Political Ruminations

House GOP Votes to End Medicare

The House passed Ryan’s 2013 budget resolution yesterday by a 228-191 vote along party lines, with all Democrats voting against, and 10 GOP defections. The Hill:

This year's vote was by a narrower margin than the 2011 vote that passed Ryan's budget 235-193. This year and last, all Democrats voted "no."

An increase in Republican "no" votes was expected this year, as many have grown frustrated with their inability to achieve more aggressive budget savings, due in large part to opposition in the Democratic-led Senate and the White House.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) seemed to address that frustration indirectly on Thursday as he praised Ryan for putting forward a budget that represents a "real vision of what we were to do if we get more control here in this town."

The budget would privatize the Medicare program, ending the popular entitlement program as we know it. TPM on the vote to end Medicare:

For the second year in a row, Republicans voted Thursday to effectively dismantle Medicare — this time, just over seven months before a presidential election. And Democrats are salivating at the political opportunity, eager to hang the vote around the neck of the party’s presidential nominee and its candidates in tough congressional races.

“A year ago, nobody was talking about Democrats having a shot at the House. Now we’re talking about it,” a Democratic leadership aide told TPM after the vote, a party-line 228-191 that didn’t win a single Dem.

The blueprint by House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan is similar to his controversial Medicare plan last year, in that it ends the health insurance guarantee for seniors and replaces the program with a subsidized insurance-

Although the bill is unlikely to get past the Senate, it could mean more threats by the GOP of a government shutdown later in the year.

 

Blogging the Impending Government Shutdown-Shutdown Averted!

Fri., Apr. 8 10:47 PM  It looks like there will be  IS a deal. Both a short-term resolution and a longer term funding bill. Waiting for Sen. Reid to make a statement.

House Speaker John Boehner outlined the parameters of a long-term funding deal, telling his members in a closed-door meeting, "This is the best deal we could get out of them," according to a lawmaker in the room who asked not to be identified. The deal is still not official, Boehner cautioned, but in a sign things are coming to a close, the House is preparing for a 5-6 day short-term continuing resolution with $3 billion in cuts, he told members according to the lawmaker. The meeting is still underway. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., was scheduled to address the Senate at 10:30 p.m. EDT.

And from The Hill:

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has informed Republican lawmakers that negotiators have a struck deal to avert a government shutdown, according to GOP Rep. Mike Rogers (Ala.).

Boehner told his conference Friday night that the House would likely vote on a short-term funding bill before midnight that would fund the government for four or five days.

The long-term bill would include $39 billion in spending cuts from current levels.

Adding…according to ABC's Jake Tapper, the "deal is done & signed off on.$38.5b in cuts, no elimination of Planned Parenthood funding".

Republicans Caught: They DO Want a Government Shutdown

Although Republicans keep on saying that they don’t want a government shutdown, and although Republicans will try to blame it on Democrats when they do actually shut down the federal government (rest assured, they will shut it down in April), but yet….here they are, recently caught on tape spewing in favor of a federal government shutdown.

Transcript of remarks made by Republican lawmakers in favor of a federal government shutdown below the video.

Watch:

Morning Quote: Tim Pawlenty

If you haven’t been following Tim Pawlenty for a few years, you might be surprised to note that his stance re government shutdowns has changed quite drastically, which is not exactly surprising on the face of it considering he is a member of the GOP, that party which holds the trophy for flip-flopping on major issues. 

Pawlenty, on the evening prior to Minnesota’s first and only government shutdown in 2005:

We are at the doorstep of a partial government shutdown. It would be very unsettling and unfortunate and inconvenient and problematic to thousands and thousands of Minnesotans and their families. Minnesotans need to hear about and understand the real human impacts if state government shuts down. State parks will close, rest areas will be boarded up, and new drivers licenses won’t be issued. More than 15,000 state employees — hardworking, dedicated people — will essentially be locked out of their jobs. Anyone who considers the negative impacts of a shutdown should see it as a reason to seriously get back to the negotiating table.

Tim Pawlenty, February 27, 2011, in support of a government shutdown by Republicans if their agenda is not met:

We’ve got to get back to certain principles and responsibilities and starting with getting the budget balanced and if it takes a dramatic moment or a dramatic week or a dramatic month, those kinds of line-in-the-sand moments are what we need to get politicians back up against the wall and have them make the tough decisions.

If it came down to it and it was between that [government shutdown] and not getting the budget headed in the right direction, that’s an option I think Republicans have to consider.

The Realities of a Government Shutdown

Ed O’Keefe at The Washington Post, emphasis mine:

Budget disagreements between Bill Clinton and Republicans prompted these incidents in 1995 and 1996, as federal agencies halted operations and stopped paying workers. For more than 20 days, about 260,000 federal employees in the D.C. area stayed home, or reported for duty only to be sent packing hours later. Security guards roamed the halls forcing out workers who lingered, and some frustrated feds sought temporary jobs as bike messengers and servers at restaurants to pay holiday bills, according to Post reports from the time. Agencies retroactively paid workers once the doors reopened, but many government contractors - paid separately by private employers - earned nothing during the shutdown. And congressional Democrats proposed last week that Obama and lawmakers also should not be paid during a shutdown.

Obama also warned against suggestions of a shutdown. “This is not an abstraction,” he said at his news conference last week. “People don't get their Social Security checks. They don't get their veterans payments. Basic functions shut down. And it - that, also, would have an adverse effect on our economic recovery.”

Screw the Tea Party, and Republicans, along with any dumbstupid Democrats who sat out the 2010 vote because Obama hurt their feelings. The possible shutdown of the Federal government is just one of many incredibly bad results that will be the outcome of the 2010 midterm elections.

Morning Quote: Steve Benen

Steve Benen on how a government shutdown by Republicans could impact the economy:

In 2011, we have a fragile recovery, which will be put at risk if most of the 2 million civilian government employees can't work, can't earn a paycheck, and can't spend money.

Congressional Republicans, in other words, aren't just playing with fire when it comes to public services -- they're putting the economy at risk in order to push brutal spending cuts, which also put the economy at risk.

RELATED POSTS

Outcome of 1995 Government Shutdown Should Act as a Warning to Republicans

So, the last two times a government shutdown occurred, then as now, the Republicans had a majority in the 104th Congress, led by then speaker, Newt Gingrich. Government spending was the sticking point, and that shutdown cost Republicans the presidential election in 1996, essentially handing Bill Clinton a second term in office. Steve Kornacki:

The 1995 shutdown was a certifiable disaster for Gingrich and the GOP -- the moment they let Clinton, whose presidency had appeared over after the ’94 midterms, back into the game.

From the instant the shutdown began that November, the public sided overwhelmingly with the president, whose job approval ratings instantly recovered to levels not seen since the early days of his presidency. Long derided as slippery and spineless, Clinton portrayed his veto as an act of principle and responsible leadership, while the Republicans were made to look like immature ideological zealots. Virtually overnight, Clinton took the lead in 1996 trial heats against Dole, which he never surrendered.

But Gingrich can’t admit this now. To concede the truth -- that a massive strategic error on his part helped pave the way for Clinton’s reelection and that, more broadly, the tone-deaf nature of his speakership represented one continuous, four-year political gift to Democrats -- would threaten his role as one of the right's leading public voices today. So, instead, he's concocted an alternate history, one that paints the shutdown as a policy and political triumph for the GOP. As he said to Weigel, "Tell me in what way we didn't win."

Kornacki goes on to talk about the results of the impending/possible 2011 government shutdown and how it will backfire on the morons who don’t heed history, emphasis mine:

But there really is good reason to believe that a 2011 shutdown would backfire against Republicans just like the '95 one did. For one thing, the setup is -- or would be -- awfully similar: a Republican majority in the House with a large, ideologically pure freshman class at its heart that is convinced its midterm election triumph marked a decisive, permanent rejection of a Democratic president and his philosophy.

Gingrich and his House freshmen couldn't fathom a scenario under which the public would turn on them if they demanded that Clinton sign their balanced budget plan. After all, voters didn’t like Clinton and hated deficits: Hadn't that been the combined message of the '94 and '92 elections?

See, after the government shutdown of 1995, the American people figured out that Clinton was the adult in the room, while Republicans were just playing. This sent his approval ratings soaring, and Bob Dole never had a chance in ‘96.

So…Bring it, Republicons.

Related: Government Shutdown Likely

Government Shutdown Likely

Yesterday, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) rejected a stopgap measure that would have prevented a government shutdown due to the inability of lawmakers to come to an agreement on the federal budget.

As the clock ticks down to March 4, when the current stopgap funding measure expires, Boehner shot down what many considered to be the surest way to keep government agencies running while the two chambers hammer out the differences between their respective spending bills.

"We are hopeful that the Senate will take up the House‑passed bill that comes out of here today, tonight, tomorrow morning, whenever it is, and we hope that they will move it," he said at a press conference. "But I am not going to move any kind of short‑term CR at current levels. When we say we're going to cut spending, read my lips: We are going to cut spending."

Boehner’s remarks provoked a swift reaction from Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nevada), who said that Boehner is threatening a shutdown with out being willing to negotiate.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., retorted that Boehner was resorting "to threats of a shutdown without any negotiation." Officials added that Democrats would seek a short-term bill without any cut in spending levels, a position sharply at odds with Boehner's.

The sparring occurred as the House labored to complete work on veto-threatened legislation to cut more than $61 billion from the budget year that's more than a third over. That bill also would provide funding to keep the government operating until Sept. 30.

Today, Jerry Hartz, a senior aide to Nancy Pelosi, said that a government shutdown "is more likely than not".

Hartz reportedly weighed in on the contentious issue at a routine meeting with Democratic chiefs of staff. According to Politico, his remarks were unsolicited. One unidentified chief of staff told the outlet the remarks appeared to reflect a "genuine" concern.

Nancy Pelosi on what this action would say about Republicans:

So much is at stake. It's a failure to say we've taken the leadership of the United States and the first thing we're going to do is shut down the government to the detriment of our people [and] to our security.

Related: Results of 1995 Government Shutdown Should Act as a Warning to Republicans