Government Shutdown Now Up To House

(This image of the U.S. Senate as the vote was announced in from C-SPAN.)

The game of political "hot potato" continues in Washington, while the nation waits to see if the Republicans will keep their promise to shut down the government. That was the threat Republicans made if they didn't get a complete defunding of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). They included that defunding in the continuing resolution (H.J. Res. 59) to fund the government past September 30th (when the current budget runs out).

But as expected, the Senate didn't accept that. They first voted to cut the Obamacare defunding out of the bill, and then voted to pass the bill -- both on party line votes of 54 to 44 (with both Senate Independents voting with the Democrats). Now the bill must go back to the House for approval (since it was amended in the Senate). The House has three options -- approve the bill as amended by the Senate, kill or table the bill, or amend it again (which would mean it would have to go back to the Senate).

If the bill is defeated or amended, there will be at least a short government shutdown (because there is not enough time for the bill to go back to the Senate before the budget deadline). The length of a shutdown will depend on just how stubborn the House GOP members want to be. If they refuse to pass the continuing resolution without including the defunding of Obamacare, them the shutdown could be lengthy -- because there is no way the Democrats or the president could agree to that.

I think they will just kick the political can down the road a bit. The fight over raising the debt ceiling is coming up soon, since the ceiling limit will be reached in two or three weeks. I think the GOP will agree to fund the government for a while and avoid a shutdown -- then try to demand a defunding of Obamacare as a condition of raising the debt ceiling. This will keep their right-wing base happy, while giving them some time to try and get more public support for their threat (support which they do not currently have).

We'll know this weekend which path the GOP House members will choose. But whether they shut the government down now, or wait a couple of weeks, really doesn't make much difference. Either option will seriously damage our fragile economy, and could easily cause the country to slip back into recession -- making life even more difficult for the millions who have yet to recover from the last recession.

In effect, the Republicans are trying to hold the American economy hostage so they can get what they want -- what they could not achieve legislatively or electorally. This is why they must be voted out of power next year. It is the only way to stop the continual brinkmanship and return the U.S. to a sane economic policy.