The House GOP’s 11th hour gambit prior to a government shutdown Monday night was rejected by Senate Democrats who saw the objective for what it was: a Republican attempt to use the funding deadline to extract unilateral policy concessions they cannot normally achieve.
Terse, acerbic John Boehner was just on display in a middle of the night press conference that didn't seem to serve any purpose for him or his party. With the government shutdown a little more than an hour old and his party having just voted to approve a negotiating gambit that the Democratic Senate rejected before it even became official, all eyes were on Boehner for clues about what comes next -- and what tone he would set.
He ignored a couple of questions -- including one about what he would say to those government workers who would be furloughed -- instead sticking to talking points about legislative arcana. Then he just as abruptly walked away.
If this is going to the be the public face of the Republican Party for the duration of the shutdown, it's going to be more politically painful than most people predicted.
White House orders commencement of government shutdown procedures. Read it here.
Statement from Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), the Senate Budget Committee chair, who has been at the center of the stalled budget negotiations all year:
After blocking Senate Democrats' attempts to start a budget conference 18 times over the past six months, Republicans are now scrambling to start a conference committee with mere minutes to go before a government shutdown. This is just the latest absurd and desperate attempt by Speaker Boehner to delay the inevitable--bringing a clean continuing resolution to the floor for Democrats and Republicans to vote on--and to continue pushing the country toward a completely unnecessary government shutdown. If Republicans were truly serious about avoiding a crisis they would pass the Senate's short-term funding bill to remove the threat of a government shutdown immediately. We won't negotiate while Republicans are threatening families and the economy with a crisis.
Harry Reid rejects Boehner gambit: "We will not go to conference with a gun to our head."
In a last minute pivot, Speaker Boehner is now seeking a conference committee to resolve the differences between the House and Senate -- rather than sending a clean CR, or any other CR -- to the Senate. This means a government shutdown will probably begin at midnight ET anyway.
For those who have been following the budget process in Congress closely, there's a lot of chutzpah in this move, since Republicans have for months been resisting a conference committee to resolve the budget impasse. Conservatives in particular have fiercely opposed a conference committee resolution to these matters because they see it as guaranteed to lead to a compromise. Anathema.
Still not clear how this latest move will play out. Awaiting reaction from Senate Democrats, who will undoubtedly find no good faith at all in this last-minute gambit.
The Senate rejected the latest House anti-Obamacare cum temporary government funding bill on a 54-46 vote. Tired of this yet?
The House just passed a third anti-Obamacare temporary spending bill. A few Dems defected this time, but they were not the deciding votes. The Senate is expected to table this latest version shortly, probably within an hour.
Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), who just hours ago was castigating his colleagues as "lemmings" for shutting down the government over Obamacare, has now decided he's going to go lemming and vote with Boehner after all.
House GOP 'moderates' revolt fails after only 6 defect.
