| CNN | - |
Washington
(CNN) -- Second or third or fourth verse, same as the first. A
stalemate in Congress that caused a government shutdown on Tuesday
continued with Senate Democrats voting for a fourth time to reject a
spending plan by House Republicans that ...
Shutdown: Senate for fourth time rejects House anti-Obamacare effort
updated 1:59 PM EDT, Tue October 1, 2013
Obama: GOP holding economy hostage
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: Sources: House GOP to propose piecemeal spending measures
- NEW: President Obama to GOP: Don't hurt people over a political disagreement
- Possible deal outline: pass a clean resolution, negotiate on Obamacare
- Senate Majority Reid says no talks "with a gun to our head"
Are you affected by the shutdown? Got a message for Washington? Send it to iReport and be part of CNN's coverage.
Washington (CNN) -- Second or third or fourth verse, same as the first.
A stalemate in Congress
that caused a government shutdown on Tuesday continued with Senate
Democrats voting for a fourth time to reject a spending plan by House
Republicans that sought to undermine Obamacare.
This time, the House
proposal also included a call for a conference committee to seek a
compromise, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Democrats turned
down the package because it amounted to extortion by Republicans to
force concessions on President Barack Obama's signature health care
reforms.
Reid said the Senate wants to negotiate a budget with the House, "but not with the government closed."
"We're not going to
relitigate the health care issue," Reid said after the latest Senate
vote, calling for the House to now approve a "clean" spending plan to
fund the government for a few months before separate negotiations on
possible changes to the 2010 Affordable Care Act. "It's time for
Republicans to stop obsessing over old battles."
However, sources in the
House Republican leadership told CNN on Tuesday that they plan a series
of separate votes to fund specific government departments or agencies,
starting with spending for veterans, the District of Columbia and the
Park Service.
Parks, museums: Sorry, we're closed
Obama won't give in to 'reckless' demands
Shutdown: Day 1
The view from the White House
Rand Paul on shutdown
Some conservatives led by
GOP Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas have called for such a strategy, which would
force opponents to vote against authorizing spending for popular
programs such as veterans affairs.
Under the scenario described by Cruz, the piecemeal spending plan would be a way to defund Obamacare on a step-by-step basis.
The shutdown occurred
when a game of political chicken ended in failure in the first minutes
of Tuesday, with neither side blinking.
That brought the outcome
nobody said they wanted -- a shutdown that will stop 800,000 Americans
from getting paid and could cost the economy about $1 billion a week.
"Agencies should now
execute plans for an orderly shutdown due to the absence of
appropriations," the Office of Management and Budget said in a note to
federal employees.
It is the first time the
government has shut down in nearly 18 years. The last time it happened,
during the Clinton administration, the stalemate lasted 21 days.
Now, the
Republican-controlled House and the Democratic-controlled Senate will
try to see if they can reconcile their two versions of the spending plan
at the center of the debate. So far, each has refused to budge on how
to fund the government in the new fiscal year, which started Tuesday.
At the White House,
Obama blamed Republicans for the shutdown, saying it occurred because
conservatives want to dismantle the 2010 Affordable Care Act that he
championed.
"Republicans in the
House of Representatives refused to fund the government unless we
defunded or dismantled the Affordable Care Act," he said, flanked by
people who the White House said had benefited from the health care
reforms.
In some of his strongest
criticism so far, Obama said the shutdown intended to hinder government
efforts to provide health insurance to 15% of the U.S. population that
doesn't have coverage, adding it was "strange that one party would make
keeping people uninsured the centerpiece of their agenda."
Taking aim at GOP claims
of being better fiscal stewards, Obama said the economic growth
demanded by Republicans was hindered by constant political crises over
government funding like the current shutdown, not the health care law
upheld by the Supreme Court last year.
The latest GOP
counteroffer rejected by the Senate on Tuesday would have delayed
Obamacare for a year and ended federally provided health care for the
president, members of Congress and their staff while funding the
government for 11 weeks.
In addition, the House
GOP plan proposed a conference committee with the Senate to work out a
compromise. Such a committee is usually the result of competing
legislation from the two chambers on major issues, rather than a
short-term continuing resolution intended to keep the government running
for a matter of weeks.
Democratic Sen. Dick
Durbin of Illinois, a leading liberal voice, told CNN that he is open to
negotiations with the House on at least one specific provision of
Obamacare -- a tax on medical devices that some in both party oppose.
However, Durbin echoed
the position of Reid that such negotiations must be separated from the
spending impasse that has shut down the government.
"The conversation should
continue, but let's not do it with our government shutdown," he said,
adding that Congress would have to replace the $30 billion in lost
revenue over 10 years that would occur if it eliminated the medical
device tax.
On the Republican side,
Rep. Darrell Issa of California said he could vote to fund the
government for a few days or weeks to provide time for a conference
committee to work out a compromise.
"I personally would vote
for 10 days, even 30 days if that was necessary so that we could
resolve these differences," Issa told CNN.
'A dangerous message'
At the heart of the
issue is the insistence by House Republicans that any spending plan for
the new fiscal year include anti-Obamacare amendments. Senate Democrats
are just as insistent that it doesn't.
Obamacare isn't directly
tied to funding the government. But it's so unpopular among the
Republican tea party conservatives that they want it undercut, if not
outright repealed.
The health care law "is the most insidious law known to man," Republican Rep. Todd Rokita of Indiana said this week.
White House spokesman
Jay Carney told CNN that such intransigence is the root of the shutdown,
noting that conservative Republicans such as Rokita are the only ones
pushing a political agenda for meeting the congressional responsibility
of passing a budget.
Democratic Sen. Bob
Menendez, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said
the shutdown gives the United States a black eye.
Photos: Key players in the shutdown debate
Photos: The last government shutdown
Tea Party reacts to shutdown
Boehner: President 'won't negotiate'
"It is a dangerous
message to the world," he said. "We tell other nations that we believe
that they have to have certain disciplines. And yet, we cannot
ultimately keep our own budget open and the nation and its government
functioning."
Amid the finger-wagging
and fulminating, major components of the new health insurance law went
into effect on schedule on Tuesday.
"The Affordable Care Act is moving forward. You can't shut it down," said a post on Barack Obama's verified Twitter feed.
What's next
A predictable pattern of
legislative stalemate took place in the run-up to Tuesday's
simultaneous start of a new fiscal year and implementation of the
Obamacare private exchanges, a major component of the health care
reforms tied to the individual mandate for people to obtain health
coverage that conservatives despise.
The House three times
sent a version of the short-term spending plan with anti-Obamacare
amendments to the Senate, which stripped away the provisions it opposed
and sent it back. After the shutdown began at midnight Monday, House
Republicans did it again, this time adding the call for a conference
committee.
Democrats insist that
the House instead pass a spending measure that contains no Obamacare
amendments. That position is supported by the Democratic minority and
enough moderate Republicans to overcome opposition by the GOP
conservative wing, both Democrats and Republicans say.
However, House Speaker
John Boehner has succumbed to pressure from the tea party right to avoid
a vote that would pass a clean spending resolution.
Boehner, speaking in the early minutes of the shutdown, said he hoped Senate Democrats would agree to negotiate.
Asked if he had a
message for the 800,000 furloughed employees -- or if he has a plan to
restore back pay to them -- Boehner responded, "The House has voted to
keep the government open, but we also want basic fairness for all
Americans under Obamacare."
He then walked away from the podium.
A blow to the economy
The shutdown of the federal government -- the country's largest employer -- isn't happening all at once.
Federal employees who
are considered essential will continue working. Those deemed
non-essential -- more than 800,000 -- will be furloughed, unsure when
they'll be able to work or get paid again. Most furloughed federal
workers are supposed to be out of their offices within four hours of the
start of business Tuesday.
The shutdown could cost the still-struggling U.S. economy about $1 billion a week in pay lost by furloughed federal workers. And that's only the tip of the iceberg.
While many agencies have
reserve funds and contingency plans that would give them some
short-term leeway, the economic loss would snowball as the shutdown
continued.
The total economic
impact is likely to be at least 10 times greater than the simple
calculation of lost wages of federal workers, said Brian Kessler,
economist with Moody's Analytics. His firm estimates that a three- to
four-week shutdown would cost the economy about $55 billion.
Initial market reaction around the world was muted.
Lisa Buckley, who
co-owns the Denver-based American Automation security firm, counts on
government contracts for 60% of her business. She's worried about how
she'll pay her employees if the shutdown drags on.
"It's quite
irresponsible how the government has been running the country," Buckley
said. "If I ran my business like Congress has been handling the budget,
I'd lose my job."
Troops will still get paid
Congress actually managed to come together to pass one bill -- unanimously, at that.
The Senate approved a
House-approved measure Monday to ensure members of the military would
continue to get paid during the shutdown. Obama signed off on it.
But it's uncertain how the shutdown will affect military veterans, including the 3.3 million who are disabled.
If the shutdown
stretches into late October, the Veterans Affairs Department -- meaning
disability and pension checks could stop for elderly and ill veterans.
"That's what they need
to pay rent, to pay food," said Tom Tarantino of the Iraq and
Afghanistan Veterans of America. "It's not their total income, but it is
a significant part of it."
Congressional paychecks also safe
Although much of the federal workforce will go without pay, checks will keep coming to the 533 current members of Congress.
Why? The 27th Amendment prevents any Congress from changing its own pay.
The president too will get paid. His salary -- $400,000 -- is considered mandatory spending.
On Monday, Attorney
General Eric Holder said he would take a pay cut equal to the Justice
Department employees most severely impacted by a shutdown.
Obamacare still focus
Democrats have pressured Boehner to give up a losing fight over Obamacare forced by tea party conservatives.
Noting that the 2010
Affordable Care Act has been upheld by the Supreme Court, they say it is
settled law that voters endorsed last year by re-electing Obama over
GOP candidate Mitt Romney, who campaigned on repealing it.
"They are fixated on embarrassing our president, the president of the United States," Reid said.
Some Republicans too
expressed frustration Monday with the tactics of their congressional
colleagues. Veteran GOP Sen. John McCain of Arizona noted that any
attempt to repeal Obamacare would fail because of Obama's veto, which
would require a two-thirds majority in the Senate to overcome.
GOP Rep. Peter King of New York said the problem is tea party conservatives driving the Republican agenda in the House.
"We have people in the
conference, I believe, who'd be just as happy to have the government
shut down," King said. "They live in these narrow echo chambers. They
listen to themselves and their tea party friends. That keeps them going,
forgetting that the rest of the country thinks we're crazy."
Public reaction
According to a CNN/ORC
poll, 68% of Americans think shutting down the government for even a few
days is a bad idea, while 27% think it's a good idea.
And it appears most
Americans would blame congressional Republicans for a shutdown:
Sixty-nine percent said they agreed with the statement that the party's
elected officials were acting like "spoiled children."
Democrats, however, weren't far behind: Fifty-eight percent of respondents said they, too, were acting like spoiled kids.
Another poll showed public support for Congress at record low levels -- at 10%.
"Things like this can
have such a big impact on people that aren't in the limelight. You know,
people that are out working hourly positions" said Quinn Agard, who
works on Liberty Island, the home of the Statue of Liberty.
More than 21,000
national park employees will be furloughed. Thousands more -- like
cleanup crews and concession employees -- will be left without pay.
"This whole island will
be shut down. So that's a ton of different positions that people wont be
working and won't be getting paid for," Agard said.
The island draws up to 4 million visitors a year. And at $17 per adult ticket, it's also a big money maker.
CNN's Lisa Desjardins, Poppy Harlow, Lateef
Mungin, Dana Bash, Z. Byron Wolf, Chris Isidore, Ted Barrett, Deidre
Walsh, Barbara Starr, Sophia Yan, Ed Payne and John Helton contributed
to this report.
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