“At the end of the day, they’ll blink."

     Right now on Capitol Hill, the fiscal year is ending and there is nowhere near peace in Congress. With the fiscal year ending September 30th, a temporary measure for the budget is in order, but with Obamacare on the table Democrats and Republicans are having a hard time coming to an agreement, creating the potential for a government shutdown.

     House Republicans were trying to kill the health care law by first defunding it and then creating separate legislation that would enact a one year delay on the employment of the law in exchange for an extension of the debt limit. Yet Democrats quickly responded stating that they would never give in to either demand. "So in case there's any shred of doubt in the minds of our House counterparts, I want to be absolutely crystal clear: Any bill that defunds Obamacare is dead, dead,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in a statement on Friday.¹ That same day House Republicans approved a temporary measure that would leave the funding levels for federal agencies the way they are until December 15^th but also take away funds from Obamacare and put more emphasis on debt payments in case we default on the debt ceiling. Since most Democrats are firmly against defunding the health care law, this puts Congress in a gridlock.

     Chuck Schumer, like most Democrats at this point, believe that Republicans are being hard-headed. Right now he is confident that Republicans will not go through with the government shutdown because of increased pressure from the public but feels like the Republican leadership lacks the courage to speak up against the Tea Party, whom Schumer believes is the real problem.  He has accused the House of holding our country back and putting Americans at risk by threatening it with a shutdown and with that social security, food safety, etc. The Democrats are not going to budge on this on, as Senator Schumer states, "we are going to stand together to protect the president's health care law, and we're going to stand together and not negotiate one iota when it comes to the debt ceiling."² Although Congress has until the September 30^th deadline, Democrats, including Schumer, believe that the Republicans will give in way before then just because of how unpopular they are among the people.

References

1.       http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/09/22/shutdown-budget-drama-obamacare/2844981/

2.       http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/323239-gop-fight-spreads-to-the-senate

3.       http://www.politico.com/story/2013/09/government-shutdown-update-chuck-schumer-97118.html

4.       http://politicker.com/2013/09/chuck-schumer-rails-against-republicans-insane-obamacare-move/