the healthcare motto of the US need not be ONLY cheap ammunition and semiautomatic weapons for all.
Firearms are safe, effective and guaranteed effective healthcare but I prefer BCG which is available all over the world and is safe, cheap and effective, all the things that Obama and the republicans and democrats do not want
House Republicans Hunt for Plan in Budget Battle
As Shutdown Deadline Nears, Senate Strips Health-Law Defunding Pushed by Conservatives
more in Politics & Policy
»
The Democratic-led Senate approved legislation Friday to fund federal agencies for the first six weeks of the fiscal year and to restore money for the health law. The GOP-led House last week passed a bill to avert a shutdown that also defunded the law, as demanded by the chamber's conservatives.
AP
With three days to go before
the federal government is due to run out of money, Senate Democratic
leaders hold a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday.
House leaders face a difficult situation. Mr. Boehner doesn't want to alienate the dozens of lawmakers who won't back any spending plan that doesn't in some way limit the reach of the health law.
At the same time, Senate Democrats say they will reject any measure that alters the health law.
Underscoring the dilemma, a group of 62 conservative GOP lawmakers emerged with their own demand late Friday: delay the health-care law for one year as part of the spending bill. The proposal is sure to be discussed during a rare Saturday meeting of House GOP lawmakers called by Mr. Boehner to figure out a way forward.
The standoff both between the two major parties and within the GOP brings the federal government to the brink of a shutdown with little obvious room for resolution. Unlike in previous showdowns, there have been no major negotiations among congressional leaders or with the White House, which is taking an increasingly combative tone.
Associated Press
House Speaker John Boehner, at the Capitol on Friday, doesn't want to alienate conservative lawmakers.
Rep. Matt Salmon (R., Ariz.) said that delaying the health law for a year made sense, given that major elements of the law have been delayed, such as a provision imposing penalties on large employers who fail to provide insurance for their workers.
"We think that's fair and reasonable. Close to half of Obamacare has already been delayed," Mr. Salmon said.
Mr. Salmon also said that House lawmakers had met with tea party-aligned Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah, both Republicans, on Thursday night to discuss the House's next steps, and agreed to hold out for a one-year delay of the health law. Some 15 House conservatives met with the two senators at a townhouse on Capitol Hill, according to a Republican lawmaker.
The strategy keeps House Republicans on a collision course with Senate Democrats. "We are going to accept nothing as it relates to Obamacare,'' Mr. Reid said after the Senate approved its spending plan.
Some also talked of limiting contributions the federal government would make to lawmakers, their staff and certain White House officials to offset the cost of their premiums under the health law.
"It does seem like we're all over the place," Rep. Tom Rooney (R., Fla.) said on Friday.
So far, financial markets have largely shrugged off the budget standoff. But there are signs of growing concern, especially if there is no agreement to raise the ceiling on U.S. government borrowing by mid-October.
In the derivatives market, the cost to insure for a year against a default by the U.S. government has risen sixfold in the past week, and the price of one-month Treasury debt has fallen. But the benchmark 10-year Treasury note has rallied, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is just 2.7% below its record close. Still, if history is any guide, markets may become more tumultuous as the debt-ceiling deadline nears.
President Barack Obama in past budget and debt negotiations with Republicans has been accused by fellow Democrats of giving ground too easily. He has adopted a more confrontational style in the current budget battle, including comments on Friday in which he complained of "extremists'' and "shenanigans'' in Congress.
Speaking from the White House, Mr. Obama said he wouldn't agree to policy provisions that Republicans plan to attach to budget and debt-related bills, saying new demands would arise in the future with every routine fiscal deadline.
Seib & Wessel: Clock Ticks on Government Shutdown
6:21
WSJ’s Damian Paletta says the lack of movement
toward a budget deal is like a formulaic Hollywood thriller – the clock
always ticks down to one second as viewers wonder if Republicans and
Democrats will cut the wire in time.
Responding to Mr. Obama, Brendan Buck, a spokesman for Mr. Boehner, said: "The House will take action that reflects the fundamental fact that Americans don't want a government shutdown, and they don't want the train wreck that is Obamacare.''
If no agreement is reached by midnight Monday, federal agencies will have to stop providing many services and furlough many employees. Services and agency functions deemed essential would continue.
If House lawmakers alter the Senate's spending bill, the measure will return to the Senate, where legislation can take days to navigate over procedural hurdles.
That is stoking anxiety among some Republicans, who worry that their party will take the greater share of public anger if the government shuts down.
"I do believe Republicans will be blamed," said Rep. Charles Boustany (R., La.). Some House Republicans are more concerned about the prospect of a shutdown than others, he said. "There are some, I think, who would relish a shutdown. I think that's unfortunate," he said.
The stopgap spending bill passed the Senate in a 54-44 vote Friday, along strict party lines. Earlier in the day, it cleared a procedural hurdle, 79-19, with 25 Republicans joining the Democratic caucus to end debate on the bill.
Friday's Senate votes capped a week of procedural theatrics in the Senate, where a faction of tea party-backed lawmakers, led by Mr. Cruz, objected to speeding up some of the chamber's proceedings, to the irritation of veteran lawmakers in both parties. Mr. Cruz and his allies said their delaying tactics were intended to call attention to problems with the health law and to try to eliminate money for it.
—Patrick O'Connor
contributed to this article. Write to Kristina Peterson at kristina.peterson@dowjones.com and Janet Hook at janet.hook@wsj.com
No comments:
Post a Comment