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Cherry Blossom parade might be nixed if there's a shutdown By Michael O'Brien - 04/06/11 12:38 PM ET The National Cherry Blossom Parade may not take place if there is a government shutdown, the Obama administration cautioned Wednesday. Among the government operations and services that could be closed would be national parks, which includes the site of Saturday's parade in Washington, D.C. A senior administration official singled out the parade during a conference call Wednesday morning hosted by the Office of Management and Budget. Federal agencies have sought to identify which employees and services would be furloughed if lawmakers can't...

Republicans would cut $12 billion in one-week stopgap planWASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — A budget deal that would keep the government running past Friday is closer than ever, President Barack Obama said Tuesday, as top congressional Republicans and Democrats planned another round of negotiations aimed at hammering out a spending plan for the next six months. Clock ticking toward shutdown As the click ticks toward this Friday's possible U.S. government shutdown, WSJ's Jerry Seib looks at proposals being weighed by Republicans and Democrats, along with efforts to raise the country's debt ceiling. • See MarketWatch's Economy and Politics page | | “We...

Federal Agencies Prepare for Shutdowns, No Hints of a Deal Between Republicans and Democrats. Soldiers deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan will not receive paychecks next week if the government fails to come together on a resolution to keep the government funded and avert a shutdown, senior government officials said today. Military personnel will be paid eventually but not until Congress appropriates money to the Department of Defense. "Our military men and women put their lives on the line and sacrifice every day to ensure our security. They should not have to worry about getting paid on time," said Sen. Bob...

With time running out for congressional leaders to reach a budget deal, the country's biggest federal workers union is taking the Obama administration to court for what it called a failure to explain how federal programs and services would be affected if there's a government shutdown. The American Federation of Government Employees announced Tuesday that it filed a lawsuit in federal court last week seeking details on the shutdown plans of federal agencies. The union's national president, John Gage, said he filed the lawsuit after the White House Office of Management and Budget failed to respond to a Freedom of...

House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R, WI) has proposed a budget for grown ups. Washington’s big spenders have responded with the tired clichés we expect from defenders of big government: “Pulling the rug out from under seniors,” says Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D, MI).“Waging war on American workers,” says Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif.“A path to poverty for America’s seniors and children,” claims House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D, CA). “The tea party has hijacked the Republican caucus,” says House Budget Committee Ranking Member Chris Van Hollen (D, MD) Pee Wee Herman could have delivered more creative comebacks.  But adult conversation about...

U.S. businesses are bracing for layoffs and disruptions along their supply chains if the federal government shuts down later this week because of an impasse over the federal budget. (snip) Especially hard hit are small and midsized businesses that rely on steady flows of revenue from federal contracts to provide a wide array of products and services such as information technology consulting, building construction and maintenance, or food service at national parks. (snip) Should the government close, the Treasury could provide a several-hundred billion dollar cushion by borrowing from Social Security, federal pensions and other funds, says Gary Hufbauer, a...

Speaker of the USA House of Representatives, John Boehner, (R/OH) in this video was very, very blunt in his words about President Barak Obama’s efforts to do “smoke and mirrors” in the national battle of getting a working federal budget together. Speaker Boehner also made it very clear that there will be no stopping the “largest cuts possible.” From what I have read so far, it is truly a grudge match between the USA House of Representatives conservative GOPers and the Democrats of the USA Senate and President Obama’s White House.

The president seems to have forgotten that he got shellacked in November, and fits of pique aren't exactly leadership. What part of "I won. You Lost" does he not remember? The Speaker will have to patiently explain to the American people confronting closed parks and museums next week that President Obama refuses to negotiate and is willing to sacrifice everyone's convenience for the benefit of Planned Parenthood, the taxpayer subsidy for NPR and PBS, EPA's carbon regs and the continued jam down of Obamacare.

Will the federal government shut down?  Democrats have been fear-mongering, claiming that a government shutdown will hurt people.  According to them, the F.B.I. will stop working, Social Security checks will stop going out, and so on.But that isn’t true.  In the past, government shutdowns have NEVER done this.  Check out this great political cartoon from the Examiner’s Nate Beeler:But the government won’t shut down anyway.  According to recent polls, Americans would almost equally blame both parties.  Unless the polls show that a shutdown overwhelmingly benefits the Democrats, President Obama and Senate Democrats will work with the GOP-controlled House to keep...

House Speaker John Boehner says congressional leaders and President Barack Obama did not reach a budget agreement following a White House meeting. Boehner says Republicans are rallying behind a short-term cure. Obama met with Boehner, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and the top House and Senate appropriators Tuesday in hopes of breaking an impasse in talks to set spending levels through the end of September. Without an agreement by Friday, the government would be forced to shut down. Boehner said he told Obama that House Republicans are preparing a short-term measure that would keep the government running for another week...

The deficit is a spending problem. That's the simple truth. If federal government spending after President Clinton's last budget had simply grown fast enough to keep up with inflation and the growth in population, the 2012 budget would be running over a $70 billion surplus. Instead, federal expenditures more than doubled from $1.86 to $3.82 trillion in the ten years from 2001 to 2011, causing this year’s enormous $1.65 trillion deficit. During President Obama's first three years in office the government's deficits are adding up to over $4.3 trillion. And there is no let up in sight. The Congressional Budget...

The number two House Democrat said Tuesday that members of his party will oppose a stopgap measure unveiled by House Republicans Monday night that would keep the government funded through April 15 — and the Defense Department through late September — while cutting $12 billion from across federal agencies. “I will oppose this bill. ... I hope other Democrats will oppose it. I don’t know that every Democrat will oppose it; There will be some things in there that they perhaps think are appropriate,” House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Tuesday at his weekly roundtable with reporters. The White...

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — [Snip]. Observers say a shutdown, so long as it’s for a small duration and not because of a debt-ceiling violation, would only make a dent in the economy, barring any other economic shocks such as soaring oil prices. When the U.S. government partly closed in the winter of 1995-96 amid another bitter budget battle, the economy experienced a small hiccup but it never really slowed down. The dispute didn’t go unnoticed, of course. Nearly 800,000 federal workers were forced to stay home for up to one month, although their full pay was eventually restored. And the 1995...

I was reading on the internet when all of a sudden my screen went blue and said it was shutting down. My computer restarted fine and the error for this said: "Download updates for PX Engine PX Engine has stopped working properly. To solve this problem, go to the Roxio Software website to download and install the update" I have never seen or heard of such a thing. My kids burn CD's, etc. but I have no clue what this is! Thanks for your help. Dell Inspiron Windows Vista Home Premium All AV and Malware programs updated daily

With just five days left before a government shutdown, federal workers are pressing lawmakers to cut a deal that will keep the government open for business. The stakes are high. If lawmakers fail to pass some kind of spending bill by the end of Friday, hundreds of thousands of government employees are likely to be furloughed, and their paychecks stopped. The National Treasury Employees Union and the National Federation of Federal Employees, which represent a combined 260,000 workers, announced Monday they have asked their members to call lawmakers and encourage them to strike a deal.

Republicans on Monday night introduced a measure to fund the military through September and government operations for one more week. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) told his conference about the legislation — which contains $12 billion in spending cuts — during a Monday night meeting, his office said. The move is intended to prevent a government shutdown that would start after Friday unless Congress approves another measure to fund the government.

Toyota just announced it will shut down all of its North American factories due to shortages of parts from Japan. This is a temporary shutdown, which will affect about 25,000 workers. The length of the shutdown is unknown and depends on how fast Japanese parts factories can get back in operation, spokesman Mike Gross told the AP. Toyota gets about 15 percent of its parts from Japan. Last month GM's Shreveport plant was shutdown temporarily due to troubles in Japan.

Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama will meet Tuesday with congressional leaders to discuss budget negotiations three days before the deadline to avoid a government shutdown, White House spokesman Jay Carney said Monday.

FBN's government experts debate whether a government shutdown could lead to a balanced budget. Video

The Kabuki theater that is the debate over the federal budget took a weird turn this afternoon. The GOP-led House of Representatives passed HR 1255, the “Government Shutdown Prevention Act.” The measure is largely symbolic…it states that if the Democrat-led Senate and President Obama don’t act on $61 billion in cuts passed earlier this year by the House, those cuts would be ‘law of the land.’ Which, obviously, doesn’t hold any water. This isn’t too far away from when Democrats proposed “deeming” ObamaCare passed. The House GOP Leadership, however, did add something to their legislation that should give pause to...