There’s a looming shutdown threat after all

[alp227]

We knew going into 2011 that there would be three procedural choke points, at which the threat of a government shutdown was quite real. The first was in early April, when funding for the current fiscal year nearly forced a shutdown. The second was the debt-ceiling vote, which was resolved about six weeks ago.

And then there’s the third one, which is coming right up.

Congress only has a few weeks to approve new appropriations bills before October 1 and the end of the fiscal year. As of mid-August, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said there was nothing to worry about. He even told his caucus in writing that the debt-ceiling agreement “set a level of spending that is a real cut from the current year level,” and this existing budget framework (a) would avoid a shutdown, and (b) allow Republicans to “enact into law full-year appropriations bills at this new lower level.”

The only thing that could go wrong would be if GOP officials push for cuts beyond the agreed upon levels, and renege on a deal they just struck.

full: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_09/theres_a_looming_shutdown_thre032160.php

[villager]

1. well, since they know Obama will cave, what's to dissuade them?

:shrug:

[jaxx]

2. Is that what you want?

For the pubs to move the goalposts so that the debt ceiling becomes a threat again? I just don't get the hatred.

[villager]

4. Obama to cave? No -- it's never what I wanted. Sadly, it's pretty much all I've gotten

n/t

[Poll_Blind]

5. LOL- nice try! Why do they hate Obama, right?

Right?

Come on, say it out loud. "Why do you hate Obama so much?!"

PB

[Proud Liberal Dem]

3. Oh boy

Here we go again. :eyes:

[sofa king]

6. I couldn't be happier.

The Republicans aren't just stupid and evil, they are also terrible legislators who have no idea how much of the store they gave away during their last manufactured crisis.

This time, particularly when it comes to national security-related funding, the President can simply wait for the Republicans in Congress to do what they always do--fuck things up--and then use the structure of his prior "compromise" to fund FEMA and everything else at the level he wishes it to be.

Congress, in turn, can now register only a "vote of disapproval," which the President will then veto, and since a 2/3 Republican majority in Congress does not exist and never again will, they cannot override the veto. The Republicans in Congress are now powerless to create a crisis that causes any real damage, except to themselves.

I want the Republicans to realize that their legislators have abrogated their authority and now basically serve the whims of this President as a result of their prior, totally irresponsible behavior. The President seems to be content to let them play tempest in a teapot, though, so he may not take his other hand from behind his back, and choose instead throttle them with the one they can see.