Free Republic

The Washington establishment believes that the government shutdown of 1995 was a disastrous mistake that accomplished little and cost House Republicans politically. The facts are exactly the opposite. While the shutdown produced some short-term pain, it set the stage for a budget deal in 1996 that led to the largest drop in federal discretionary spending since 1969. The discipline imposed by this budget — overall spending grew at an average of 2.9 percent a year while I was speaker of the House, the slowest rate in decades — allowed us to reach a balanced-budget deal in 1997. ...the balanced budget...

LEWISTON --Gov. Paul LePage said Thursday he will close schools on April 1 if the Legislature doesn't act quickly to plug a $221 million hole in the Department of Health and Human Services budget. Gov. Paul LePage said the cuts are necessary because the state is out of money. He said of those who don’t believe his numbers, “either they are being dishonest to the Maine people or they can’t count.” He urged residents to call their legislators "to tell them to get going" on his proposal, saying time is of the essence. "A lot of Democrats still think we're...

Congressional lawmakers reached an agreement late Thursday to avoid a government shutdown this weekend, Democratic and Republican leaders will push for a final vote on the $1 trillion spending bill on Friday morning — hours before much of the federal government would have been forced to turn out the lights. The final bill removes several provisions of concern to President Barack Obama — including a measure to reinstate travel restrictions on Cuba, POLITICO reported. It also would ensure the Commodities Futures Trading Commission is fully funded next year. But Democrats had to drop their opposition to a ban prohibiting the...

The Obama administration is alerting employees to the possibility of a government shutdown if talks on bills to fund the government and extend the payroll tax cut collapse later this week. With Congress facing a midnight Friday deadline to either pass a short-term or final measure to fund government operations for the remainder of the fiscal year, Cabinet secretaries and agency heads planned to send an e-mail message to workers by close of business Wednesday informing them that a shutdown could occur, according to multiple administration officials familiar with the plans. In a statement, Office of Management and Budget spokesman...

Unless Congress acts soon, funding for much of the federal government will run out on Friday — and the blame for this latest shutdown threat may lie squarely at the feet of Democrats and the White House. The bill to fund the government after Friday is done. Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) declared on Tuesday that a "handshake" agreement was reached on the "megabus" $1 trillion appropriations package. Even Democrats say the bill is final: "Our bill is done, and it should go to the president immediately," Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA), the ranking member on the Appropriations Subcommittee...

Another potential government shutdown could loom if Congress isn’t able to scramble soon and cobble together a big omnibus spending bill to keep the government open past Dec. 16. The current stopgap measure expires then. And only three of the 12 annual spending bills which run the federal government have been approved and signed into law. That means House and Senate appropriators are putting together a massive, omnibus spending bill which they hope to have prepared by Dec. 15. This would not be an interim bill, better known in Capitol Hill-ese as a Continuing Resolution, or CR, which funds government...

Boeing seems “very serious” about its study on whether to shut down its Wichita plant, Sen. Jerry Moran said Tuesday. “I think Boeing considers this a real option,” Moran said. His comments followed Boeing’s announcement Monday that it was studying the future of its Wichita site, including whether to close the facility. Elected officials from Kansas and Wichita, and union leaders reacted Tuesday by requesting meetings with Boeing officials to remind them of the promises they made to put jobs in Kansas should the company win an Air Force contract for aerial refueling tankers. Gov. Sam Brownback said he and...

Windmills to shut at night following demise of rare batKathy Mellott - The Tribune-Democrat October 17, 2011 LILLY — Night operation of the windmills in the North Allegheny Windpower Project has been halted following discovery of a dead Indiana bat under one of the turbines, an official with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Monday. The finding marks only the second location where an Indiana bat has been found dead under a wind turbine. Two Indiana bats were found under turbines in the Mid-west, said Clint Riley, supervisor for Fish and Wildlife’s Pennsylvania field office. “While finding the dead...

After all the debt ceiling theatrics that dominated the summer — and the collective sigh of relief at their conclusion (even though the final deal was not a real solution!), it was easiest to forget the federal government was still running on stopgap measures and not an actual budget. Better to forget that than to immediately and wearily wind ourselves up for another heartbreaking round of championing salvific spending cuts only to eventually make painful political concessions that would ultimately shove all meaningful work onto a nebulous future Super Committee.So, here we are again, facing a government shutdown. Is this...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Ending weeks of political brinkmanship, Congress finessed a dispute over disaster aid Monday night and advanced legislation to avoid a partial government shutdown this weekend. The breakthrough came hours after the Federal Emergency Management Agency indicated it had enough money for disaster relief through Friday. That disclosure allowed lawmakers to jettison a $1 billion replenishment that had been included in the measure—and to crack the gridlock it had caused. Senate passage of the legislation was expected within hours. There was no immediate comment from Republican leaders in the House, although their agreement seemed a formality. The events...

With near permanent brinksmanship the new normal, Congress headed into votes Friday to try to avert a government shutdown that is slated to occur on Oct. 1 if a continuing resolution bill is not passed. The Senate has voted to reject the temporary spending bill passed by the House late last night. With near permanent brinksmanship the new normal, Congress headed into votes Friday to try to avert a government shutdown that is slated to occur on Oct. 1 if a continuing resolution bill is not passed. In a surprise late night victory Thursday, House Republican leaders narrowly passed a...

Funding crisis: Senate blocks House bill By: Jake Sherman and Manu Raju September 23, 2011 08:56 AM EDT Senate Democrats on Friday blocked a House Republican stopgap budget plan, intensifying a bitter impasse that threatens to bring government operations to a halt in a matter of days. On a 59-36 vote, the Senate voted to table the House plan, just the latest escalation in a government spending crisis that has dominated Capitol Hill this year. The vote now threatens to derail next week’s congressional recess, dry up federal funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency by early next week and...

An already contentious debate over funding the government past September 30 intensified Thursday as Republicans amended their bill to be more amenable to GOP lawmakers and Democrats pledged to oppose it. In what is at latest government shutdown threat this year, without action by the start of the new fiscal year, all but the most essential government services will cease on October 1 until a new agreement is reached. House Republicans passed a continuing resolution early Friday morning on a mostly partly-line vote, though the bill drew immediate criticism from Senate Democrats over its spending cut offsets for new federal...

Senate Democrats vow to reject GOP's aid planBy the Associated Press Posted: 09/23/2011 01:01:12 AM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) -- With the economy sputtering, the warring factions of Congress headed toward gridlock Thursday night over the typically noncontroversial steps of delivering disaster aid or even keeping the government from shutting down. Senate Democrats signaled they'll reject a House move to try to force a smaller aid package upon them and partially pay for it with cuts to programs Democrats insist create jobs. A top Senate aide revealed the strategy on condition of anonymity. The battle erupting on Capitol Hill sends a...

Today at some point, the House votes (again) on a continuing resolution to fund government past Sept. 30. Will it fail to reach an agreement as it did yesterday, with just a day before yet another break which will likely mean no more votes until the actual shutdown? Goldman explains what to expect from the events this afternoon/evening. From Goldman's Alec Phillips _________________________________________________ Yesterday’s failed vote in the House has led to headlines raising the possibility of a government shutdown, but this seems unlikely. The new fiscal year starts Oct. 1 and Congress has yet to enact any of the...

But under Thursday’s agreement, Coburn will be allowed to insert language into a longer-term highways bill that Democrats and Republicans will negotiate before the new round of funding expires in six months. Coburn’s provision would allow states to opt out of a program requiring them to set aside millions of dollars for beautification projects like bike paths, sound walls and decorative highway signs. The conservative Oklahoma senator - known for singlehandedly holding up Senate business — had come under increasing pressure from his GOP colleagues, and eventually relented-. Earlier Thursday, they said he was demanding too much on a bill...

“Neither rain, nor snow, nor sleet, nor hail shall keep the postmen from their appointed rounds.” But unless Congress steps in, bankruptcy will. The New York Times reports that unless the House and Senate take drastic action in the next few months, one of the nation's oldest institutions — which employs 574,000 Americans — may be forced to shut down. A combination of labor costs and a declining number of packages and letters has the United States Postal Service running short on cash. The independent government agency will be unable to make a $5.5 billion payment to its employee healthcare...

If you want an example of how out of touch media commentators can be with American politics, look no farther than the Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart. Barack Obama’s cave on tax hikes in the debt deal clearly annoyed Capehart, who criticized the President for his lack of “aggressiveness� that resulted in a deal that doesn’t reflect “the will of the people� — at least as Capehart sees it. Calling the Tea Party-backed Congressmen “carjackers,� Capehart called on Obama to be “Keyser Söze.� But that’s not the only place where Capehart’s perspective departs from reality: If you’ve seen the brilliant movie...

As FAA Shutdown Continues, Obama Pleads With Congress to End Stalemate Published August 03, 2011 | FoxNews.com President Obama ratcheted up the pressure on Congress Wednesday to return from a monthlong vacation and end an impasse over funding the Federal Aviation Administration, which is in the 12th day of a partial shutdown that has left more than 70,000 airport construction workers and 4,000 FAA employees out of work. "This is a lose-lose-lose situation that can be easily solved if Congress gets back into town and does its job," the president said at the start of a Cabinet meeting.

Senators: The cost of FAA shutdown could exceed $1 billion if unless action taken this weekBy Associated Press, Updated: Tuesday, August 2, 3:33 AM WASHINGTON — The congressional standoff that has partially shut down the Federal Aviation Administration has some curious math. Lawmakers risk losing more than $1 billion in revenue from uncollected airline ticket taxes in a quarrel between Senate Democrats and House Republicans who are demanding a $16.5 million cut in rural air service subsidies. The shutdown is less than two weeks old and already the government has lost more than $250 million in revenue because airlines’ authority...

It's fascinating to consider the irony infused within the closing days of Governor Mark Dayton's shutdown of Minnesota. The resolution, such as it is, pleases no one. The rabid anti-capitalists on the Left didn't get their coveted tax increase. The fiscally sane did not see a reduction in spending. In fact, the resolution is the worst of both worlds - increasing spending beyond projected revenue while putting the balance on a credit card. However, the resolution is not nearly as disturbing as the means by which it was reached. Consider, Governor Dayton set the process up for failure. He refused...

Impasse over subsidies results in FAA shutdownBy Star-Advertiser Staff and News Services POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Jul 23, 2011 WASHINGTON » Efforts to avert a shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration failed Friday amid a disagreement over a $16.5 million cut in subsidies to 13 rural communities, ensuring that nearly 4,000 people, including five in Hawaii, will be temporarily out of work and federal airline ticket taxes will be suspended. Lawmakers were unable to resolve a partisan dispute over an extension of the agency's operating authority, which expired at midnight Friday EDT. The agency has been without long-term funding legislation...

"This is the political equivalent of the government shutdown when I was president," Clinton said. "The White House could blink. I hope not." Clinton made his argument in front of a large crowd at the left-leaning Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado Saturday. Should the United States default on its payments, the country's credit ratings will decline, Clinton said, and interest rates could rise. Growing anti-government forces like the Tea Party are truly affecting healthy government reform, Clinton said. "It's astonishingly good politics," he admitted, "but poor economic policy."

The public was in the dark on many of the measures. When the session started, only seven of the 12 bills scheduled for votes were posted on the Legislature's website. When lawmakers returned to the House and Senate floors shortly after 6 p.m., they quickly passed six of the 10 tax and spending bills that make up the budget. Most bills sailed through largely on party-line votes with little debate. Still to come were three highly contentious spending bills to fund K-12 education, health and human services and state agencies. The House passed a controversial tax bill late Tuesday night....

Minnesota's government shutdown -- the longest in U.S. history -- may soon be over. The breakthrough came on July 14, when Gov. Mark Dayton announced he was taking higher taxes -- his signature issue -- off the table. Much remains to be done before the deal is wrapped up. But now is the moment to reflect on what happened, and why. For the left, especially government employee unions, the stakes in Minnesota's budget battle were momentous. Raising taxes is at the heart of the progressive agenda. More tax money is essential if government is to continue its rapid expansion, which...

Minn. governor, GOP leaders have deal to end government shutdown; needs legislative approval. Gov. Mark Dayton said Thursday morning that he is willing to accept Republicans' June 30 budget offer, which would close a $1.4 billion budget difference by delaying payment of school funds and borrowing against the state's tobacco settlement. "This is the only viable option that's potentially available," Dayton said. Dayton said his acceptance was contingent on Republicans' dropping all controversial policy positions as well as the push to cut 15 percent of the state's work force, and the passage of a $500 million bonding bill. Senate GOP...

Looks like Republicans have prevailed in Minnesota. Governor Mark Dayton has “reluctantly” agreed to the GOP’s June 30th budget proposal and will call a special session to pass it in three days, ending the state shutdown started by his veto of the budget proposed in May: Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton sent a letter Thursday to House Speaker Kurt Zellers and Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch, saying he “reluctantly” agrees to accept the Republican budget proposal from June 30 if it will end the government shutdown. Dayton said accepting the offer would bridge a $1.4 billion gap between him and the...

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton offered Thursday to end a two-week government shutdown by accepting a Republican proposal to bring more money into Minnesota's budget. Dayton announced in Minneapolis that he will agree to an offer legislative Republicans made just before the shutdown started, if they agree to drop a list of policy changes and a plan to reduce the state workforce by 15 percent. GOP leaders said they were reviewing the offer and had no immediate comment. The offer would raise $1.4 billion, half by delaying state aid checks to schools districts and the other half by...

Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton sent a letter Thursday to House Speaker Kurt Zellers and Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch, saying he "reluctantly" agrees to accept the Republican budget proposal from June 30.

POLL: Which Side Are You On in the State Shutdown? With day 13 of the state shutdown underway, Governor Dayton and Republican lawmakers have no new talks scheduled. Which side are you on in the state shutdown? Governor Dayton's side Republican lawmakers' side Neither Undecided I don't care

Hundreds of bars, restaurants and stores across Minnesota are running out of beer and alcohol and others may soon run out of cigarettes -- a subtle and largely unforeseen consequence of a state government shutdown. In the days leading up to the shutdown, thousands of outlets scrambled to renew their state-issued liquor purchasing cards. Many of them did not make it. Now, with no end in sight to the shutdown, they face a summer of fast-dwindling alcohol supplies and a bottom line that looks increasingly bleak. The Ugly Mug doesn't have enough beer to get through the baseball season. "Our...

Operating Status of the Federal Government Operating Status – Visit the U.S. Office of Personnel Management for the most up-to-date operating status of the federal government. Government Services During the Shutdown Aviation – The Federal Aviation Administration continues to ensure the safety of air travelers in the United States. Border Security – Border patrol programs and operations as well as ports of entry operations, including cargo security and revenue collections, continue. Citizenship and Immigration Services – U.S. Citizenship and Immigration services continues to operate. Applications, forms, wait times, and more remain available online (except for E-Verify). Coast Guard – The U.S. Coast Guard continues to operate, including military functions, port...

Jessica and Craig Porter of Somerset, Wis. have their newly adopted baby’s room all ready, but the shutdown is forcing their new son to sleep in a playpen across the river in Minnesota. The family is stuck at a hotel until lawmakers strike a budget deal and the state shutdown passes. “We’re just so happy to be with him. We’ll probably go through anything to bring him home,” said Jessica Porter. Her baby boy, Ezra, is only 5 days old. He and his parents are living in a Stillwater hotel room, because they can’t go home to Wisconsin until his...

MillerCoors loses right to sell beer in Minnesota during shutdown Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal - by Mark Reilly, Managing Editor Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2011, 6:48am CDT Mega-brewer Miller Coors must pull all of its beer — all 39 brands — from Minnesota store shelves because its branding license wasn't renewed before the state shutdown.KSTP-TV has this absolute howler of a story, along with reaction from retailers, which is pretty much what you'd expect it would be. The beer company says it sent in the checks (brand licenses cost $30 for three years), but acknowledges they weren't processed...

While such parks normally are bustling with people - and have facilities to serve them - the relative seclusion appears to have emboldened some to do their business along trails and other areas where no Minnesotan would normally dare to squat. "People are taking it upon themselves to go out in the woods and relieve themselves, and without the presence of employees and others, they're not picking up after themselves," Konrad said. "People are also having a tendency not to pick up after their pets."

As the shutdown entered its second full week Monday, with no end in sight, politicians and public employees traded accusations over who's getting paid, who isn't and why. "None of them should be getting paid," said Mike Lindholt, a Department of Transportation maintenance worker idled by the shutdown. "If you don't do your job, you don't get paid. That's how it is for most people." The political leaders whose budget dispute caused the shutdown are still entitled to collect their pay, and more than half of them are. Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton and the Republican Senate majority leader have both...

To better understand Dayton and the Legislature's basic budget disagreements, here's a look at how much the state spent in the previous two years (fiscal years 2010 and 2011) that ended June 30 and how much the governor and lawmakers are proposing to spend in the current biennium (FY 2012-13). The figures represent spending from the state's general fund, the budget category that covers most day-to-day expenditures: The numbers show a nearly $1.4 billion gap between how much money lawmakers and Dayton want to spend. State finance officials forecast that the state, under current law, would collect about $34.4 billion...

...a friend of mine sent me a dialog he had on Saturday with a door knocker supporting Governor Dayton's agenda. It is instructive in the way the public dialog has evolved. The real events have disappeared in an unwavering zeal of "tax the richest 2%": Today (6/25) I had a chance to talk with a SEIU Person in her mid 20’s who was canvassing a neighborhood. Her start off pitch was the extreme high pay/bonuses the top CEO’s receive and the large stockpiles of money companies are holding onto. It would really help the economy and the Union people if...

Dedicated readers of Minnesota Democrats Exposed began notifying us of robo-calls being sent out of a Washington, D.C. call center into the districts of GOP lawmakers over the last several weeks. The calls, paid for by the AFL-CIO union organizing machine, ask union members to stay on the line while they directly connect the caller to the phone number of their state representative, where they are encouraged to leave messages about how they strongly support tax increases to protect union jobs. Many callers, however, used the connection to their legislator as a chance to say “thanks” for standing up to...

By Daniel Woodruff, Anchor, Multimedia Journalist MADISON (WAOW) -- A conservative Wisconsin think tank is raising a red flag about the state's Democratic senators' stay in Illinois—specifically, about who paid for it. Fourteen senators fled to Illinois in February for several weeks to stall Gov. Scott Walker's agenda. They stayed there for more than three weeks. Throughout the process, the senators repeatedly said they were paying for the trip there. But now, the conservative MacIver Institute in Madison has posted a video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZh3zehbESI&feature=player_embedded) containing a clip that the Institute says contradicts those claims. The video's announcer prefaces the clip by...

Minnesota stands to lose tens of millions of dollars in the nation's only state government shutdown, as lottery tickets go unpurchased, tax cheats go unpursued and 22,000 laid-off state workers collect unemployment and health benefits. The government interruption also threatens to slow an already sluggish economic recovery as the state employees in limbo and others who lose state-dependent jobs - including construction workers and nonprofit staffers - tighten their spending.

We are in day 7 of Minnesota Held Hostage. The shutdown of state government proceeds, with an exemption for staff designated essential. Governor Dayton has laid off about half of his 40-member staff during the shutdown, while he has designated 20 essential and kept them at work. Dayton is of course a (South Dakota) trust fund beneficiary who has never supported himself on a salary in his life, so his idea of “essential” may not be exactly mainstream. MinnPost’s Joe Kimball writes: “On the list of those still working are two staff members, Micah Pace and Michelle Mersereau, who were...

Minnesota is beginning its eighth day of a government shutdown. More than 20,000 state employees are out of work, and many more private-sector employees and businesses are beginning to feel the ripple effect of the shutdown. With the July 4th holiday over, more of our citizens will begin to experience the shutdown firsthand as they attempt to interact with the state. So it is with this sense of urgency that I offer these suggestions: 1. Abandon your continued call for tax increases. State revenue will increase $3.1 billion in the next biennium. We can fund the priorities outlined in your...

Gov. Mark Dayton, a Democrat, campaigned for office last year promising to raise taxes on high earners, so it was no surprise when he proposed a tax increase on families making more than $150,000 a year to help close a $5 billion budget gap. In negotiations with the Republican majority in the Legislature, he compromised and reduced the increase to those making $1 million or more, but Republicans are refusing to consider any income tax increase.

For the second time in the past week, hundreds of laid off state workers rallied in the hot sun on the steps of Minnesota’s closed State Capitol to protest the state government shutdown. Wednesday’s rally again took aim at familiar theme: Taxing the state's wealthiest residents to help solve the state’s $5 billion budget deficit. One man held a sign that took his frustration a step further – he had changed it from “Tax the Rich” to “Eat the Rich.”

When Minnesota state parks and highway rest stops were closed suddenly along with other government services, the neighboring state to the east was the obvious beneficiary as Minnesotans scrambled to alter their holiday weekend plans. Others that stood to benefit included Minnesota's private campgrounds, city and county parks, amusement destinations, museums, and gas stations and fast-food establishments near closed rest stops.

Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton and Republican leaders restarted budget talks Tuesday for the first time since Minnesota's government shut down five days earlier, but with no progress to speak of the focus shifted from the Capitol to a courtroom where recipients of government money pleaded for their services to continue. Dayton, House Speaker Kurt Zellers and Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch met for about an hour and said they would resume talks Wednesday. The possibility of a lingering shutdown raised the stakes for dozens of groups who spent Tuesday in a courtroom before a court-appointed special master. In the second...

Last Thursday, California's liberal Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law a balanced budget that doesn't raise income taxes. Imagine that -- on the same day that Minnesota's governor insisted on implementing a significant income tax increase, California -- a state that faced a budget deficit five times larger than Minnesota's -- did the right thing. It is living within its means. Fact is, we're the only state in the nation without a budget. That is because Gov. Mark Dayton is unable to shake the urge to fall back on the failed tax-and-spend politics of the 1960s. It's hard to imagine...

According to some observers, a terrible catastrophe has just struck the state of Minnesota. Due to an impasse on fiscal and taxation questions, the government of that state has been "shut down." On one side of the divide, you have Governor Mark Dayton, a tranquil (and some would say tranquilized) leftist who has been pushing for higher taxes as a way of solving Minnesota's budgetary deficit. On the other side, there is the Republican-controlled legislature that, to its credit, have taken the rare step of actually displaying a backbone by pushing for spending reductions instead and by standing up to...

The chart Andrew Stiles referred to Friday (from an earlier post by Veronique de Rugy) shows only the start of how counterproductive it is to increase taxes on the wealthy. As a result of lower tax rates on the top income earners, not only do they pay a much larger share of all taxes, but they pay much more taxes total — and revenue to the government has increased. This is because lowering taxes on the rich creates more rich people and richer rich people. The federal government gets much more revenue if you impose a 40 percent tax on...