House Budget Shut Down by Senate; Is the Government Next?

     Everyone watched with anticipation as the Senate deliberated and voted on the government's budget for the coming year.  Last week, the House of Representatives passed a bill which would have removed funding from the controversial Affordable Care Act. By threatening to not pass a budget at all, House Republicans (who hold a majority of the seats in the House) managed to pass a budget which defunded Obamacare.  This week the Senate also voted on the budget. Rejecting the House bill, the Senate passed a stopgap funding bill which would keep the government running through November 15th. The Senate version of the bill included funding for Obamacare, and no additional modifications to any existing laws.  Ted Cruz (R-TX), who earlier in the week attempted to filibusterer the bill, argued after the vote that "Any vote to support a clean stopgap spending measure was tantamount to a vote in support of Obamacare (NBC)." This put many Republicans in an awkward position, and also isolated Cruz from many of his Republican Colleagues in Congress. By spinning the vote as a moral question about Obamacare, Cruz challenged Republicans by asserting that voting to keep the government running was the same as supporting Obamacare. Now that the budget has passed the Senate, it must go back to the House, who have until Monday at midnight to either pass a budget or allow the Government to shut down.

     In the event of a government shutdown, something which has not happened in 17 years, 800,000 federal workers deemed "non-essential" face furloughs. While millions more may continue working without paychecks. Government services which are considered essential are emergency services such as police, fire fighters, etc. would continue to function as normal, but parks services and hundreds of other services provided by the government would cease to function (New York Times).  Sunday morning, the House passed a resolution which would continue to fund the military in the event of a shutdown, an act which was criticized by defense secretary Chuck Hagel who said: "This is an astoundingly irresponsible way to govern...If this continues, we will have a country that is ungovernable (New York Times)." Both sides blame the other for the threat of a shutdown, each claiming that the other is being too stubborn and causing the problems.  Following the shutdowns of 1995 and 1996, Republicans were blamed and President Clinton was thus able to win an easier reelection.  Republicans now claim that they have a strategy which will shield them from potential fallout (New York Times).