Shutdown Pits GOP Against Democrats, Business Groups
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- Today’s banner on the popular search engine Google proclaims the 123rd anniversary of Yosemite National Park, but clicking on the banner brings up a list of links topped by a news story that Yosemite will be among the national parks closed today, as well as other federal agencies and offices, a consequence of the federal shutdown that began at midnight.
The shutdown represents the latest skirmish between the White House and congressional Democrats with Republicans, who have attached legislation requiring implementation delays or defunding of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, often called Obamacare, as a condition of approving continued funding for the federal government.
Without funding approved by Congress and the White House, government agencies not considered essential to the nation’s operation and security will be shut down, and hundreds of thousands of federal employees furloughed until the standoff is resolved.
According to a readout issued by the White House of calls by President Obama to congressional leaders prior to midnight, the president made clear that Congress has two jobs, to pay the bills on time and to pass a budget on time. “Failure to fulfill those responsibilities is harmful to our economy, small businesses and middle class families across the country,” the president told the congressional leaders.
Obama also made clear to Republicans leaders that they must pass a bill that funds the government for six weeks that didn’t include “extraneous ideological riders” and said he would continue to oppose “any politically-motivated attempts to defund or delay the Affordable Care Act,” key provisions of which go into effect today, “attempts which would never pass the Senate or become law.” He also reiterated that he would not negotiate on the debt limit, which must be increased in the coming weeks.
House Republicans, in insisting on delay or defunding of the Affordable Care Act as a condition for providing continued funding for the federal government, bucked a core constituency, the business community. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce lead a broad coalition of 251 trade associations and lobbying groups calling on Congress to approve a continuing resolution to ensure “uninterrupted funding” of the government into the next fiscal year and to “act expeditiously” to raise the debt limit.
Signatories to the letter included the National Association of Manufacturers, American Farm Bureau Federation, American Iron and Steel Institute, Independent Electrical Contractors, Independent Diary Foods Association and National Retail Federation. Chambers of commerce from across the country, including the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, also signed onto the letter.
“We appreciate fully the importance of restraining federal spending, both discretionary spending and mandatory spending, to reduce federal budget deficits, contain the growth of federal debt, and thereby re-establish fiscal discipline in the near-term and for the long haul. However, with the U.S. economy continuing to underperform, the federal government needs to maintain its normal operations pending a successful outcome of broader budgetary reforms. It is not in the best interest of the employers, employees or the American people to risk a government shutdown that will be economically disruptive and create even more uncertainties for the U.S. economy,” the organizations said in the letter.
“Likewise, we respectfully urge the Congress to raise the debt ceiling in a timely manner and remove any threat to the full faith and credit of the United States government,” it continued.
In a statement issued Monday evening, Tom Zawistowski, executive director of the Portage County Tea Party, sought to cast blame on the president and Democrats. The Senate vote to strip the Affordable Care Act provisions out of the House resolution and send it back to show that it is Obama and the Democrat-controlled Senate “who are discriminating against single mothers, small business owners and blue-collar workers who will not be treated the same as Democratic friends in big business, politicians and eventually big unions,” Zawistowski said.
“Like sequestration, the threat of the damage from a government shutdown, which is being orchestrated” by Obama and Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid “for purely political reasons, is being grossly exaggerated and Americans know it,” he continued. “With the rejection of the Republican offer of only a one-year delay in implementation, that simply treats all Americans equally, it is now crystal clear that Reid and Obama are the only ones unwilling to compromise. They are determined to subject the American people to the economic and medical disaster that is Obamacare, even while admitting it is nowhere near ready for implantation."
Last night, U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-13 Ohio, said he was “shocked and dismayed” that the House Republican Conference’s Tea Party wing had acted “so recklessly” in forcing a government shutdown.
“My colleagues and I were not sent to Washington to play political games, we were sent here to govern. These Republican extremists have held the U.S. government hostage and wasted both time and money by obstructing a law that was passed over three years ago, signed by the president, and deemed constitutional by the Supreme Court,” Ryan remarked.
Tea Party Republicans, because they didn't get their way, “have decided to take their ball and go home,” he continued. “I stand by my rational, moderate Republican colleagues who know that shutting down the government in order to win political battles, is no way to govern.”
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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