by Adam F. Hutton

Government Shutdown Still Unlikely Even as Deadlines Loom in Congress

budget

In a bid to avoid a possible government shutdown, the U.S. Senate is expected to vote today on a budget bill that leaves funding in place for the nation’s new healthcare law.

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted on a budget last week that stripped funding from the program, which establishes insurance exchanges that allow individuals to purchase group health plans without going through their employer or union. Those exchanges are set to open Tuesday, the first day of the 2014 Fiscal Year. Individuals will have until March of 2014, to get health insurance either on their own, through their employer or union, or from one of the marketplaces set up by the law — or pay a fine.

The Senate, which is dominated by Democrats, won’t pass a budget without it. And of course, President Barack Obama isn’t going to sign a bill that guts funding for his signature health care law, commonly referred to as “Obamacare.”

Congressional Republicans are bluffing. They’ve taken the economy hostage and they’re threatening to shoot it in the head unless Democrats agree to defund The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act — the bulk of which is set to roll out Tuesday, at the start of the new fiscal year.

On the one hand, the Tea Party wing of the GOP wants us to believe that their opposition to “Obamacare” is so strong that they’re willing to pull the trigger — they’ll let the government shutdown for lack of a budget and they’ll wreck the economy further by not raising the debt ceiling, causing the government to default on debts Congress has already racked up. Never mind that neither one of those disastrous decisions would have the desired effect of putting a stop to the new healthcare law.

That’s their stated goal. And they know shutting down the government and defaulting on its debts won’t get them any closer to it.

This week, the futility of Tea Party resistance to Obamacare was symbolized by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) On Tuesday, Cruz took the floor for a sort of filibuster against the law.

He can’t technically claim that title for his opposition — even though it lasted more than 21-hours — because the law passed in 2010 before Cruz was even a Senator and his long-winded speech was ended at noon on Wednesday by Senate rules. But most importantly, Cruz’ diatribe on Duck Dynasty, Dr. Seuss and Darth Vader wasn’t really a filibuster because when it came down to it, he joined all 99 other Senators by voting to move ahead with debate on a bill that left funding for Obamacare intact.

Like all hostage takers, Cruz and his ilk are desperate and craven. Neither he nor his Tea Party bretheren were in Congress when the Affordable Care Act was passed, but that won’t keep them from trying to put the kibosh on it any way they can dream of.

Congress Dome

Members of Congress who would kill Obamacare won’t stop short of gumming up the budget process and causing a government shutdown if a bill doesn’t pass by Monday at midnight. And if that doesn’t do it, they’ll stand in the way of raising the debt ceiling, causing the government to stop paying its bills.

Or so they would have us believe. But like I said, they’re bluffing. And now the White House is calling that bluff. All along, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), has said nobody in his party wants the government to shut down. He’s not willing to to drive the country off the fiscal cliff, he says, but Boehner’s talk doesn’t match up with what members of his party in both houses of Congress are saying and doing. They’ll be in Washington all weekend “negotiating” a budget deal. But so far, President Obama has rejected all of their alternatives, insisting on a “clean budget bill” that leaves funding for Obamacare intact.

Boehner says the House won’t go for that. He floated the idea of a continuing resolution that would delay implementation of the Affordable Care Act and allow the government to continue operations. Obama rejected it. The President has also said that he won’t negotiate on raising the debt ceiling, which needs to be done by mid-October to ensure the government can continue to pay its bills.

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