Tag: 2018 government shutdown

Looming shutdown raises fundamental question: Can GOP govern?

The following article by Damian Paletta and Erica Werner was posted on the Washington Post website January 18, 2018:

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said that rebuilding the military is his “highest priority,” and characterized the spending disagreements as “melodrama.” (Reuters)

The federal government late Thursday faced increasing odds of a partial shutdown, the culmination of a long period of budget warfare that has now imperiled what most lawmakers agree is the most basic task of governance.

The immediate challenge Thursday was a refusal by Senate Democrats to join with Republicans in passing legislation that would keep the government open for 30 more days while legislators continued to negotiate a longer-term solution. Continue reading “Looming shutdown raises fundamental question: Can GOP govern?”

The Blame Game Over the Shutdown Showdown

The following article by Lindsey McPherson was posted on the Roll Call website January 18, 2018:

Speaker Paul D. Ryan is hunting for votes to keep the government open. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

With less than 36 hours to avoid a shutdown of nonessential government services and no solution in sight, congressional leaders spent Thursday  offering their spin on who will be to blame if a deal cannot be struck.

Notably missing amid the rhetoric — as Republicans pointed to Democrats, while the minority said the majority is at fault — were predictions leaders had made in recent weeks that there would be no government shutdown.

President Donald Trump entered the Pentagon on Thursday for a national security meeting and predicted a government shutdown “could very well be.” Continue reading “The Blame Game Over the Shutdown Showdown”

White House Flips, Flops, Then Flips on Stopgap Spending

The following article by John T. Bennett was posted on the Roll Call website January 18,2018:

Trump’s tweet sends Hill into spin

President Donald Trump defied his staff by criticizing the inclusion of a provision to extend CHIP in the latest continuing budget resolution. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call file photo)

President Donald Trump on Thursday undermined efforts by House Republican leaders and his own staff to avoid a government shutdown, criticizing a decision to include an extension of the Children’s Health Insurance Program in a GOP-crafted stopgap spending bill.

Hours later the White House announced the president supported the House GOP-crafted stopgap spending measure that includes a six-year CHIP extension — despite a confusing morning tweet that raised questions to the contrary.

The president, after first contradicting his own chief of staff via Twitter on Thursday morning, fired off another post expressing his view that a CHIP extension should not be part of a four-week stopgap measure on which the House is slated to vote later in the day. Continue reading “White House Flips, Flops, Then Flips on Stopgap Spending”