Is a Government Shutdown in March on the Table?

CBS

As the House of Representatives continues to debate hundreds of amendments to a budget-cutting bill, there's increasing speculation that disagreements over federal spending could lead to a government shutdown. Republican Senate leaders, however, are suggesting that they'll be able to reach a compromise with President Obama and Democrats in Congress to keep the government up and running.

"The government isn't going to shut down," Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, the Senate Republican Whip, said on Fox News Tuesday night. "Nobody is talking about shutting the government down."

The Continuing Resolution (CR) bill currently on the House floor would keep the government operating past March 4. Some version of the CR is needed to avoid a shutdown since the Democratic-led Congress failed to pass a budget last year. Congress in December passed a stopgap funding bill to keep the government operating through March 4.

However, Republicans are attempting to follow through on their campaign promise to cut tens of billions from the federal budget immediately -- making the CR bill incredibly contentious as lawmakers protest cutting funding for the likes of job training programs and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

The Office of Management and Budget on Tuesday issued a statement indicating that Mr. Obama will veto the CR bill as it stands, saying that the bill "proposes cuts that would sharply undermine core government functions and investments key to economic growth and job creation, and would reduce funding for the Department of Defense to a level that would leave the Department without the resources and flexibility needed to meet vital military requirements."

The House version of the bill cuts about $60 billion from this year's federal budget, but Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell suggested yesterday that Senate Republicans could approve a bill with less drastic cuts.

"We'll see whether the Senate wants to establish different priorities," he said.

Democrats, meanwhile, have been preemptively blaming Republicans for a possible government shutdown.

"We're trying to avoid" a shutdown, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said, the Washington Post reports. "But with the Republicans headed in the direction they are, of course it's a possibility, and that's too bad."

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer said the same on Tuesday: "If the government shuts down, it will be the Republicans' responsibility."

Republicans seem to be taking the message to heart. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) said yesterday that if Democrats and Republicans can't come to some sort of agreement, Congress will resort to passing temporary funding measures rather than allow for a government shutdown.

[jkolkind]

Let's not forget that this budget could have easily been passed at the beginning of the fiscal year.... 5 months ago..... With a Lib controlled congress.....Why didnt they do anything? Too busy passing lame duck BS and ramming crap through on their way out. Now when the fiscally responsible folks try to remove the lame duck BS they get the blame? Get serious libs have no control when it comes to spending other peoples money, they go in with good intentions and then explode into "pay the poor to stay in office" redistributers.... Boy would I love it if everyone in the country had everything they needed for a little less effort, however we dont have the money to do it....Its gotta stop somewhere....

[JimJames1111]

The think the real truth of the matter for the U.S. government spending cuts that must get done by March 4, 2011 is that those huge BUSH tax refunds for the wealthy aristocrats must be sent out soon. In Dec. 2010, the Republicans demanded that the BUSH tax cuts on the wealthy be extended. So now the wealthy aristocrats must get their tax refunds for the 2011 income tax filing season and spending must be cut IMMEDIATELY to send out those refunds to Donald Trump, former jail bird Martha Stewart, former jail bird and hotel czar Leona Helmsley, Zsa Zsa Gabor, monopolist Bill Gates, super star Britney Spears. Martha Stewart wants her new yacht for her Bar Harbor, Maine, mansion, on the cliffs overlooking the Atlantic Ocean and Donald Trump is using his tax refund to buy his girlfriend the HOPE diamond. Britney Spears needs her huge tax refund to pay for the new $ 19 million mansion she just bought in California. The rest of us just get a few crumbs as a tax refund.

[CarloCaraluzzo]

The current bill is a totally Republican creation and looks NOTHING like the original bill created by Obama and a Democratic Congress. NO WONDER it is bad.

[charnell_summerville]

The government would not have to talk about being shut down if they would stop all these people who are on welfare and getting free money for not working.They go and by brand name clothes and shoes get their hair done to go to the club and all of this is done with free money that the government give them. It need to stop these people need to go to work like every one else. Their is to many people on welfare and some no most of all of them can work the government need to wake up and smell the roses and stop all of this before we do have to shut down for good.

[jimbom121]

Sorry but the corporate subsidies far out spend the welfare.

[CarloCaraluzzo]

And where is it that all these "freeloaders" are going to find the jobs at smart guy? You might need to do some reading to find out that Bush CUT all those programs until they are nearly non-existant, yet people like you still chant "socialist welfare", just like you still chant "Soviet communists are attacking us.". Try coming into the real world and before you start talking about lazy people on welfare take a look at how all those programs have been trimmed to near non-existance.

[tsigili]

Why not? We really need to clean house in Washington, anyway.

[thinking-voter]

If shutting it down cleaned house, I'd be first in line for it.

What did it do last time? Ask the one who pulled the plug. Maybe ol' Newt will take time to answer your question when he isn't so busy trying to pull his political career outta the crapper .... where its been ever since.

Boehner is dumb but he isn't that stupid.

[RobAla]

I would be the first to say that President Bush squandered the surplus. However, consider this. From the beginning of the nation until President left office, the nation accumulated about $8.5 trillion in national debt. Pretty bad, huh? In just over 2 years of President Obama, Pelosi, and Reid we are now sitting at a $14 trillion national debt - and we are growing it by $1.5 trillion a year. Both political parties have contributed to this mess, and it is high time for both parties to begin to behave as responsible adults.

Federal spending is out of control, and we are moving quickly toward an economic collapse of this once great nation. This insanity has to stop. We don't have the money to keep up this party hardy bring home the bacon disastrous mentality. We are in trouble. Every generation, except this one, has attempted to leave the nation in better shape for the next. This one wants to ride this good horse into the ground, and then shoot it. It is time to grow up, and put a stop to the destruction if the United States. This selfish and idiotic crap has to stop.

[thinking-voter]

It wasn't insanity to spend as they did.

Newsflash: had McCain been elected, he too would have had to spend. Or he would have parlayed the worst recession in modern times into another Great Depression. McCain said he didn't understand economics well. I'm not surprised, many Americans don't.

Guess what? Most Republicans don't. Few Democrats do either. But at least some get what Greenspan said. And why some deficit spending is bad and some isn't.

Thank Bush for the following insanity:

1. Going to war while lowering taxes, the perfect recipe for a free fall economy looking for a tipping point.

2. Going to war while hiding its costs OFF the books. Putting it on the books doesn't make it Obama spending, it ends the Bush lie. Your math stinks as bad as Bush's did.
3. Invading Iraq. Total insanity.

5. Pushing for more Ronnie Reagan delusional deregulation. Hello first domino tipping, igniting the free fall that TWO wars, both off the books and unpaid by taxes, set up.

Now you want the deregulating, war mongers back?

[semanoj]

I think it's really about who gets what's left of the horse's carcass. I say it should be the Democrats because we still control the military, and most police are unionized.And with gun control laws, none of the Republican riffraff can do anything about it.

Satisfied? Isn't that what you wanted to see?

[imnho]

Its really disingenous for the republicans to be outgassing about the overruns. The last republican adminastration took us from surpluses as far as the eye can see to oceans of red ink. Now there acting like they had nothing to do with it. There talking about protecting the next generation when created the staggering debt the the next generation will need to endure. They screwed the whole country and are shedding crodile tears about people having to much debt as they propose cuts that will cause real damage.

[thinking-voter]

GOP fiscal policies are rooted in the past. They are refusing to own their serious mistakes and change course. Not all deficit spending is equal. Not all spending cuts are equal.

Cutting spending cannot pay debt. CANNOT. It can only reduce deficit which only stops increasing debt.

There are only two ways to reduce debt. Pay it or default on it. That is a fact.

Where is the GOP plan to pay the debt?? Where is the GOP plan to improve the economy? Oh, that's right, these are the folks who ran it into the ground.

The GOP needs the voter confused about deficit and debt.

[olebasiclady]

Both parties know what needs to be done, and they know, or can consult people who know, the best way to do it.

It they made it look easy, it wouldn't look as if they were earning their pay.

They don't even have to put their heads together. All they need do is do away with unneeded and unworking programs, then cut all other spending by a certain percentage.

They don't want to do it.

[olebasiclady]

All talk and no action is what politicians are known for.

I wish all of them would get critically ill only to go to a group of doctors who stood around, ringing their hands and talking about what needed to be done to save their lives. Maybe they would get jolted out of their rut and decide that all talk and no action is not a good plan after all.

[pragmatist1]

I'd like to see the politicians, including the president, forgo receiving their pay checks and other perks for a few months to prove to the rest of us that they care and understand our pain. None of them would ever do this since they're a bunch of self-serving, arrogant egomaniacs.

[retm-w]

Demand side economics of chinese products that does nothing but help china. You can't get Americans to buy what few products that are made here anymore, they'll buy imports first.

[CarloCaraluzzo]

IMAO!!! Like they are really there for that petty paycheck? Lets make lobbying illegal and watch them squirm THEN. THATS where they get the REAL money. Wake up and smell the bought and paid for politicians.

[pasha128]

Newt Gingrich's failure soon to be revisited by John Boehner?

[sjc_1]

The last time under Newt, no one noticed.

[thinking-voter]

sjc-1: Your real name must be no one.

Many noticed. Especially when ol' cry baby Newt let his loose lips ship the GOP ship.