Can't believe there isn't a thread for this. It may be the most important political event of the year. Its not got its own thread? I am ashamed RF.
Basic questions.
Who is to blame? Democrats in General? Obama specifically? Republicans in General? Tea party members in General? John Boehner specifically? Both? None?
What bills proposed have the best answers for America?
Is this really all about Obamacare or another agenda?
There are a couple "healthcare" threads going on where this is being talked about.
Back in March/April this year Democrats submitted their budget. Republicans had already submitted their budget. The Republican budget was Austerity on steroids known as the (Paul Ryan Budget). Mr. Ryan and Romney reintroduced elements of that budget in the election campaign. The results of the election clearly show that a majority of the people/electorate rejected it and them.
Back to the Democrat budget. Patty Murray and other Democrats in the Senate, after submitting their budget, requested in the Senate to go to "conference". This is where they do budget reconciliation. They take the Ryan Budget and the Democrat Budget and they compromise to find a middle ground for a long term budget solution.
Well....Republicans in the Senate blocked any attempt to reconcile the budgets 18 times. Basically they filibustered any attempts to go to conference. To make matters worse Democrats in the Senate and in the House requested John Boehner to appoint conferees so that they could reconcile the budgets. He refused to do it. So now you have the Senate blocking Democrats 18 times to go to conference as well as John Boehner denying request to appoint conferees. So both sides had a budget. Democrats had their negotiators but not the Republicans and it was the Republicans blocking and denying the opportunity to compromise on a long term budget solution. It's worth noting that John McCain, in the Senate, Requested 10 times for the tea party obstructionist, to stop blocking Democrats and to go to conference.
So that was 6 months ago. Since Congress is fond of taking time off (weeks of time off)...not much of anything got done. So fast forward six months and here we are. They need to pass a "Continuing Resolution" (a budget extension) to fund the govt. A "Clean CR" was sent to the House. A Clean CR is a request to fund the govt. with no other riders, pet project funding or any other type of pork barrel spending. It's worth noting that the amount in the CR came from the Republicans. Democrats agreed with the republican CR amount which is based on Sequestration level spending. The Democrat number was higher by $70 or $80 Billion but they compromised with Republicans and went with their lower CR Budget number. So Democrats don't want anything on the CR (a Clean CR). They want to fund the govt. for a few weeks, for Boehner and others along with their votes to raise the Debt. Ceiling without caveats...but to save the budget requesting for the time period during the CR extension to work on a long term budget.
Now, the CR was sent back to the Senate with a provision to Defund the ACA. As you know this went on and on. Republicans wanted a rider on the CR to "Defund" the ACA then when they couldn't get that they want a rider to "Delay" the ACA for a year. They explicitly said they wanted to delay it in the hopes of winning the Senate so that they could control both houses and then kill the law. So even if the President vetoed them they would have enough votes to override him if they controlled both houses. It's worth noting that the ACA is (mandatory spending) and has nothing to do with the CR.
So here we are. Republicans are content on keeping the government shutdown and blaming it on Democrats while stalling to open the govt. They're trying to piece meal opening the govt. branch by branch...dept. by dept. but trying to hold off because of the looming Debt Ceiling where they feel as though they can extract more concessions in exchange for opening the government and raising the Debt Ceiling......:sad:
