That is the question on everyone’s mind today on Capitol Hill. Staff negotiators worked until 3 a.m. and appear to have made progress, but nobody wants to be the first to blink. Harry Reid says: “This all deals with ‘women’s health.’ Everything has been resolved. Everything,” presumably referring to provisions that would deny federal funding for Planned Parenthood. However, GOP aides insist that “spending” remains the largest unresolved issue. Lawmakers from both parties are storming the airwaves this morning, basically to lay the groundwork for blaming the other side for a government shutdown, which is what will happen if they don’t pass some kind of funding resolution by midnight tonight. Speaker Boehner will likely try to sell a compromise to House Republicans when they meet today at noon. He would like to pass a bill without the help Democratic votes, which would mean limiting GOP defections to about 30. Stay tuned, as the situation should develop rapidly, and could go all the way down to the wire.
UPDATE (10:39 a.m.): Reid tells reporters that Democrats have agreed to $38 billion in spending cuts, abortion funding still the only area of disagreement. Senate Democrats plan to introduce their own short-term resolution that would fund the military in the event of a shutdown, and President Obama has canceled a trip to Indiana in light of the ongoing negotiations.
UPDATE (10:58 a.m.): Boehner gave a very brief statement to reporters just now. He said “there is only one reason” why there is no deal and that is spending. “The American people deserve to know: When will the White House and Senate Democrats get serious about cutting spending?” The Speaker called on Harry Reid to pass the House-passed “troop funding bill” and called on President Obama to sign it into law (he had threatened a veto).
UPDATE (11:10 a.m.): Speaking on the Senate floor, Reid said he was “very hopeful” that an agreement can be reached today, announcing a special Democratic caucus meeting at 1:00 p.m.. He then went off on a ridiculous diatribe about how Republicans “want to shut the government down because they think there’s nothing more important than denying women cancer screenings,” claiming the disagreement had “nothing to do with abortion.” (!)
“They want me to sarifice my wife’s health, my daughter’s health and my nine granddaughters’ health,” he said. “As a father, a husband and a grandfather I am personally offended.”
Sen. Jon Kyl (R., Ariz.) offered a swift rebuttal: “You don’t have to go to Planned Parenthood to get your blood pressure or cholesterol checked,” he said. “If you want an abortion, you go to Planned Parenthood. That’s 90 percent of what they do.”
Kyl urged lawmakers to “stop throwing rotten apples at each other.”
We've got three wars going on, gas prices increasing daily, etc but we just have to fund Planned Parenthood? Why should my tax dollars go to PP? And oh, the cancer research will stop at NIH - oh my the sky is falling. As if a couple of days of some researcher not shoving some chemical into some mice will cause people's deaths.
This is just ridiculous.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseGiven the Democratics desperate attempts to paint this whole thing as a "women's rights issue", one might wonder if they have some polling information that shows that, in addition to declining support among whites and blacks, support is declining among women as well. That would be very problematic, as the Oprah vote was a big part of what carried 0bama to victory in 2008. Maybe Michelle Bachman, or Sarah Palin are peeling that support away from the Democratics? The media tone is one of a sharply, evenly divided country, but the desperate acts of the Democrats to shore up what should be their base paints a very different picture.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOh, the sleigh rides at Jellystone Park being canceled. Oh, the humanity!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseCall, call, call your senators offices and Raise Hell - blame the Democrats for this impasse - these phone calls really make a diffrence - call both Dem and GOP senators
202-224-3121
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbusePP must be funded but passing a bill to pay military personnel fighting in three wars is a "distraction"?
Herman Cain 2012
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIt's a disgrace that we have to "go all the way down to the wire" on this at all. The Democrats could have had any kind of budget in place months ago when they had control of not only the Presidency but both houses of Congress.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe American people deserve better than this ongoing "drama."
The lamestream media is gearing up for the shutdown and the political propaganda that will accompany it. And while they're at it, they're demonizing Republicans for budget cuts that haven't gone into effect yet. The Honeymoon murder case is on hold because of budget cuts and federally funded tourist attractions are closed. Boo hoo! Let's all get angry and vote for those kind-hearted, generous Democrats in 2012. They don't let a little thing like no money interfere with their generous distribution of our tax dollars to those they determine deserve it.
With our troops fighting and dying on the battlefield and their wives, husbands, children, parents and siblings left with nothing but crisply folded American flags, liberal Democrats and their pals in the media didn't skip a beat in their vicious attacks on our troops and the war they were fighting. They didn't care what impact their anti-war rhetoric had on grieving families and they encouraged the American people not to care. But we should all be outraged and heart broken that Yosemite Park might be temporarily unavailable to tourists because the adults in Washington are cutting up the credit cards.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHOVDummy -- here's another take on that from a lifelong conservative. We've got three wars going on, gas prices increasing daily, economy on the verge of collapsing again, and the Republicans in Congress are going to suicidally shut down the government, squandering their legislative majority and ensuring 4 more years of socialism at the top, over a tiny amount of funding for Planned Parenthood? For God's sake, grow up, NR and GOP.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYes we have three wars going on but it is time for the Republican’s to stand firm. They have been rolled far too many times and the Dem’s think they can keep rolling them. According to Drudge though there may be more pressure building on the Dem’s in that Obama has a planned vacation to Williamsburg for this weekend! I cannot see Harry Reid holding out if it might mean Obama misses another vacation! Gee, it is a tough job being Prez, just back from Rio and he needs another vacation! Shut down the government to keep the Bamster from spending all that money to fly his entourage to Williamsburg!
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuseds, is making the mistake of trusting the media narrative, which is relying increasingly on polls that greatly oversample Democrats. The Republicans won the house in November because the voters are sick and tired of our out of control Federal government. Despite the medias narrative and scare tactics, the Republicans are doing what they were elected to do, and the Democratics are going to pay dearly in November.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"Women's health"? Why doesn't Reid just call it "abortion funding"?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHmmm, we are to believe that the women in Harry Reid's family go to Planned Parenthood for their healthcare?
Smile.
Heh.
Ha.
Bwahahahahahahaha.
Right.
They really do think we are that stupid, don't they?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAbortions are not 90% of what Planned Parenthood do. It's about 10%. Without government funding millions of poor women will not have access to preventative health care.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse@Prestor John - Your thoughts are echoed on Twitter by, of all people, Kirsten Powers who, as I recall, is NOT a conservative, nor a Republican:
kirstenpowers10 kirsten powers - Isn't Sen. Reid a millionaire? why are his grandchildren going to be denied health care if no Title X?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHere's a simple solution to Reid's demagoguery: Offer to redirect the Planned Parenthood money to women's health service providers that don't provide abortion services. Leave PP out of the loop but don't "cut" women's health services.
Reid would either have to take the deal or admit that it's Planned Parenthood he's behind and not "women's health."
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuseds: By your logic, if there is anything that the Democrats are willing to shut govt down, rather than see it cut, the Republican must not cut it.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe problem is, this applies to everything in the budget.
Wade: You need to check with PP, a solid majority of their "clinics" offer nothing other than abortion services. Regarding health care, their are dozens of places poor women can go to get the care that PP rarely provides anyway.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseFederal funds can't go for abortions so whatever PP does in its clinics, it's not done with federal funding. More posturing that has nothing to do with how federal dollars are spent.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseGood to be reminded that for large sectors of the Democrat base nothing matters more than aborting babies.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSo this negotiation is about federal funding through September and is not about a one week $12 billion cut CR? And the sticking point is funding for Planned Parenthood in DC? BTW, how much money are we talking about that is being spent annually by the Feds on Planned Parenthood in DC? Who are the Republican senators and representatives requiring the DC Planned Parenthood cuts as a precondition for cooperating with this budget deal?
Why not focus on a one week CR that cuts spending at a significant rate but includes no controversial policy riders? If the Dems want to shutdown the government, the issue will be crystal clear: it is all about reducing spending to prevent a fiscal disaster. These weekly CRs keep the budget fiasco in the news every week non stop, educating the public that there is a deficit disaster.
By focusing instead on an agreement that funds the government through September, the Republicans have succumbed to the temptation of throwing in policy riders that have nothing to do with the budget (i.e. abortion). There are several problems with this. It lets the Dems off the hook for not passing a budget last year. It removes the budget from the news until September. It makes the Republicans look like they want to cynically exploit the budget crisis to pass their non budget related social agenda legislation. This makes the Dems look like the adult in this negotiation, and makes the budget crisis look much less critical.
Here is a link to some recent polls about American attitudes towards Planned Parenthood funding and abortion in general: External Link
The polls show that 43% of Americans are OK with cutting federal funding to Planned Parenthood and 53% are against cutting the funding to Planned parenthood. A different series of polls shows that about one American in six is against abortion in all cases. The other roughly 5 out of 6 Americans are OK with abortion in at least some cases.
Federal funding of abortion is wrong but bringing abortion politics into this budget struggle is a huge mistake politically.
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