Posted on 04/04/2011 8:17:40 PM PDT by hatfieldmccoy
Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is set to introduce a bill Monday night to fund the military through September and fund government operations for one more week, Republican sources tell The Hill.
Boehner's move is intended to prevent a government shutdown that would start after Friday without another measure to fund the government.
House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) said the GOP was trying to prevent a government shutdown "at all costs."
“We’re serious about trying to prevent a government shutdown. We’re also serious about cutting spending," he told reporters after a meeting of the GOP conference on Monday evening.
Boehner told GOP lawmakers attending a closed-door conference meeting that he needed “leverage” going into a meeting with President Obama and Senate Democratic leaders at the White House on Tuesday morning, a lawmaker told The Hill.
“He said he needs this (the as-of-yet-introduced bill) and the support of the conference going into that meeting at the White House, because he feels it gives him more leverage,” the source explained to The Hill.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
“I wish the conversation would be more intellectual about serious matters like this.”
I agree. Boehner is playing it a lot smarter than the yahoos that criticize him - they would fall right into the Dem-media trap with their ‘lets shut it down’ attitude. Boehner has kept the GOP is a firm position of “we will fund the govt on these terms (cuts of $61 b), take it, have an alternative, or the shutdown is on your heads” ... much better.
” Bohner knows the dems want to shut the gov’t down so they can twist the truth to blame Republicans...the real battle is the 2012 budget”
Exactly!!! the 2011 is important, but its a warmup - the House GOP has done the right thing put enough cuts to get the ball rolling.
“... and I heard budgets don’t need a Presidential signature - it can go into effect without Obummer’s approval.”
NOT TRUE ... like any law it needs his approval or 2/3rd passage in Congress. So boehner has 2 folks to negotiate with, obama and Reid.
“This is just pre-show and they are proving the point that DEMS dont’ care about cutting spending”
exactly, polls are showing 50/50 ‘blame’ on shutdown.
” - Isn’t it about time we supported these guys instead of always criticizing them when they don’t jump up and down and fix IT ALL at once. The reality is that we are still in the minority in the senate and they need incrementally to stir the pot.”
... and they have done a pretty good job so far - they in fact did more than the 1994 Congress did in terms of spending.
” It took much longer than 3 months to get our debt to this point, it will take a whole lot longer to begin to draw it down.”
Yup. 60 years of socialistic Big_Govt empire-building cant be undone in one fell swoop.
“what this all means is the either boehner is a fool (which would be preferable to the other alternative) or boehner is *afraid.*”
WRONG!
Boehner wrote a 1 week extension that cuts $12 billion for that one week *AND* funds DoD. It’s a nightmare for the Dems, it’s a stop-gap on GOP terms, but at the same time makes it clear that the Dems will take the blame for the shutdown if they dont agree to it or to HR1, the GOP 2011 budget plan.
PR-wise, we WANT the Dems to take the heat for the shutdown, because its the Dem gameplan to shut down the Govt and blame the Republicans for the ‘crisis’. The GOP wants to either (1) avoid the crisis by funding 2011 at better levels or (2) make it clear that Dems are to blame for lack of agreement.
The critics of Boehner ... “are clearly people here who don’t understand how the world works.”
“what about the last 3-4 weeks of continuing resolutions?”
Each continuing resolution had some level of cuts. Taking a small bite at a time as the ‘price’ for Democrat politics of delay.
what Boehner is doing smart here is he is raising the price, from $10b for 3 weeks to $12b for 1 week.
Why is it too much to ask for an actual budget? That is their job.”
Boehner and the GOP House are doing their job: They HAVE a real budget. They passed HR1, the 2011 remaining budget that the Pelosi House never got to.
And this week, Rep Ryan is putting forth the 2012 budget and blueprint for the long-term.
- it defunds Obamacare
- it saves $4 trillion + from 10 year budget deficit projection
- it undoes the obamacare tax hikes
- it sets us back to 18% of GDP fed spending level of the past, versus Obama’s massive govt overspending that took us to 25% of GDP.
The folks who are failing here are Reid and Obama. They have done nothing, they have criticizedthe GOP plans without putting up one of their own, and they are not negotiating in good faith.
“It’s an empty threat the GOP is forced to take seriously because of their inability to counter Democrat lies. “
It’s the media-Democrat-complex trying to recapture the magic of Clinton and the 1995 shutdown. But some differences
1. Boehner has played his cards much better than Newt did, by making it clear the GOP is not trying to create a shutdown, but has a clear plan for funding the govt (with some level of cuts that are quite reasonable)
2. The people know that massive spending is out of control and are less tolerant of the Dem excuses and lies.
3. The liberal media monopoly aint what it used to be.
You must be mistaken. I must also be 48 and currently working in one of the largest federal government agencies operating today. I must also be having daily and hourly conversations with management and long employeed veterans of the federal government, and I must be getting more current and inside information than you. You must also be looking at facts that are quite outdated.
Sp spend less time being arrogant and more time reminding yourself that some people actually do have better information than you.
Two shut downs under Reagan, one under Bush, two under Clinton. The employees always have their pay made up. There's no reason that the democrat controlled Senate and White House will not deliver to their unions this time.
48? You ought to at least be old enough to remember the Clinton shutdowns.
Your agency is AFGE (AFL-CIO) rather than an independent union, isn't it?
It doesn’t matter if I remember the shutdowns under Clinton, or Reagan for that matter. This shutdown is a completely different ball game, and this time federal government employees are being specifically targeted. All we have been told from Day 1 is that if we shut down, there will be NO back pay. Past shutdowns actually cost more money than was saved, so the measures being negotiated are such that they want a shut down that actually shows effectiveness.
We are AFGE, but they only listen to feedback from Baltimore and DC, and seldom give consideration to conditions in field and branch offices. The union reps have been fairly innocuous in DHHS.
I thought so. The independent unions have a bit more leverage with the democrats. They usually support the dems, but they make them work to earn it. The AFL-CIO's going to back the dems even if their employees get hosed. A good sized chunk of the TSA folks at airports are not AFGE, as are the IRS folks that will keep working and some other folks (FDIC certainly, OCC, probably, EPA folks may be at risk). Note this story:(sorry, no hot link- cut and paste)
Federal union begins lobbying Congress for shutdown back pay
http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/budget/154719-federal-union-begins-lobbying-congress-for-shutdown-back-pay
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