid a
first-ever default on its payments, which include interest obligations,
Social Security benefits, payments to thousands of contractors large and
small, and salaries for the military.
The
standoff just four days before the end of the fiscal year increased the
possibility of a shutdown, with no signs of compromise.
The
No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, Dick Durbin of Illinois, said that
because of the time it takes the Senate to approve even
non-controversial bills, if the House amends a Senate-passed spending
bill and returns it to the Senate over the weekend, "That is a
concession on their part that we're going to shut down the government."
Not
far from the Capitol, at a community college in Largo, Md., Obama
insisted he would not negotiate over his signature domestic achievement,
either on a bill to keep the government operating or legislation to
raise the nation's borrowing authority.
"The
entire world looks to us to make sure that the world economy is stable.
You don't mess with that," Obama said of the debt ceiling/default
measure. "And that's why I will not negotiate on anything when it comes
to the full faith and credit of the United States of America."
Responding to Obama's non-negotiable stand, Boehner said, "Well, I'm sorry but it just doesn't work that way."
House
GOP leaders said Thursday they would unveil their own legislation to
lift the government's borrowing cap through December of next year, but
only if the new health care law is delayed for a year.
Meeting
behind closed doors, House Republican leaders encountered resistance
from their rank and file over their measure even though they were
attaching a list of other Republican favorites such as green-lighting
the Keystone XL oil pipeline, blocking federal regulation of greenhouse
gases and boosting offshore oil exploration.
Republicans
who lost the presidential election and a shot at Senate control last
year are trying to use must-pass measures to advance agenda items that
the Democratic-led Senate and Obama have soundly rejected. The
last-ditch effort on "Obamacare" comes just days before coast-to-coast
enrollment in the plan's health care exchanges begins Oct. 1.
Despite
the popular items, the leadership was struggling to win over its
recalcitrant GOP members, especially tea party-backed lawmakers pressing
for deeper, deficit-cutting spending measures. The spending cuts the
Republicans would attach to the debt-limit legislation would be likely
to represent a small fraction of the almost $1 trillion in new borrowing
authority the bill would permit.
"Among conservatives, there's a lot of angst about that," said Rep. John Fleming, R-La.
Proposed
changes include requiring federal workers to contribute more to their
pensions, along with other items from a failed 2011 deficit-cutting
effort.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, insisted that the House accept the Senate bill.
"Republicans
have got to put an end to the tea party temper tantrums and pass our
bill without any gimmicks and without any games," she said.
In
the Senate, top Democrat Reid sought to schedule a series of votes
Thursday night to speed the short-term spending bill to the House. Sens.
Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Mike Lee, R-Utah, blocked the effort, however,
saying they wanted the vote on Friday.
Cruz
gave a 21 hour-plus speech earlier this week opposing the measure if it
is changed to remove the anti-Obamacare provisions. Reid's request
sparked a remarkable exchange between Cruz and Bob Corker, R-Tenn., who
accused the tea party duo of being publicity hounds who want a Friday
vote because that's what they've told outside activists to expect.
"My
two colleagues, who I respect, have sent out emails around the world
and turned this into a show," Corker said, his voice dripping with
derision. "And that is taking priority over getting legislation back to
the House so they can take action before the country's government shuts
down."
