House Republicans and Senate Democrats Locked in Stalemate

Barring some sort of last minute development, the US government will partially shut down later tonight and hundreds of thousands of federal employees will be furloughed.

A federal government shutdown would be the first for the United States since 1996, when a dispute between President Clinton and the Republican-led Congress resulted in a 28 day partial shutdown.

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Earlier today, Senate Democrats voted down a proposal from the House that would impose a year-long delay on "Obamacare" and a repeal of the medical device tax as part of a short-term funding bill. Another proposal from the House would keep the federal government open in exchange for the delaying of the imposition of the individual mandate and the elimination of health care subsidies for members of Congress and their aides, but Senate Democrats have vowed to reject that proposal as well.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has said that the Democrats are "not going to change Obamacare" and that the House Republicans are "anarchists" who are determined to shut the federal government down.

House Republicans, on the other hand, have responded by calling Senate Democrats "lazy". They have also accused Harry Reid of "picking up his football and going home."

Both sides agree on one thing, however - a one-week "stop-gap" plan, which was introduced by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, is not a good idea.

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In short, House Republicans are looking to tie changes to Obamacare to a continuing resolution, while President Barack Obama and Senate Democrats are vowing that no such changes to "Obamacare" will be permitted.

It doesn't seem like either side is going to blink right now, which means that we will almost certainly have a partial shutdown of the federal government effective early tomorrow morning.

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If you want an overview as to what a partial shutdown of the US federal government would look like, the Washington Post has a great overview here.

Filed under: General Knowledge