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Shut Down Round Up: The Latest In Dysfunctional Government News

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 10/04/2013 16:50 -0400

It may "not be some damn game", but this sure is some damn summary of all the latest news and developments. Via Bloomberg:

House Democrats will attempt to use discharge petition to force House to vote on clean stopgap spending bill; 17 House Republicans would need to back the measure and 20 House Republicans have said they’d vote for a clean bill
House in session tomorrow 10am
White House supports House bill to retroactively pay govt staff, says Obama would veto House piecemeal spending bills
House Speaker John Boehner says he won’t offer a clean debt limit bill, says shutdown "isn’t some damn game"
Tea Party-backed Rep. Dennis Ross, R-Fla., says he’s in favor of spending deal that doesn’t include changes to Obamacare

More from Reuters:

House Republicans held their ground on Friday in a standoff with President Barack Obama over the U.S. government shutdown, accusing him of intransigence and not caring about the impact on the American people as the crisis dragged into a fourth day.

As Republicans and Democrats remained deadlocked over the shutdown, which was triggered by a dispute over the president's healthcare reforms, the two sides also dug in over a measure to raise the nation's borrowing authority. It must be approved by Congress by October 17 to avoid a government default.

House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner tried to squelch reports that he would ease the way to a debt ceiling increase, stressing that Republicans would continue to insist on budget cuts as a condition of raising the borrowing authority.

"This isn't some damn game," said an exasperated Boehner, responding to a Wall Street Journal article that quoted an unnamed White House official saying Democrats were "winning" the shutdown battle.

Obama reiterated that he was willing to negotiate with Republicans, but said, "We can't do it with a gun held to the head of the American people...."

"There's no winning when families don't have certainty over whether they're going to get paid or not," Obama told reporters when he paid a visit to a downtown Washington lunch spot that was offering a discount to furloughed workers.

The shutdown began October 1 when the Republican House of Representatives refused to approve a bill funding the government unless it included provisions designed to delay or defund Obama's healthcare reforms, which are now being implemented.

The reason for the late ramp: the possibility of a political outmanoeuvering of the republicans:

Democrats in the House were considering whether they could use a maneuver that would force a vote on legislation to reopen the government immediately, according to a House aide who asked not to be identified.

The aide did not provide details. The rarely used and time-consuming "discharge petition" maneuver normally dislodges a bill from a committee and sends it to the House floor if 218 lawmakers sign the petition in the 435-member chamber.

White House Spokesman Jay Carney said it was "utterly false" to suggest Obama did not want a speedy end to the shutdown. "We want this to end now. Period," he said.

The melodrama continues tomorrow: same time, same place.

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Fri, 10/04/2013 - 16:53 | 4023757 NotApplicable

I got yer "discharge petition" right here, yaknowwhatimean?

Fri, 10/04/2013 - 16:57 | 4023771 kaiserhoff

Let Barry have his Dumboma Care,

and let his sorry ass sink like a rock with it.

Fri, 10/04/2013 - 16:59 | 4023784 McMolotov

"Barry" is insulting. Call him by his full name:

President Barack Mountain Dew Hussein Herbert Walker Bush Camachobama

Fri, 10/04/2013 - 17:02 | 4023792 Stackers

Ramming Speed !!!

Fri, 10/04/2013 - 17:25 | 4023830 Skateboarder

At some point they will be forced to borrow to employ (they already are, on the mil/defense side). Office folk next, or the whole thing crumbles. What debt ceiling.

Fri, 10/04/2013 - 18:38 | 4024090 The Alarmist

Gee, I'm old enough to remember when they had things like Defense Appropriation Bills and Transportation Appropriation Bills ... you know, actual purpose-oriented legislation that originated in the House and actually kind of gave a nod in the direction of doing the people's business in the open, the way the Founders thought of it. What the hell were we thinking back in those pre-historic days? You know, the ones before we made history with the current regime.

Fri, 10/04/2013 - 19:01 | 4024152 max2205

Give back pay! Are you fucking shitting me!

Fri, 10/04/2013 - 19:10 | 4024176 Manthong

I pledge to be a part, both financially and actively to assure that any Rhino who backs a discharge petition not see another term. Their names and deed need to be publicized incessantly.. and as Carthage must be destroyed, so should their tenure.

Sat, 10/05/2013 - 13:43 | 4025841 FEDbuster

Retroactive pay bill passes House 409-0. So now 800,000 .gov workers are on a paid vacation. Fuck me!!!

Fri, 10/04/2013 - 19:56 | 4024323 andrewp111

Reid is not letting any of these to pass.

Fri, 10/04/2013 - 17:33 | 4023859 AlaricBalth

Those fools at the House of Reps Committee on Rules deleted the page referencing Discharge Petitions.

http://rules.house.gov/pop/discharge_pet.htm

However, thanks to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, i was able to find it.

http://web.archive.org/web/20070626192236/http://www.rules.house.gov/pop/discharge_pet.htm

After a bill has been introduced and referred to committee for thirty legislative days or more, any Member may file a motion (under clause 2 ofrule XV) with the Clerk of the House to discharge the committee from further consideration of the bill. A member may also file a motion to discharge the Rules Committee of a special rule, pending before that committee for at least seven legislative days, providing for the consideration of that bill.

Discharge petitions may cover only a single introduced measure, not multiple bills. If the Member is successful in convincing a majority of the total membership of the House (218 Members) to sign a discharge petition, the motion to discharge is placed on the Calendar of Motions to Discharge Committees and becomes eligible for consideration on the second or fourth Monday of the month after a seven legislative day layover (except during the last six days of any session when the layover is waived). The discharge motion is debatable for 20 minutes, one-half of the time for the proponents and one-half of the time for the opponents. If the motion to discharge a bill is adopted, it is then in order to move that the House immediately consider the bill itself; if the motion to discharge a rule is adopted, the House turns immediately to consideration of the rule.

Looks like they must file a petition by Monday the 14th, only 3 days before the alleged debt limit breach. If not, they must wait until October 28 according to the rules.

Seems like an idle threat.

Fri, 10/04/2013 - 17:43 | 4023922 chubbar

One of you parlimentary rules guys jump in and correct this but isn't the senate required to vote yes or no on any CR bills passed by the house? They can't just send the bill back without voting can they? What's the point of the procedure if one guy up in the senate can completely thwart a bill originating in the house? I know they can send it back to the house as many times as they want but I always thought it required a vote. Anyone out in ZH land know the real rules on this or is this correct but the senate leader just does what he wants?

Fri, 10/04/2013 - 17:55 | 4023969 odatruf

If the Senate already passed a similar bill this session, then they don't need to again vote for it. By similar, the bills have to be almost identical. Not word for word, but their effect has to be the same.

In that case, the bill then can be directly enrolled without further votes, which means sent to the President. If the bills differ enough (as decided by the Clerk of the House), then the House and Senate must conference the bill, meaning work out the differences. Then, each body votes on appointing conferees (people to negotiate with the other side).

Fri, 10/04/2013 - 17:46 | 4023932 odatruf

The Post (of course) got a lot wrong about the process. If I were Boehner, I'd let them go this route and not oppose it at all. Get the Lankford bill to move and let the GOP side know that they can vote how they want on it, but that they must hold the line against changing the bill in the Rules Committee to remove the 1% across the board cut after 120 days and then another 1% every 90. In a year, we'd have cut another 2.7% from spending. After 2 years, it would be 6.75% and so on. All the while, there wouldn't be annual increases either.

Fri, 10/04/2013 - 18:07 | 4024008 CrashisOptimistic

Exactly. Let them use that bill and watch the spending decline 1% per quarter. The Democrats would go insane, because they will have voted for it.

Any attempt to replace the bill, oppose.

Boehner should approve of this. The 1% cut per quarter trumps Obamacare.

Fri, 10/04/2013 - 18:41 | 4024103 andrewp111

Yes. let the Democraps pass the Lankford bill unchanged. Eventually, the GOP will have leverage. If the Demoturds want spending increases, they have to do something the GOP wants - like stop the individual mandate. Otherwise, it is just a slow, grinding reduction in funding quarter after quarter, year after year.

Fri, 10/04/2013 - 17:24 | 4023797 macholatte

Tell me those guys "changed their minds" because they held out for tens of millions in bribes or they got a "phone call" from the NSA but don't tell me they did it "for the good of the party" or "humanitarian" reasons or some other bullshit. Don't tell me they really are spineless, neutered, stingerless jelly fish.

Fri, 10/04/2013 - 17:06 | 4023799 localsavage

Good thing for Barry that the press to too in on it to point out that 80% of government employees are non-essential. The whole Federal government is a make work program these days.

Fri, 10/04/2013 - 17:25 | 4023837 Tall Tom

Government Employees thank you for thier PAID VACATION.

From the article, "White House supports House bill to retroactively pay govt staff, says Obama would veto House piecemeal spending bills"

Fri, 10/04/2013 - 17:02 | 4023789 Rainman

OblameoScare will bring this whole bitch down a lot faster. I like it personally.

Fri, 10/04/2013 - 18:00 | 4023988 kaiserhoff

Yeah, that was my point above.

The youngins who have actually looked at this thing have recoiled in horror.

May wake up a lot of sheeple.

Sat, 10/05/2013 - 10:00 | 4025408 Bendromeda Strain

Doesn't matter since the public option and overall failure were baked in the cake to get to Single Payer, the Left's unholy grail.

Fri, 10/04/2013 - 17:07 | 4023803 azzhatter

Funny how big union boy Obama is so against using the only tactic the opposition has- shutdown (same as strike). When it suits him it's fine. He ready to negotiate after he get's his way. What a cocksucker. I say shut it down permanently- Fuck You Barry and all the rest of DC

Fri, 10/04/2013 - 16:54 | 4023764 l1b3rty

washington is winning the war on...dun dun dun...tomorrow!

http://goldsilverbitcoin.com

Fri, 10/04/2013 - 16:55 | 4023768 Gringo Viejo

It's a one party system and a one act play baby.

Fri, 10/04/2013 - 16:57 | 4023769 rtalcott

White House supports House bill to retroactively pay govt staff

wtf? that's bullsh*t...do gubbermint workers have lay-off benefits....full back pay?

Fri, 10/04/2013 - 17:01 | 4023779 Dr. No

I couldnt beleive it when I read that. I tell you what, just stay home. If we have to pay you , best you stay home and not cause headaches for me.

They are mocking us now.

Fri, 10/04/2013 - 17:02 | 4023788 rtalcott

I've had to lay people off on no notice more than once and had it happen to me...it's unemployment as your only option...but I guess if you are a gubbermint worker it's different....there needs to be consequences for behaviors..don't fund the government people don't work...they don't get paid...just like the private sector.

Fri, 10/04/2013 - 17:34 | 4023874 Chupacabra-322

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news Ladies & Gentlemen but we're officially DONE as a Republic. We've artificially manufactured fear of ourselves. The Fascist State has successfully indoctrinated, PsyOp'd & Gas Lighted the masses.

Fri, 10/04/2013 - 17:13 | 4023816 WallowaMountainMan

they've done that before....i see it as just more paid vacation.

Fri, 10/04/2013 - 17:07 | 4023778 buzzsaw99

4 Boehner (You Can't Win):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPVpMxVn6mk

You can't win, you can't break even
And you can't get out of the game
People keep sayin' things are gonna change
But they look to us like, you're stayin' the same

You can't win, get over your head
And you only have yourself to blame...

Fri, 10/04/2013 - 17:01 | 4023783 Chupacabra-322

Dear Criminal CONgress,

You did not receive a positive bump in the opinion polls with the grandstanding around manufactured fear & fase narratives surrounding the Murder of defenseless mother.

The American People despise all of now more than ever. You are all Criminal, sick, Meglomanics.

Fri, 10/04/2013 - 17:03 | 4023786 CitizenPete

We will not negotiate with a Drone hanging over the American people.

If you pay any federal income taxes then YOUR to blame. It's the duty of any American imprisoned (Tax slave) to escape anyway they can.

Fri, 10/04/2013 - 17:04 | 4023791 ebworthen

Tea-Party backed Rep. Dennis Ross, R.-Florida:

Either got a bunch of emails and phone calls from Seniors who decided they DO want Obamacare despite being Tea-Party'ers.

He got a large suitcase of non-sequential unmarked Benjamin Franklin's from the AARP.

Fri, 10/04/2013 - 17:13 | 4023812 Chupacabra-322

The Tea Party was COINTELPRO'd long ago. These So-called Agent Smiths are the deceptors which will be deceiving millions in 2014 as fake third party or Libertarian view supporting Globalists.

Canadian bornTed Cruz & his Fidel Castro loving father to start with Zionist, AIPAC loving Rubio to end with.

Fri, 10/04/2013 - 17:07 | 4023802 the iD

and now a self immolation in DC supposedly.

Fri, 10/04/2013 - 17:07 | 4023805 divide_by_zero

Wouldn't rely on Bloomberg or Wapo for factual news, probably a disinformation plant.

Fri, 10/04/2013 - 17:09 | 4023808 Blano

Fire up your lamps fellow spelunkers....we are entering the cave.

Fri, 10/04/2013 - 17:09 | 4023809 Goldilocks

Fiscal Year 2013 Budget
http://www.fema.gov/fiscal-year-2013-budget

Strategic Plans
http://www.fema.gov/strategic-plans

Fri, 10/04/2013 - 17:11 | 4023813 robertocarlos

So it should be over by late Saturday?

Fri, 10/04/2013 - 17:24 | 4023820 JR

We need an information source that does not cherry pick the Democrat talking points. Instead we need neutral (not Bloomberg and Reuters) information on what’s going on.

Listen, Americans. The country is slipping away from us. First, slowly, and then more quickly; and now, perhaps in the fastest slide in history. ObamaCare is government control, first for health care, and then for every single human activity - monitored by the NSA, enforced by the IRS, prosecuted by a leftist court system, sold as lies by the media, and financed by fiat dollars based on money stolen from the taxpayers.

It's serfdom; it's slavery.

Fri, 10/04/2013 - 17:14 | 4023821 dick cheneys ghost

shut down the EMPIRE damn it..........kill the dollar and free the American people form this debt based fiat money scam

~~~~

Fri, 10/04/2013 - 17:29 | 4023841 Spastica Rex

This is getting boring.

Can we get some new wrestlers, or some chicks with big boobs?

Fri, 10/04/2013 - 17:37 | 4023896 bigkahuna

The house just needs to strip out all exemptions, put the business mandate back in, and send that fucking hound up to it's master. If you want to see real shit start flying right now, let that become law.

Fri, 10/04/2013 - 17:53 | 4023963 Meat Hammer

I agree. No exceptions for anyone. Unleash that puppy.

Sat, 10/05/2013 - 03:06 | 4025155 Freddie

....send that fucking hound up to it's master.

LOL! Yes. Agreed.

If you want to see real shit start flying right now, let that become law.

Yup. Great post. What they did is illegal. You cannot pass a law then just decide who gets exempt after the fact.

The Senate, I allocated money for this and Rubio's amnesty which they cannot do as well. Total BS and criminality.

Fri, 10/04/2013 - 18:00 | 4023986 Sid James

Was he shot before or after he lit the match?

Fri, 10/04/2013 - 18:11 | 4024014 JR

Here are companies that will make money from ObamaCare.

Profit Confidential lists the beneficiaries of ObamaCare for investors looking for new ways to profit off the backs of the American people (where else would the money come from?).

So if you’re looking for a buying opportunity in a variety of healthcare companies, should ObamaCare be "funded," then take a look at the Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSEArca/XLV), which includes key healthcare companies that could rally from Obamacare. The top 10 holdings (as of August 30, 2013) in the Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund, says P.C., are as follows:

Johnson & Johnson; Pfitzer Inc., Merck & Co., Inc.; Gilead Sciences, Inc.; Amgen Inc; UnitedHealth Group Incorporated; Bristol-Myers Squibb Company; AbbVie Inc.; Celgene Corporation;and Express Scripts Holding Company.

As Profit Confidential points out on Market Oracle, “While Obamacare may seem complicated at first, making money from it is not.”

So get in there, money grubbers; get your share of America’s white middle class hide as their health care premiums go up as their deductibles double and help Obama’s constituency grab the means of production for its subsidized health "care" in the new Socialist State of America.

ZH is an investing site, ain’t it?

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article42544.html

Fri, 10/04/2013 - 18:13 | 4024031 AU5K

I haven't noticed the government shutdown at all. Hasn't impacted me in the slightest. What do they all do anyways...

Fri, 10/04/2013 - 18:41 | 4024102 JR

BREITBART: A novice Republican running in a rural state has shattered fundraising records campaigning as the "anti-Obamacare candidate." In his first race for public office, Ben Sasse has raised nearly $750,000 in just eight weeks of the first quarter of his nascent candidacy, according to records being filed with the Federal Election Commission.

The massive haul highlights how lucrative campaigning against Obamacare can be for Republicans. It also underscores how deeply motivated conservative voters are to see that the sprawling healthcare law be killed.

A college president in his hometown of Fremont, Nebraska, Sasse is a newcomer to politics, but he has spent much of the past decade working on healthcare issues. As a top advisor to President Bush's Health Secretary, Sasse worked to cut red tape and pushed market-based solutions over government mandates. Sasse also spent several years traveling the country giving speeches and advising companies about the dangers of Obamacare and how it will hike costs, constrict innovation, and ultimately provide terrible health care.

"I am the anti-Obamacare candidate," Sasse said cheerfully. "Not only have I read the 2,300-page bill, I have actually spent years studying it and I understand just how devastating this will be to American businesses, families and taxpayers."

It was Sasse's health care expertise and his outspoken opposition to Obamacare that inspired former Nebraska GOP chairman Mark Fahleson to draft Sasse to run for the open seat left by Sen. Mike Johann's retirement.

"2014 and probably 2016 will be about one thing more than anything else," Fahleson said. "It will be about Obamacare and the false promises and reckless entitlement spending that are set to destroy this country. And I don't know anybody who knows more about it and is more honest about the problems of Obamacare than Ben."

Sasse's campaign comes just as the crusade against Obamacare has hit a fevered pitch in Washington.

"Ted Cruz has finally shown the Republican establishment in Washington just how fed up voters are with the federal government and the notion that bureaucrats know what is best for patients," said one political consultant who advised the Cruz campaign. "That's why a guy knowledgeable about healthcare like Ben Sasse being in the Senate would be the most destructive thing to ever hit Obamacare."

Sasse's cash haul of nearly $750,000 from individual donors in his first quarter breaks Nebraska's previous record of $526,000 from individual donors, set in 2007 by Johanns while he was sitting U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.

Shane Osborn, former state treasurer who has been running for the senate seat for six months, raised just $234,000 in his first quarter, according to FEC records.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/09/30/ben-sasse-nebraska-obamacare

Sat, 10/05/2013 - 03:14 | 4025163 Freddie

This sounded good until I saw the guy is a college president. Unless it is a private college that takes no govt money then he may be more of the same. Colleges are among the biggest whores at the Federal Govt feeding trough. The money wasted on phony research and other crap is mind boggling plus there is endless other waste, fraud and fleecing of the taxpayer.

Sat, 10/05/2013 - 11:01 | 4025485 JR

You make a point. Here’s the sad story of an adjunct professor whose contract was not renewed after 25 years of teaching French at Duquesne University where she earned about $10,000 a year as a part-time professor with no health insurance – with no retirement pension.

“Vojtko died Sept. 1 after a heart attack at the age of 83, destitute from high medical bills for cancer treatment and nearly homeless…

These nonunionized itinerant teachers, says the article, “make up a whopping 75 percent of college instructors, with their average pay between $20,000 and $25,000 annually.”

At the same time their unionized counterparts bask in the campus sun while they contemplate their navels, reaping what others sow. Private universities this year are paying full professors an average of $139,620 a year; public colleges are paying an average of $110,143 while “ripping off their non-unionized adjunct professors.”

http://www.npr.org/2013/09/22/224946206/adjunct-professor-dies-destitute-then-sparks-debate

Fri, 10/04/2013 - 20:01 | 4024333 goldenbuddha454

John Boehner is incredibly naive if he thinks this isn't a game. What planet is he living on? That's all the democrats do is play games with republicans and get paid to do it. Why the hell is John Boehner 3rd in line to the presidency if he can't even understand that this is all just a huge game? If you don't know what the rules of the game are then how can you even compete? God help us all!

Fri, 10/04/2013 - 22:37 | 4024770 Ropingdown