With the possibility of a government shutdown looming over their heads Congress has one week to find a compromise and pass a budget or else there are sure to be repercussions felt through the 2014 elections and beyond, according to USA Today.
The main stumbling block in coming to an agreement appears to be the Affordable Care Act. House Republicans have railed against the health care reform law since it was passed three years ago and have made a multitude of efforts to repeal it since it was signed; the latest effort seen on Friday when the House passed a budget that would completely defund the law.
It was clear prior to the vote in the House that a budget that defunded the law Republicans derisively refer to as Obamacare would have no chance of passing in the Senate. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., will likely strip the budget bill of the rider that defunds the health care law by a simple majority vote and then pass the budget and send it back to the House, according to Politico.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who has advocated forcing a government shutdown over the health care law since early in the summer, doesn't appear to have many options to prevent Reid from pushing through a budget without the defunding provision. Although, Cruz has vowed to filibuster and "do everything necessary and anything possible to defund Obamacare," according to CBS News.
It will be interesting to see what happens if a version of the budget bill returns to the House without the defunding provision; the House has fought tooth and nail to get rid of the health care law but they seem to be reluctant to force a government shutdown that could have serious repercussions with voters in 2014.
"We don't want to shut down the government," Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Ariz., told the Associated Press. "I want to make it clear: We want to shut down Obamacare."
Some House Republicans are preparing for the possibility of a shutdown by already shifting the blame toward a White House unwilling to compromise, according to the Associated Press.
"We do have eight days to reach a resolution on this, and I propose an idea that kept the government operating and opened for an entire year while delaying and defunding Obamacare for a year so that we could work out those differences," Rep. Tom Graves, R-Ga., said.
Avoiding a government shutdown is the first of what will be two major battles in Congress concerning the country's finances; the country's debt limit will have to be raised soon in order to avoid going into default. The White House has been adamant that they will not negotiate on the debt limit nor will they allow a budget that defunds the health care reform, according to the Associated Press.
"I cannot believe they are going to throw a tantrum and throw the American people and our economic recovery under a bus," Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said about the possibility of going into default.
