Budget Standoff Basics

Pirates of the Rich and Crazy

Is it just me or does John Boehner seem like he’s in over his head?

I thought I’d dig up some references for you on exactly what a shutdown of the Federal Government means and what’s at issue here.  ProPublica has a great FAQ up with some basic facts on what will be impacted, what won’t be effected, and what’s at stake.  Here’s a short summary from them of the Status Fail.

The GOP and the Obama administration are currently locked in a standoff over a difference of $7 billion to $30 billion—a miniscule amount of the total $3.5 trillion budget. (OMB Watch, an open government group, has a thorough account [1] of the budget battles that led up to this point.)

The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein has a simple summary [2] of the GOP’s budget proposal, put forward by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan on Tuesday: It lowers corporate taxes and taxes on the wealthy, extends the Bush tax cuts permanently, calls for repeal of both the health care law and Dodd-Frank financial reform law, and freezes discretionary spending at 2008 levels.

The Obama administration has offered to cut $33 billion from current spending levels but hasn’t given many specifics about what those cuts would entail

The biggest issue that appears to be happening is that Boehner keeps changing the bar and is being forced to say no deal on certain cuts demanded by folks like their religionist base on items like Planned Parenthood Funding.   Steven Benen asks if Boehner is actually willing shut down the government over the minuscule funding for Planned Parenthood. This is definitely not Barbara Bush’s Republicans around the beltway these days. Also included in the hostage negotiations is the Clean Air Act.  Republicans want to stop the government from monitoring air pollution.  Hell, this isn’t even Richard Nixon’s Republicans.

Republicans want to cut off Planned Parenthood and gut the Clean Air Act, but instead of pursuing legislation to achieve their goals, they’re insisting that this be part of the budget. Democrats can’t go along with this nonsense, and John Boehner is too weak a Speaker to tell his caucus to act like grown-ups, so the entire process is unraveling.

This has led to talk about the GOP shutting down the government over abortion, but even that’s not quite right — Planned Parenthood is already prohibited from using public funds to terminate pregnancies, and has been for many years. What we’re talking about here is Republicans shutting down the government over access to contraception and family planning services.

For all of those folks that thought the Republicans weren’t ready to go crazy over their crazy, extremist religious views, this should wake them out of their stupor.  These folks are trying to shut down access to birth control by screaming abortion.  This kind of mean and stupid should hurt.  You can also check out WT for a long list of what kind of things will be shut down or go unpaid because the xtian Taliban hate Planned Parenthood.  They must hate soliders because that’s one of the groups of people that won’t be able to get paychecks either.

IRS tax audits would be halted in their tracks, this weekend’s National Cherry Blossom Festival Parade in Washington canceled, and national parks and the Smithsonian shuttered if Congress can’t reach agreement on annual spending and the government shuts down at midnight Friday.

The military, federal law enforcement and other key officials would still be at work, earning pay – except their paychecks would be halted until the government funding stream is turned back on.

The Federal Government’s personnel bureau has posted information about which Federal employees will be furloughed.  There’s an old study up on what happened the last time the Republicans shut down the government under Newt Gingrich that appears to be the blueprint for Federal Response.  The ProPublica site contains a series of links to a lot of information on these topics in particular.  They cite a NYT article for this information.

The New York Times has a handy list laying out how various government services might be affected [16]. Some things that would continue mostly unaffected are military operations, the Federal Reserve, the postal service, and Medicare and Social Security payments. An accompanying story also outlines some potential scenarios [17] in more detail:
The National Zoo would close, but the lions and tigers would get fed; Yellowstone and other national parks would shut down. The Internal Revenue Service could stop issuing refund checks. Customs and Border Patrol agents training officials in Afghanistan might have to come home. And thousands of government-issued BlackBerrys would go silent.

… In any shutdown, the government does not completely cease functioning, of course. Activities that are essential to national security, like military operations, can continue. Air traffic control and other public safety functions are exempt from shutdowns. Federal prisons still operate; law enforcement and criminal investigations can continue.

The Hill has just quoted Harry Reid as saying he doesn’t think a shutdown will be averted.  Again, the issues don’t seem to be the level of spending, it’s appeals to climate deniers and members of the xtian Taliban that seem to be at issue here.

Reid blamed a partisan dispute over Planned Parenthood and other hot-button ideological issues for the stalemate, while Republicans said they had offered reasonable spending cuts and Democrats were to blame for the impasse.

…

“The two main issues holding this matter up are the choice of women, reproductive rights, and clean air,” Reid said. “These matters have no place in a budget bill.”

Reid said the president and Democratic leaders would not give any more ground in the talks.

“We have given everything that we can give,” he said

Frankly, this has gotten worse than even I imaged it could be.  Clearly, people that are voting Republican have brought such extremists to the House that it’s unlikely negotiations of any kind will be successful unless Boehner cracks a whip.  At the moment, all he appears to be doing is dithering, drinking, and crying.