How long will the government shutdown? goig to last?
If there is a government shutdown for 2013, how long will they last? about a couple months or even years? I just don't want it to last long because I don't want to the law enforcement to stop doing their job - which is catching theft and etc.
So the House just passed a spending bill that defunds Obamacare. What's next?
The House passed a CR by a wide margin. The bill funds the entire government, except the ACA. The bill is in the Senate now and they can:Sit on it and not debate it. (Unlikely)Send it back to the House with ACA added back to the CR, (by trying to amend the CR by a simple majority), at which time Sen. Cruz will filibuster. The Republicans will be blamed for (not funding ACA) shutting down the government.The Republicans will get the blame for listening to the people who do not want the ACA. They will stick to principles. They will not "vote to shut down the government." The news will remain in lock-step with Obama and blame the Republicans who are fighting for what their constituents believe.Remember at the beginning of this budget debate—“Why is the Obama administration willing to negotiate with Putin on Syria ... But not with Congress to address Washington's spending problem?” text from the ad asks. Source: http://thehill.com/video/house/3...Second source. http://m.washingtonpost.com/blog...
Will the American public hold President Obama responsible for the 2013 government shutdown? Could his refusal to negotiate be considered a dereliction of duty?
The only irresponsible position is that of those who wish to challenge the full faith and credit of the United States. Defaulting on our debt will cost billions and will serve no purpose.Just the threat of a default imposed by the Tea Party (and members of the Republican party heavily influenced by the Tea Party) last time we approached the debt ceiling caused Standard and Poor's to downgrade the United States' credit rating. Lower credit ratings lead to higher borrowing costs. We will pay $237 billion this fiscal year in interest on our debt. (Source) Threat of a default stands to significantly increase future borrowing costs.This is not about a moral objection to debt, despite what members of the House GOP will say. Let's take a look at past House GOP debt ceiling votes.2002: 211 House Republicans vote yes.2003: 214 House Republicans vote yes.2004: 206 House Republicans vote yes.2006: 214 House Republicans vote yes.2007: 0 House Republicans vote yes.2009: 0 House Republicans vote yes.2009 (again): 0 House Republicans vote yes. So what happened at the end of 2006? Democrats took control of the House. It is and (under this structure) will forever be the burden of the party in power to approve debt ceiling increases. Obama himself objected to the debt ceiling being raised as a senator, a fact conservatives love bringing up. As the majority, House GOP either approves the debt ceiling or begins a worldwide fiscal crisis. Never before has the majority party appeared willing to do the latter. Realistically, I'm not too worried about a default. Boehner isn't an idiot, even if some members of his party are, and I'm sure he could scrape together 15-20 'Yes' votes from Wall-Street friendly congressmen, and that's all he'd need, since Democrats would obviously vote in favor of a bill increasing the debt limit with no strings attached.I'll close with a quote.“I think raising the debt limit is the responsible thing to do for our country, the responsible thing for our economy. If we were to fail to increase the debt limit, we would send our economy into a tailspin.” - John Boehner, March 2011