Free Republic

Oh No! It is 1995 all over again. The GOP is going to get blamed for the shut down!!! or so the latest hand wringing line from the Pseudo Conservative pundits in the Junk media goes. News for the Faux Conservatives, it is not 1995 any more. Only problem with this Junk media dreamed up scenario of impending GOP doom, This isn't 1995. In 1995: Fox News did not exist. The Internet was still a cool new toy being used by maybe 10,000 techno geeks The GOP had only 1 national talk radio show(Rush Limbaugh) on their side. The Tea...

ABC News reports this morning that Defense Secretary Robert Gates met with troops in Baghdad this morning, in part to discuss their concerns over a government shutdown. After joking that the best policy is to make sure the folks with the guns get paid first, Gates then told the men and women on the front lines that they needn’t worry. After studying the issue, Gates says they will get paid if the budget runs out tomorrow … for a week: Speaking to a group of 200 soldiers in Baghdad, Defense Secretary Gates drew Army cheers of “Hooah” from the crowd...

Nothing like Paul Ryan's budget, "The Path to Prosperity: Restoring America's Promise," has been heard from a Republican since February 1981, when Ronald Reagan issued his presidency's first budget message, "America's New Beginning: A Program for Economic Recovery." The echoes reach beyond the titles. Both budgets announced a clear break with the Washington status quo. Reagan reversed the policies of the Carter presidency and the infamous stagflation years of weak economic growth, 18% interest rates and 14% inflation. Reagan's 1981 message posited four reversals: "a substantial reduction" in spending; "a significant reduction in federal tax rates"; relief from federal regulation;...

The Border Patrol would remain on duty, mail would be delivered, and Social Security checks should go out on time. But a looming government shutdown could stall tax refunds, close national parks and museums, and put tens of thousands of Californians temporarily out of work. Stopgap measures have kept government operations going since the current budget year began Oct. 1. The latest measure expires at the end of Friday, and with Democrats and Republicans unable to reach an agreement, the White House has told agencies to begin planning for a shutdown on Saturday. California has a huge population of federal...

My first thought on hearing about the possible government shutdown at the end of this week, when spending authority is scheduled to run out, was relief. Perhaps I won't have to pay my taxes by April 18. A friend who works in a government agency told me that his co-workers want the government to be shut down. They hope for a few days of "unpaid" furlough because they are confident that when Congress does approve new spending legislation it will vote, as it did in 1995 and in the mid 1980s, to pay them for their time off. SNIP SNIP...

Obama Meeting Fails to End Stalemate Over Federal Budget By MICHAEL D. SHEAR Published: April 6, 2011 President Obama met at the White House on Wednesday night with House Speaker John A. Boehner and Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, but they failed to reach an agreement to end a budget stalemate that has threatened to shut down the government. President Obama arrived on the south lawn of the White House Wednesday after a trip to Philadelphia and New York, headed for talks with House Speaker John A. Boehner and Senator Harry Reid of Nevada. After the meeting...

The standoff of a century is currently taking place in Washington, DC right now (even though the century is only 11 years old). If Congress can’t come to a spending agreement by Friday, the government will shut down for the first time since 1995. This moment has been staved off the past couple of months through continuing resolutions and stopgap measures that pay to keep government operating, but they’re temporary solutions that merely kick the can down the road. Now it appears we’re at the end of the road, and the clock has run out on Congress. We’re down to...

Two days remain before (the horror!) the federal government shuts down. Speaker Boehner is playing hardball, though. He told President Obama today that Republicans would pass another stop gap measure on Thursday. The catch? The measure would have $12 billion in cuts, and would also assure Defense Department funding for the rest of the year. GOP aides have coined the stopgap measure a “troop-funding bill” - attempting to make it difficult for lawmakers in either party to oppose. “Republicans have no interest in shutting down the government,” an exasperated Boehner declared at the conclusion of his press conference. “Shutting down...

House Republicans will demonstrate a very short memory and very bad arithmetic skills if they allow the government to shut down this weekend over $30 billion in spending cuts and red-meat policy riders on abortion and the rest. Closing the national parks alone will create a maelstrom. . . . prepare to watch them self-destruct. The party took years to recover from the 1995 shutdown and sowed the seeds of the big-spending Bush presidency.

Harry Reid: 'Get the job done' By: Meredith Shiner April 6, 2011 11:36 AM EDT Majority Leader Harry Reid issued a rallying cry from the Senate floor Wednesday morning to negotiators working round-the-clock to hammer out a spending deal: “It’s time to get the job done.” In what Reid called “nonstop” negotiations between Senate Democrats, Boehner and the White House, there doesn’t seem to be much room left to give. Republicans have rejected a $33 billion level for cuts. Democrats rejected Boehner’s $40 billion offering Tuesday. And neither side seems ready to pass another stop-gap measure to keep the government...

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...