ABC News: Obama Blasts Government-Shutdown Threat

[jwoodie]

I can't decide whether our Comedian in Chief is borrowing his lines from Blazing Saddles ("One more step...") or Laugh-In ("The Devil made me do it."). Who else is threatening to "shut down the government?"

 

[waltky]

Here we go again...

Obama, GOP in showdown over government shutdown
September 15, 2013 WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Sunday vowed anew to reject any fiscal negotiations with congressional Republicans that include the federal debt ceiling, setting up a showdown over the debt limit that the U.S. government is expected to reach in a month.

In a 30-minute interview with ABC’s “This Week” host George Stephanopoulos, Obama outlined several topics he said he would discuss with Republicans, including the federal budget, the forced budget cuts known as sequestration, tax initiatives, entitlements and even modifications to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly called “Obamacare.” “What I haven’t been willing to negotiate on, and what I will not negotiate on, is the debt ceiling,” Obama said.

Pressed on whether he is reversing himself after negotiating on the issue in the past, Obama said he has never done so. “What’s never happened in the past is the notion that in exchange for fulfilling the full faith and credit of the United States, we are wiping away major legislation like the health care bill. We’ve never had a situation in which a party said, ‘Unless we get our way 100 percent, then we’re going to let the United States default,’ ” Obama said. “The problem we have is a faction of the Republican Party, particularly in the House of Representatives, views ‘compromise’ as a dirty word, and anything that is even remotely associated with me, they’re going to oppose. My argument to them is real simple: ‘That’s not why the people sent you here.’ ”

Call it the shutdown showdown. When the fiscal year ends Sept. 30, so too does funding for federal government programs and services. Roughly two weeks later, the federal government will once again bump up against its debt ceiling, forcing Congress into a vote to raise it. However, a small but determined group of Republicans in the House and Senate are threatening to withhold funding for the government — or deny a debt ceiling increase — unless the health care law is defunded or somehow dismantled.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act passed Congress in late 2009 without a single Republican vote — and has been a favorite target of the GOP ever since. The House has held some 40 different votes to repeal it, and in the Senate similar efforts have reached into the dozens. The top Republican on the Senate Health Committee, Lamar Alexander, issued a statement last week that proudly noted he has voted to oppose or repeal the law more than 90 times.

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[waltky]

But if the gubmint shuts down, den we won't be able to whup up on Assad...

Pentagon begins 'prudent' planning for possible shutdown
September 19, 2013 WASHINGTON — With less than two weeks to go before a new fiscal year begins and no measure in place to fund federal government operations, the Pentagon says it has begun dusting off and updating plans for navigating a government shutdown.

The Office of Management and Budget earlier this week told federal agencies to begin preparing to shutter most operations, with only “excepted” activities to continue if funding lapses. In the past, the Pentagon has said those are ones essential to maintain the safety of life and property.

Department of Defense officials said Thursday it was too early to offer details of how a departmental shutdown might play out next month, but acknowledged the Pentagon has faced the issue many times in recent years as a deadlocked Congress and President Barack Obama have battled over contentious political issues ranging from national debt to — this week — Obama’s health-care law. House Republicans have demanded funding be stripped for parts of the law as a condition for passing a measure to fund the government. “It’s prudent management for us to update our plans,” said Cmdr. Bill Urban, a spokesman for the Defense Department Comptroller’s office. “We’re certainly using past plans as a basis for this potential shutdown.

The nearest the Pentagon has come in recent years to a shutdown was in April 2011, when Congressional leaders reached a deal on funding the government about an hour before the deadline. As the clock ticked down, the Pentagon issued orders to local commanders to quickly determine which civilian employees were necessary to keep on the job for the protection of life and property, with officials estimating half the civilian workforce would be sent home without pay, while the rest would continue to work for delayed pay.

Servicemembers, meanwhile, were told they would stay on the job, serving a country that temporarily would not be paying them. But officials said troops and civilians alike would eventually receive all back pay. Meanwhile, the looming threat of a shutdown prompted mob scenes at military commissaries as families rushed to stock up on food and household goods. A commissary official at Ramstein Air Base told Stars and Stripes that the store had nearly doubled its normal Christmas Eve sales by midafternoon of the day of the shutdown deadline.

Veterans services

See also:

Top military leaders: Stop continuing sequestration before capabilities are jeopardized
September 18, 2013 WASHINGTON -- A House committee heard an alarming message on Wednesday from the leaders of the top four U.S. armed forces about the continuing impacts of forced federal budget cuts that would slice into the “muscle and bone” of the military’s maintenance and readiness.

The House Armed Services Committee heard from the Army, Air Force, Marines and Navy that a continuation of sequestration would dangerously jeopardize the ability of all four branches to stay capable and ready for action. “There should be no misunderstanding: Cuts of this magnitude will have a significant impact on the global security climate, the perceptions of our enemies and the confidence of our allies,” Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Amos told the committee. “The abruptness and inflexibility of sequestration will force us to mortgage the condition of our equipment and could erode our readiness to dangerous levels. The indiscriminate nature of sequestration is creating its very own national security problem,” he said. “Less tanks, less Bradleys, less M-16s, less trucks, less mortars, less artillery systems. It impacts all of our workload because we’re getting smaller. And I think it’s too small,” said Gen. Ray Odierno, the Army’s chief of staff.

Committee members listened soberly, and even Republicans who had pushed for the spending cuts said that sequestration was a failed experiment. Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Wash, was even more blunt, calling sequestration “a Latin word for ‘stupid.’ “ “This was a serious error made by Congress. We need to acknowledge it was a stupid mistake and correct it,” said Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala. Sequestration, which started March 1, was part of the 2011 Budget Control Act agreement between President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans demanding federal spending cuts. It is forcing cuts of $1.2 trillion in defense and domestic spending over the next 10 years, including $85 billion in the current fiscal year.

Congress is required to pass some initiative by the end of this month -– the end of the current fiscal year -– to keep the government running into Fiscal Year 2014. But because of political paralysis, it is almost certain that the House and Senate will simply pass a continuing resolution, which would continue the current budget and funding levels. Since sequestration is a part of the current budget, it would continue as well. All four military leaders spoke bluntly about the impact of continuing cuts. Odierno said the Army will likely go through force reductions for at least the next three years, calling it “a huge problem.”

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Related:

Gridlock, sequester deepen military budget morass
September 19, 2013 ~ The uniformed chiefs of Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps got another shot Wednesday at describing the deepening readiness crisis that Congress has inflicted on the armed forces.

The chance came as the sequester-driven chaos of 2013 kicks into a kind of hyper drive with new budget threats from political gamesmanship: a possible federal government shutdown in October and a fresh attempt by Republicans to defund the 2010 Affordable Care Act by refusing to raise the U.S. debt ceiling, leaving the nation at risk of defaulting on loan obligations. Though U.S. troops still fight in Afghanistan, the military faces year two of arbitrary defense cuts, this one set at $52 billion for the year that begins Oct. 1. The cuts likely will be delayed for some months by a “continuing budget resolution,” or CR, which Congress needs to pass by October because it hasn’t enacted a final defense appropriations bill.

The CR would freeze military spending at fiscal 2013 levels, but deny the services authority to start new programs, thus deepening the backlog of military construction projects and new purchases on weapon systems. Every chief of service testified before the House Armed Services Committee that force readiness is falling, rapidly. Unless Congress dampens the impact of the automatic budget cuts, called sequestration and unwisely made part the 2011 Budget Control Act, then the services will be unable to execute force requirements set down in 2012 Defense Strategic Guidance. By October 2014, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond Odierno warned, “85 percent of our active and reserve [component] Brigade Combat Teams will not be prepared for contingency requirements.”

The active Army is drawing down from a wartime peak of 570,000. But the cost of every active soldier above 490,000 is being funded by the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) account, not the Army’s basic budget, Odierno explained. That gimmick to make Army and Marine Corps budgets look smaller in wartime means that until active strength falls sufficiently, Army’s share of budget cuts under sequestration must come entirely out of operations, maintenance and weapon modernization. Odierno predicted degrading readiness and “extensive modernization program shortfalls” through fiscal 2017. Funding shortfalls will impact more than 100 Army acquisition programs, putting at risk the ground combat vehicle program, the Army’s Aerial Scout program and many others.

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[Luddly Neddite]

Suggest that op read some real news.

Or not.

Thing is, the pubs threatened last time and they're threatening again. They won't actually DO anything except govern by tantrum and blackmail and, as usual, they're the opposite of Robin Hood - steal from the poor and give to the rich.

 

[Remodeling Maidiac]

Suggest that op read some real news.

Or not.

Thing is, the pubs threatened last time and they're threatening again. They won't actually DO anything except govern by tantrum and blackmail and, as usual, they're the opposite of Robin Hood - steal from the poor and give to the rich.

Obama already gave waivers to the RICH now the gop wants everyone else to have them.

Fact

 

[Stephanie]

Suggest that op read some real news.

Or not.

Thing is, the pubs threatened last time and they're threatening again. They won't actually DO anything except govern by tantrum and blackmail and, as usual, they're the opposite of Robin Hood - steal from the poor and give to the rich.

Tantrum and blackmail? That is what Obama and you his sheep are doing right now...
Republicans aren't doing anything different than what the Democrat Party does when there is Republican President...the only difference now, is Democrats throw a tantrum and accuse people of, blackmail....
you left just won't look at what your party does ALL THE TIME..