First the House passed a spending bill that would avert a September 30 government shutdown, and extending government funding to November 15, however with an Obamacare defunding provision. Naturally, the Senate struck it down, and would propose a clean funding bill ex-any Obamacare defunding provisions, with a funding provision for an additional month. Moments ago, Boehner made it clear that the House is unlikely to accept a clean spending bill from the Senate, increasing the chances of a government shutdown after Sept. 30. "I don’t see that happening," Boehner told reporters at a Capitol press conference. So back to square zero, with Congress nowhere closer to a compromise, a continuing resolution just as unlikely as it was before the latest episode of grandstanding began, and five days left until government shuts itself down.
More from The Hill [5]:
The Senate is expected to strip out the House GOP’s provision defunding ObamaCare, but it may not pass the bill until Saturday, giving the House little time to act before a shutdown. Republican leaders broadly want to shift the fiscal battle to the debt ceiling, but they may try one more round of legislative ping-pong on the spending bill to satisfy the demands of conservatives and try to extract a modest concession from Democrats.
Boehner refused to say what the House might try to attach to the spending bill. He also did not address the possibility that the House would move a short, one-week continuing resolution to buy more time for the two chambers to negotiate a longer compromise.
“I’ve made it clear now for months and months and months that we have no interest in seeing the government shut down, but we’ve got to address the spending problems that we have in this town,” Boehner said. “So there will be options available to us. There is not going to be any speculation on what we are going to do or not do until the Senate passes their bill.”
Is this the reason why the market hiccuped just as it was spiking on hopes that all shall be well again? It is unclear, but we find it curious: after all, long gone is any pretense that Congress is in charge - after all, all that is needed is for Schumer to tell Janet Yellen to "get to work Mr (sic) Chairman" and all concerns will be promptly wiped away as usual.