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Senate leaders on Wednesday struck an 11th-hour agreement to avoid a U.S. debt crisis and fully reopen the federal government, putting lawmakers on track toward ending a stalemate that worried investors world-wide and provided striking evidence of congressional dysfunction. House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio), in a statement released Wednesday afternoon, said House Republicans will allow the Senate deal to come up for a vote. "Blocking the bipartisan agreement reached today by the members of the Senate will not be a tactic for us," Mr. Boehner said.

WASHINGTON, DC – House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) released the following statement regarding the bipartisan Senate agreement to reopen the federal government and avoid a national default: “The House has fought with everything it has to convince the president of the United States to engage in bipartisan negotiations aimed at addressing our country's debt and providing fairness for the American people under ObamaCare. That fight will continue. But blocking the bipartisan agreement reached today by the members of the Senate will not be a tactic for us. In addition to the risk of default, doing so would open the door...

On the brink of a national default, the leaders of the Senate struck a deal Wednesday to reopen the federal government and extend its power to borrow money. The House appeared ready to go along — and end, at least for now, the crisis in Washington. Sen. Harry Reid, the Democratic leader, said on the Senate floor at midday that his party and Republicans had found their way to a compromise to “provide our economy with the stability it desperately needs” and avert financial disaster. His Republican counterpart, Sen. Mitch McConnell, offered his blessing: “This is far less than many...

RUSH: I want to go back to the lady on the phone who says this doesn’t feel right. What’s happening here to the country just doesn’t feel right. You know what’s happened here? You know what this feels like, folks? I’ll tell you exactly what it feels like to me. You tell me if this isn’t close. It feels like we’ve lost a war to a communist country. It’s almost like there’s been a coup. There’s been a peaceful coup. The media has led this coup, and the Democrats have taken over with popular support. We’re getting policies and implementations...

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) on Wednesday morning said members of Congress are like the parents of everyone in the country and said these "parents" need to act quickly to protect their toddlers from the possible fallout of a debt default. "We, as custodians of this great nation, members of the United States Congress, are like parents," she said on the House floor. "And therefore I ask any parent that is listening: How long do they wait before they see a toddler fall, or do they leap toward that toddler so that they know the strength of that parent is...

In a 2003 speech, then Speaker Denny Hastert (R-Ill.) discussed his House management guidelines that became known as “The Hastert Rule.” The rule calls for a leader not to send legislation to the House floor for a vote unless it has the support of the majority of the majority. On Wednesday, with just hours left to raise the debt ceiling or risk default, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio)–who has been holding fast to the Hastert Rule–has to decide whether to break it.

Sens. Cruz, Lee say they won't block deal By Mike Lillis - 10/16/13 12:38 PM ET Sens. Ted Cruz and Mike Lee said Wednesday that they won't try to block the bipartisan deal to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling. "The timing of the vote will make no difference to the outcome," Cruz (R-Texas) said. "I have no intention of delaying the vote." Cruz and Lee (R-Utah) had spearheaded the campaign to attach ObamaCare language to any new budget bills, and had pushed their colleagues to take a hard-line stance. But the pair emerged from a meeting of...

Despite no evidence in financial markets of a default, House Speaker John Boehner (RINO-OH) will bring the Senate clean Continuing Resolution (CR) to The House floor for a vote. The endless spending and debt growth in Washington DC will continue now that the Senate has turned over the power of pursestrings to The President (once House Republicans agree). Obamacare was already a tremendous transfer of power and control to the Executive Branch, and now capitulating to President Obama gives the Executive Branch overwhelming power and control. In order to honor our career politicians in Congress and the Administration, the Washington...

Referring to his plan to preemptively send the Senate a House-passed bill, Speaker John Boehner told his conference this morning that he’d “rather throw a grenade than catch a grenade.” But with his right-wing troops abandoning him again, it was the speaker who was left holding the bomb. After a day of furious negotiating with fellow Republicans over how to tweak a bill he had unveiled in the morning, it was left to stunned members of his leadership team to confirm to reporters that the vote had been canceled. “They’re trying to work it out,” said Representative Greg Walden, the...

National Park Service director Jarvis said he discussed closing the open-air monuments and memorials with the White House, as well as the secretary of the Interior Department.

There is currently a letter floating around the internet from United States Department of Agriculture addressed to all (SNAP) Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program state agency directors. The letter states in pretty plain terms the USDA is directing States to hold or delay transmission of State Electronic benefit transfer (EBT) until further notice.

FULL TITLE: 'Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett 'was the architect of President's handling of the shutdown because she was the one to tell him not to negotiate' Republicans have largely been blamed for the ongoing government shut down but a new theory points the finger at President Obama's longtime advisor Valerie Jarrett. Author Ed Klein believes that Jarrett was the 'architect' of the approach that President Obama has taken with the budget battle. The New York Post reports that Klein says that it was during a late-night strategy session that Jarrett held with the President in the residence where they came...

The speaker is considering a vote on the Senate-brokered deal, even if conservatives object. Speaker John Boehner is considering letting the House take the initial vote Wednesday on a Senate-prepared bill to lift the debt ceiling and restart funding for the shuttered federal government--apparently even if House conservatives object. If they do object, it would mean Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and her House Democrats could become critical to its passage.

Streaming at link

WASHINGTON — With economic disaster looming at the stroke of midnight Thursday morning, America was left standing on the precipice after House Republicans suddenly abandoned a vote that would have averted default.

Dan Pfeiffer’s fingerprints are all over the White House’s strategy of not negotiating with congressional Republicans over the government shutdown and debt ceiling. The senior adviser to President Obama has been plotting the White House’s every move, and is described by some within the administration as the “relentless guardian” of Obama’s no-negotiations stance. “He’s been the most ferocious on that principle,” one senior administration official said. “He was quite adamant and relentless about this. And on the face of it, it’s not an easy argument to make.” Even before the shutdown began on Oct. 1, Republicans had turned their fire...

".........I am tired of funding Republicans who campaign against Obamacare then refuse to fight. It’s time to find a new batch of Republicans to actually practice what the current crop preaches. The irony in all of this is that Obamacare’s individual mandate is going to be delayed. Just wait. Liberals are already whispering that it has to happen. They can’t get the computers up and running. People aren’t signing up. They whole process is broken. But they also do not want to cave in to the GOP. So they will wait. Barack Obama will wait for the GOP to surrender,...

".......A day that was supposed to bring Washington to the edge of resolving the fiscal showdown instead seemed to bring chaos and retrenching. And a bitter fight that had begun over stripping money from the president’s signature health care law had essentially descended in the House into one over whether lawmakers and their staff members would pay the full cost of their health insurance premiums, unlike most workers at American companies, and how to restrict the administration from using flexibility to extend the debt limit beyond a fixed deadline.............."

The federal government shutdown is here, and that means some places around town are offering freebies. Most of these deals are reserved for government workers only, but some are open to everyone. Furloughed workers receive 50% off weekday bookings to @GoApeUSA until 10/18 with Federal ID! Use code "FEDS50" to book at www.goape.com. by GoApeUSA 7:54 PM Reply Permalink ALL performances of Marry Me a Little FREE this weekend for govt employees with promo code GOVT at bpt.me (govt ID required) by cauldronevents 7:54 PM 2:40 PM TwitterOldDominionBrewhouse @OldDominionBrew Week 3 of the Government Shutdown! Happy Hour ALL DAY at...

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, the Republicans DID compromise to avoid a shutdown. They were going to keep the government open, but asked that Obamacare be delayed. Yes, even Planned Parenthood would get their annual funding from the government. Senate Democrats under Harry Reid said no. … Given how the president’s approval rating has sunk to historic lows, this shutdown gives Obama a way to re-energize his stalled legislative agenda. He wasted the most precious moments of his second term on a gun control push that was never going to pass, and he was stuck in neutral until the...

Why are intellectuals, sometimes the most intelligent among us, so dumb? This is the question that confounds everyone; some intellectuals most of all. The late William F. Buckley Jr., a certified egghead, once said he would rather be governed by the first 50 names in the Boston telephone book than by the professors at Harvard. Another wit observes that an intellectual is someone who so prefers theory over experience that he would sit down on a red-hot stove, twice. You can be too smart for your own good, and have the blisters on your bottom to prove it. The intellectual...

President Obama understands "the frustrations of the American people" more than anybody else. At least, that's what he told WABC in an interview: "One thing that I've shown is that if I say I'm prepared to compromise on something, I can deliver votes and we can get it done," Obama said. "So, look: Nobody shares the frustrations of the American people more than I do because I see day in and day out the damage that something like a shutdown does."

This failure of an option B has set the stage for Bohners end game, very much like what happened early this year with taxes.Reid Slams New House GOP Debt Limit Offer (Hissy fit) Roll Call ^ | 10/15/13 | Meredith Shiner House vote pulled, chaos continues Politico ^ | 10-15-13 | By JAKE SHERMAN, BURGESS EVERETT, JOHN BRESNAHAN and SEUNG Reid will pass his ‘bipartision’ bill using a procedure that only requires 50 votes but gutting a previously passed bill. That allows lots of GOP Senators cover to vote symbolically ‘no’ with no effect. Then that Bill goes to house...

<p>Klein — who wrote a provocative biography about Obama last year entitled “The Amateur” — said White House insiders refer to Jarrett as “The Night Stalker” because she is the only presidential aide who frequently spends time in the family quarters and dines with the Obamas.</p>

http://youtu.be/6dxpiO2Chc0

EXCERPT:North Carolina has become the first state to cut off welfare benefits to poor residents in the wake of the partial federal government shutdown, ordering a halt to processing November applications until a deal is reached to end the federal standstill.

Many tea party Reps want big/immediate change in DC. But the Constitution doesn't allow for rapid/big change - unless you win elections.T Party ideas about smaller gov are good, but their ideas won't be achieved if they don't change tactics.Nominating candidates who allow Ds to keep Senate seats is bad tactic #1.Picking fights that can't be won while empowering Ds is bad tactic #2.Diverting attention away from the failures of Obamacare is bad tactic # 3.Overreach is bad tactic #4. Big gov wasn't build (sic) in a day. It will not be turned around overnight. This is a long term...

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said Tuesday he would vote for a “clean CR” to end the government shutdown. “I’ll vote for a clean CR," Issa told CNN’s “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer. “Republicans in the House have always been for a clean CR increase if it meant we began the serious negotiations on the kinds of reforms that need to happen…entitlements as a shortcut for it. That's what the deal is about right now.” Democrats have pressed Republicans to bring a continuing resolutio to the floor that funds the government and does nothing else for weeks. GOP leaders have...

How do you settle a rather sizeable bill for your milk delivery? If you are a cash-strapped superpower the answer is, apparently, to offer up a pair of fighter jets and a nuclear submarine as payment. The extraordinary offer was made by Russia to New Zealand in 1993, a new book reveals. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia was struggling to pay the $100m it owed New Zealand for a range of imported dairy products. In a meeting with Russian officials to thrash out payment terms, Jim Bolger, then New Zealand prime minister, was "absolutely stunned" to be...

Survey: More Americans Trust GOP to Manage Economy BY: Washington Free Beacon Staff October 15, 2013 3:25 pm Approval ratings for Republican leadership in Congress may be at an all-time low, but a new survey shows that more Americans trust the GOP with handling the economy. A Pew Research survey said that 44 percent of Americans trusted Republicans more with managing the economy while 37 percent said they favored Democratic control of the economy. GOP Runs Even on Economy, Managing Government: More people continue to blame Republicans than the Obama administration for the government shutdown, and the GOP is widely...

The media just can't help themselves it seems. The coverage over the Million Vet March in Washington , D.C. is insulting and demeaning to our military veterans. At the march, many veterans removed the barricades blocking access to the World War II Memorial and then dumped the barricades outside the White House. Conservatives such as Sarah Palin and Ted Cruz spoke to the crowd about the current government shutdown (a false moniker as only 17% of the government is actually shut down). Yet, the mainstream media continues to carry water for Obama and do everything possible to denigrate and cast...

After two weeks of a partial government shutdown, ask voters which party they want in charge of Congress, and - it’s a draw. Right now, Democrats control the U.S. Senate, and Republicans have the majority in the House of Representatives. Forty-six percent (46%) of Likely U.S. Voters would vote for the Democratic Party to be in charge of the entire Congress if their vote in next year’s elections was the determining factor. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just as many (45%) would vote for the Republican Party to be totally in control.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid blasted House Speaker John Boehner on Tuesday after leaks circulated of a plan that House Republicans might offer to end the spending and debt stalemate.“We felt blindsided by the news from the House,” Reid said on the Senate floor in a scathing attack on Boehner and his House GOP members. The Nevada Democrat said “extremist Republicans in the House of Representatives are attempting to torpedo" the negotiations which he and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell have been conducting in the past few days. Reid’s torrent of criticism came hours after he and McConnell both said...

My sources tell me House Republicans have postponed tonight’s vote on their plan to end the fiscal impasse. “The votes aren’t there,” says a leadership aide. “We’ve been amending the bill all day, but we’ve been unable to get people around this strategy.” This development leaves Speaker John Boehner with few options as Thursday’s debt-ceiling deadline nears, and it throws the action back toward the Senate, which has been working on a bipartisan package.

The House bill is a blatant attack on bipartisanship.” “Extremist Republicans in the House of Representatives are attempting to torpedo the Senate’s bipartisan progress with a bill that cannot pass the Senate.” Washington, D.C. – Nevada Senator Harry Reid spoke on the Senate floor today regarding House Republicans’ extreme proposal, which is dead on arrival in the Senate. Below are his remarks as prepared for delivery:The House Republican leadership’s plan to advance an extreme bill is nothing more than a blatant attack on bipartisanship.For the past several days, we have been engaged in productive, bipartisan negotiations here in the Senate. We have been working...

Apparently, it’s become fashionable to wonder whether fissures in the GOP might eventually grow into a schism, with tea party candidates mounting independent challenges to the GOP in the 2014 elections. Last night, David Frum went a step farther, writing that a tea party exodus might actually help Republicans by freeing them of Sarah Palin and Ted Cruz, allowing the GOP to slide back to the political center. It's a centrist fantasy. If Republicans think they have a pathway to victory without the tea party, they’re sorely mistaken. The tea party is not some small, fringe element of the Republican...

The Washington Monument syndrome is describe the tendency of government agencies in the United States to cut the most visible or appreciated services provided by the government when faced with budget cuts. And protect massive waste (since no one would miss the massive waste if it was cut). Such as closing National Parks and Monuments. What are government agencies hiding? The fact that agencies have large concentrations of non-essential personnel. Even Time.com recognizes that most of Federal government in non-essential. The interest payments on Federal debt is a small percentage of Federal current expenditures (11.5% at the end of Q2)....

While it sounds harsh, Harry Reid should never have allowed himself to be turned into an unreasonable senior who is stamping his feet like a child and saying I won't negotiate, etc, etc, He should have retired before the fight and left without all the soil this fight has brought... He has done his job for years, why not become the elder statesman....there is great satisfaction in such a roll.... He will be remembered as the guy who turned down deals good for the country, time and again...... And this is the way he has allowed himself to be seen.........

Heritage Action For America, an influential conservative group, on Tuesday urged House Republicans to vote against their leaders' latest bill to fund the government and raise U.S. borrowing authority. The private group said that the legislation, which was scheduled to be voted on late on Tuesday, fails to "stop Obamacare's massive new entitlements from taking root." The group is warning lawmakers that it will look at their positions on this legislation in considering whether to encourage candidates to run against them in Republican primary campaigns next year.

A day of political disarray Tuesday thrust the United States to within hours of a debt default deadline, sparking fears of deep damage to a fragile US recovery and the global economy. Just 29 hours before the US government begins to run short of money to pay its bills, there was no clear way out of a stalemate that has called the dollar's status as the world's reserve currency into question.If Congress fails to raise US borrowing authority before midnight Wednesday (0400 GMT Thursday) the US Treasury would begin to run out of money to meet all US obligations and...

----"Plan B" and fiscal cliff vote, redux. Having hammered out a deal to shoot back to the Senate tonight -- with most Republicans reportedly on board -- House GOP leadership has been forced to delay or cancel those votes after support among conservatives collapsed in the early evening hours. The rules committee meeting, which would have formally drawn up the bill and advanced it to the full house, has been postponed indefinitely. The reason is simple. They don't have the votes: What happened? The counter-offer's broad outline, which I've been following all day, seemed to be on track. Then the...

WASHINGTON (AP) — House GOP leaders unveiled their own plan Tuesday to counter an emerging Senate plan to reopen the government and forestall an economy-rattling default on U.S. obligations. The bill would repeal a new tax on medical devices and take away lawmakers' federal health care subsidies in addition to funding the government through Jan. 15 and giving Treasury the ability to borrow normally through Feb. 7. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said Republicans plan to pass the measure later Tuesday. It could prove tricky because Democrats probably won't support it. The House move comes after conservative lawmakers rebelled at the...

We’ve written extensively of late regarding the widening divide between fiscally conservative Republicans and the “neoconservative” fiscally liberal wing of the party – led by U.S. Senators John McCain, Lindsey Graham and John Cornyn. In fact according to the website Mississippi PEP, they’ve censured him. For those of you unfamiliar with this aging RINO, Cochran is one of several Southern “Republicans” who habitually caves to U.S. President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats (along with Graham, North Carolina’s Richard Burr, Tennessee’s Lamar Alexander and Georgia’s Johnny Isakson). “When any official continues to engage repeatedly in a course of conduct that violates...

House Republicans are in trouble. GOP leadership pulled their bill to open the government and lift the debt ceiling because they didn’t have the votes to squeeze it through the chamber. There will be no vote Tuesday, which means Washington will have one day to lift the debt ceiling before the U.S. government reaches its borrowing limit. It’s unclear what Speaker John Boehner’s team will do next. This could, once again, sideline the House and kick action over to negotiations between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). The U.S. government reaches its debt limit...

PORT ANGELES, WASH. — People who pulled into a ranger station at Olympic National Park over the weekend were given $125 tickets for "violation of closure" — entering the park during the government shutdown. Three of the cars were a group of international students from Peninsula College led by host Kelly Sanders, a teacher from Port Angeles, the Peninsula Daily News reported Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1bU12WZ ). They pulled off Highway 101 at Lake Crescent, got out and posed for a picture behind the Storm King Ranger Station when Ranger Jennifer Jackson pulled up and wrote all three drivers tickets. Each carries...

HONG KONG - Perhaps the only people who have managed to find a silver lining in the ongoing US government shutdown are Chinese intellectuals. Of course, Americans view the impasse as a sign of political dysfunction. But to many Chinese commentators, it also reveals certain strengths. Since the shutdown began nine days ago, Chinese social media have been full of wistful, almost admiring remarks about how the shutdown could only happen in a democratic country with a resilient economy and responsive political representation. "The government's closed - is this bad?" wrote Chen Zhiwu, a user on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo....

GATLINBURG (WATE) - Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam and North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory announced Tuesday an agreement was reached to reopen the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The park will open at midnight Wednesday, Oct. 16 and will remain open until 11:59 p.m. Sunday Oct. 20, unless the government shutdown is not ended during that time. The national park costs $60,100 to operate per day, according to the National Park Service. Sevier County has sent $300,500 to NPS to open the park for five days. The state will cover 80 percent of the cost in the form of a $240,400...

The government shutdown is denying members of the public a chance to weigh in on contentious planned regulations that would limit carbon emissions from existing power plants, Sen. Ed Markey charged Tuesday. The Massachusetts Democrat, who has long championed federal efforts to tackle climate change, blamed the Republican Party’s conservative wing for the shutdown, which prompted the cancellation of public hearing Tuesday on the Environmental Protection Agency proposal. “This Tea Party shutdown has shut out the public from even discussing climate change, and what our government can do about it,” Markey said during a conference call with reporters. Markey chided...

Mr. Speaker: The debt limit exists for a simple reason: to assure that public debt isn’t recklessly piled up without Congress periodically acknowledging it and addressing the spending patterns that are causing it. If a debt limit increase is supposed to be automatic, as the President suggests, there really is no purpose to it. A new dimension has now appeared in this discussion. Unlike every one of his predecessors, this President has vowed that unless Congress unconditionally raises the debt limit, the United States will default on its sovereign debt. But a failure to raise the debt limit would not...

It may be one of the most serious missteps of the federal government shutdown. A review by McClatchy finds that lawmakers, former intelligence officials and national security experts say they were shocked that the administration furloughed the bulk of federal workers at 16 intelligence agencies, many of them tasked with the most important job in the government: safeguarding lives. Some accuse Obama administration officials of deciding whom to send home based on politics, seeking to dramatize the impact of the shutdown as part of a plan to blame Republicans. But others say the process was surprisingly haphazard – a moving...