| Salt Lake Tribune | - |
Washington
• If majorities in both the House and Senate would vote to reopen the
government with no strings attached, or vote to repeal the new health
care law's sales tax on heart pacemakers and MRI machines, then why
isn't that happening?
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.,
and House Democratic leaders discuss the government shutdown and their
disagreement with Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, at a news
conference at the Capitol in Washington, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2013. There
has been no sign of progress toward ending an impasse that has idled
800,000 federal workers and curbed services around the country. From
left to right are Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., Minority Whip Steny Hoyer,
D-Md., House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Rep. Chris Van
Hollen, D-Md. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Budget fight offers crash course on Congress
By DONNA CASSATA
| The Associated Press
Washington • If majorities in both the House
and Senate would vote to reopen the government with no strings attached,
or vote to repeal the new health care law’s sales tax on heart
pacemakers and MRI machines, then why isn’t that happening?
The rancorous budget fight offers a crash
course in the arcane ways and language of Congress that sometimes defy
logic. The stalemate also has cast a spotlight on the institutional
power of two men — House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader
Harry Reid — and whether they can act unilaterally as their political
foes insist.
"Speaker Boehner, just vote," Sen. Chuck
Schumer, D-N.Y., said Sunday in insisting that the Republican leader has
the votes in the House to pass a straightforward emergency spending
bill with no conditions. Boehner says he lacks the votes in the House,
certainly not the majority of his GOP caucus.
On the other side, Republicans insist that Reid
is the obstructionist and cite is refusal to negotiate anything until
the government reopens.
Here’s a look at what Washington is saying:
—
Democrats are pressing Boehner to bring up a "clean" CR for a vote. What is it?
CR stands for continuing resolution, a
temporary measure that continues funding government agencies and
programs at the start of the fiscal year on Oct. 1. The measure is
necessary because Congress has failed to pass appropriations bills for
each of the agencies and departments.
A so-called "clean" CR means a bill without
conditions. House Republicans have repeatedly added provisions that
would defund or roll back parts of the 3-year-old health care law,
ignoring President Barack Obama’s veto threats.
The Democratic-led Senate has rejected those versions, sending back a clean bill without health care limitations.
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One measure would have repealed the medical
device tax. Even though that step has bipartisan support, Democrats
reject any move to change the health care law until the Republicans
agree to vote on a bill re-opening the government.
Neither bill provides enough time to resolve
long-standing Democratic and Republican budget differences and sort out
overall government spending. The House version would keep the government
running until Dec. 15; the Senate version until Nov. 15.
—
Could Boehner just let the House vote on the temporary spending bill with no strings attached?
Yes, to the extent that the rules of the House
allow the speaker to set the agenda. Politically, though, a vote could
cause a revolt by conservative Republican lawmakers and cost Boehner his
top job. A vocal number of House Republicans pressured Boehner to link
passage of a bill to keep the government running to changes in the
health care law they deride as "Obamacare."
Boehner insists that Obama and Democrats must negotiate.
—
Democrats say they could prevail through a discharge petition. What’s that and would it work?
This is one way of bypassing the speaker and
getting a vote, though it requires several time-consuming steps. First,
217 members — one more than half the House’s current membership of 432 —
have to sign a petition. A motion to consider the temporary spending
bill would then be placed on the calendar, but it can’t be acted on for
at least seven days. Any lawmaker can then call it up but only on the
second or fourth Monday of the month. The motion is debated and if the
House passes it, then lawmakers would consider and vote on the spending
bill.
Currently there are 232 Republicans, 200
Democrats and three vacancies in the House. All 200 Democrats would sign
the petition, but Democrats aren’t confident 17 Republicans would join
them, even though some two dozen GOP members have signaled they support a
clean spending bill.
Signing a discharge petition would be a breach
of loyalty for Republicans. Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., one of the most
outspoken critics of pairing the health care conditions with the
spending bill, said Sunday he wouldn’t sign a discharge petition. "It’s
not going to go anywhere," he said.
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