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A Wild [US Government Shutdown] Appears? (and Planned Parenthood)
Astaereth
In the belly of the beastRegistered User regular
In the belly of the beastRegistered User regular
I'm gonna quote some random Forbes blogger (well, Stan Collander, who has worked on the House and Senate budget committees) just because he's done a good job of summarizing the situation.
Here's where things stood as of last month:
Stan Collander wrote:As reported by Rebecca Shabad in this article in The Hill, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said in June that House Republicans had not agreed to meet with the White House on a budget deal because the president hadn’t requested it. Boehner was quoted as saying President Obama “…hasn’t asked. He hasn’t asked. It’s as simple as that.” He went on to say. “And if he wants to have a budget negotiation, all he has to do is ask. I’m a pretty reasonable guy.”
The president did just that last week during a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars when he said, “I’m calling on Republican leaders in Congress to come to the table with Democrats, sit down, negotiate a budget that protects our national security and economic security.”
But House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy then almost immediately rejected the call from the White House for budget negotiations between Democrats and Republicans saying he didn’t see “a place currently where they c(ould) come to a conclusion” so why bother even trying.
Stan Collander wrote:A continuing resolution that keeps the government operating on October 1 until an appropriations deal can be worked out is still the most likely outcome. And Boehner said as much last week.
But if you look carefully at his Boehner’s statement you can’t help but realize that he also said that this was still just his reading of the tealeaves (“but no decisions have been made”) and not something that the House Republican caucus has agreed is the right plan.
The fiscal year starts on October 1st and Congress needs either a budget or a CR by then. Fairly standard stuff, and pretty standard sabre-rattling from the GOP as well.
But as October approaches, it's apparent that nobody will do anything until the last minute... which would be fine, assuming there are no ideological stumbling blocks in the road ahead.
Oh, crap. The whole Planned Parenthood kerfuffle (over videos apparently showing PP employees discussing the sale of fetal materials) has Republican Congresspeople ready to defund Planned Parenthood entirely:
Politico wrote:House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) told reporters Tuesday he’s anticipating amendments to strip the money over the course of the fall government funding debate. That’s in addition to a spate of Hill hearings he said are aimed at learning “the facts … and what’s truly is going on.”
Meanwhile, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas said he expects lawmakers to offer a Planned Parenthood amendment to the highway bill, a major piece of must-pass legislation that’s slated for consideration beginning this week. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who is vying for the party’s 2016 presidential nomination, is personally eyeing such a strategy.
And some top Republicans expect GOP lawmakers to try to attach similar amendments to nearly any measure that crosses the Senate floor. Senate Republican Conference Committee Chairman John Thune of South Dakota, for example, said lawmakers will “offer amendments to whatever vehicles are coming across the Senate floor to deal with that: Defund it or deal with it in some other fashion.”
Meanwhile, the White House has threatened to veto anything that defunds Planned Parenthood.
So in summary, there are 12 days left of both houses in session (after this week, Congress is in recess for the rest of August) before the October 1st deadline, and September may see brinksmanship not only over the federal budget but specifically federal funding for Planned Parenthood, a strong ideological issue that may see both sides entrenched. Without a CR, we'll get yet another shutdown.
What do you guys think? Is the process likely to break down again? As an entwined issue, what do you guys think of the Planned Parenthood videos and responses? And how do you think this affects Bernie Sanders' chances in 2016? (Kidding on that last one. Let's keep this on topic!)
Also, I, uh, my affection for the MCU is undying.
Damn you, ElJeffe!
Astaereth on
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I think third-term abortions are gruesome and should be banned except for medical reasons. I'm a lot more accepting of abortion when what's being killed is a lump of stem cells and not a viable baby.
I also think that no matter what your politics this really isn't something to engage in brinkmanship over. Besides, every time the Republicans have done this before it's hurt the country- people have been fired, vacations have been canceled, the stock market has wobbled, etc. This isn't the time to try it again.
these two things are so incredibly important to the country, that it shocks me every time that anyone in said country would intentionally threaten that stability. doubly so at a time where the eurozone is in turmoil and china is building it's house of cards higher and higher.
They are banned, they have always been banned except for medical reasons. There is no clinic that preforms a third term abortion without a valid medical reason. Anybody that has convinced you otherwise has sold you a bill of goods.
As for the video itself, I haven't seen it, but from what I gather we have only seen versions of it edited for the news. That is a huge red flare of shenanigans.
I want one year of not having to deal with this shit!
As a non-American, I hope that you either get your shit together on this matter promptly, and/or that the backlash prompts a Democrat landslide in 2016.
Turns out I was right about everything except who made the video. I'm also not shocked to see the Republicans try and pull an ACORN in PP as a result.
I'm hoping the Democrats have more spine than they did with ACORN. That was 2009, when everyone from the President on down had decided that the U.S. population wanted to join the Tea Party.
And that ACORN still exists.
Timing, it has timing.
Last night it occurred to me that this entire PP video thing is an effort to brand a government shutdown as a social/moral issue so that the GOP has better optics than last time.
That's partly because, instead of fighting back against the video, the Democrats climbed over themselves to denounce ACORN. It's hard to make the case that it was a political hatchet job when you supposed allies are voting to shut you down.
The Dems are being really weak willed on this obvious PP hit job too
like the group that released the video is one of the ones that publishes abortion Doctors addresses and calls for them to be shot
this is not objective journalism but no one is calling them on it.
I wish I had that kind of faith in the Democratic Party.
Which is why I'm finding it very weird that a lot of people who seemingly are making those claims have "I haven't watched the videos" as a preface to any claims.
I mean, yeah, they're obviously being used as a political tool. But I guess I'm annoyed that the actual content of the videos, fake or real, matters absolutely zilch. They could be old tapes of the transformers cartoon and I'm pretty sure less than 5% of congress would even know. But I also think that for all intensive purposes you could give both sides a brick with "indignant outrage" taped to the side, and the scenario will play out the exact same. So, I'm not watching these videos. It's not worth my time, and my time is not very valuable.
The organization pulling the strings of the PP sting is vehemently antisex and anti women's sexual freedom. That's why they targeted Planned Parenthood even though abortions make up a fraction of their actual services. Opposing abortion is the cover for more mass appeal while they target all sex deemed immoral from their puritanical standards.
Afterall, only sluts get cervical cancers.
They also probably wouldn't have sat on their asses for weeks of knowing about it instead of waiting for the right wing rage machine to engage: http://blogs.rollcall.com/218/interview-didnt-happen/?dcz=
Got a cite on that? Sounds like something I'd like to have handy if I see it pop up
It's more they're allied with Operation Rescue and consult with them.
Like seriously: I thought the big money and media would have pulled aside the party and made it clear that they don't want to have there fortunes vanish because the cash they've been hoarding is suddenly worthless due to idiotic brinkmanship.
Remember that many of them think they lost last time simply because of optics and now they're fighting for babies (in 7 to 8 months)!
I don't think it ends the way they want but I'm not sure who is actually gonna point out their idiocy in a way that reaches the low information masses.
You can support a social agenda all you want, but at the end of the day you've gotta put food on the table and pay your mortgage.
God damn it.
I don't think general people care as much about PP as you think. Or have have that good of a memory. We're still like 5-6 "scandals" away from the first Primaries, much less the general election.
This, however, has a lot more weight to it. "The republicans want to shut down the government until America stops funding people to murder babies and sell them on ebay."
It isn't true, but that's how it is going to be sold. The reason I'm happy is that I think the GOP burned a lot of goodwill on the last shutdown. Americans are goldfish, but not all the time. I'm fairly certain the average american is still sore about the first shutdown, and even if they are "Right" on this one, and even if americans agree that we shouldn't kill babies I feel like most voters are going to want them to hash this out reasonably.
The reason I'm happy is because if this had been the reason for the first shutdown, they would have come out of it victorious. It's pretty obviously a play to get moral highground to stamp their feet, but I don't think the populous has forgiven their last tantrum yet.
I'm not a conspiracy nut, but if I was rich and was confident the GOP was going to play chicken with the world economy, I'd get on a bunch of short positions for when everyone freaks the fuck out.
You know they are going to blink eventually, but it's not that often you're able to time a major economic clusterfuck to the day.
I think most people, especially men, hear about PP when the GOP accuses them of some sort of atrocity. Just repeating that cycle enough without strong refutation will have it become accepted as fact.
Like how terribly overtaxed our Job Creators are.