something something budget something government shutdown

[Yuri-G]

there are you happy Kuya?

oh I guess I should link to an article or something, I don't know whatever here you go:

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_1...85-503544.html

Government shutdown: Can they make a deal?


By Friday morning, with just hours left for Congress to avert a government shutdown, Republicans and Democrats seemed closer than ever to reaching a budget deal. But at the same time, the negotiations seemed as intractable as ever.

Democrats say Republicans are prepared to shut down the government over a women's health policy rider. Republicans say Democrats still need to "get serious" about spending cuts. Whatever the case may be, if Congress doesn't pass a budget for the rest of the fiscal year by midnight tonight, the federal government will in part stop operating.

President Obama huddled with House Spekaer John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in the Oval Office again on Thursday night, and negotiations on Capitol Hill lasted until 3 a.m. early Friday morning. A Democratic aide told CBS News Capitol Hill Correspondent Nancy Cordes that Mr. Obama agreed to a number "higher than $34.5 billion" in spending cuts to include in the six-month budget bill. On top of that, the aide says negotiators "settled" just about every policy issue Republicans wanted to include in the bill -- for instance, a policy rider over the Environmental Protection Agency is now off the table.

However, Democrats say talks remain stalled over a GOP policy rider to cut Title 10 funding, which provides a few hundred million in grants for clinics like Planned Parenthood.

"This all deals with women's health," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said this morning. "Everything has been resolved, everything... that is the only issue that was left undone when we left the White House last night."

"We agreed on spending cuts, and they still are not happy," he added.

Republicans insist there is no agreement on how much spending to cut from the budget.

"While nothing will be decided until everything is decided, the largest issue is still spending cuts," said Michael Steel, a spokesperson for House Speaker John Boehner. "The American people want to cut spending to help the private sector create jobs - and the Democrats that run Washington don't."

Additionally, an aide for Boehner told CBS News White House Correspondent Mark Knoller that Democrats need to "get serious" about spending cuts. The aide said, "The lack of substantial cuts is at the core [of the continued disagreement]. For the most part all policy points have resolution or are close to resolution."

Another congressional aide close to the negotiations told CBS News' Nancy Cordes that, as negotiations stand right now, Democrats have conceded to Republicans on about a dozen policy riders, including one that would prohibit any federal funding for transferring prisoners from Guantanamo Bay to the U.S. for imprisonment or trial.

As for the Title 10 funding, a Democratic aide told Cordes that Republicans want that money given to states in the form of block grants, apparently so Republic governors would have discretion to funnel that money elsewhere. Democrats oppose that idea, and the aide said they offered Republicans a standalone vote on that rider outside the funding bill. Republicans said no.

Mr. Obama plans to call Boehner and Reid mid-morning Friday for an update on the negotiations.

-

oh and I don't think this is hyper-partisan enough yet to reach 100 pages so let's pull my favorite quote from that article: "The American people want to cut spending to help the private sector create jobs - and the Democrats that run Washington don't."

democrats don't want jobs, you heard it here first!

[Yuri-G]

oh wait I forgot something, let me light the swampysignal:

the only way to move america forward in these troubled times is through taxpayer-funded abortions and raping the wealthy

there, that should do it

[Diamicles]

raping the wealthy

lets make this happen

[Xno Kappa]

I'm glad the people in Congress will continue to get paid if such a shutdown happens. A lot of our elected officials have financial obligations they have to deal with from month to month.

[Yuri-G]

I'm glad the people in Congress will continue to get paid if such a shutdown happens. A lot of our elected officials have financial responsibilities they have to deal with from month to month.

I know, poor Sean Duffy's driving a used van don'tcha know! thank god he'll still get paid his $174k/yr salary. thank god.

[shepardG]

if the fuckers don't quit this shit and work something out, i get paid half pay on the 15th..... not fucking cool when your in the middle of afghanistan

the worst thing, is that it should never have came to this. the faggots should have worked something out months ago, instead of this bullshit.

[Meresgi]

"Democrats need to get serious about budget cuts"

As serious as cutting subsidies to corn and some of the funding to defense?

if the fuckers don't quit this shit and work something out, i get paid half pay on the 15th..... not fucking cool when your in the middle of afghanistan

the worst thing, is that it should never have came to this. the faggots should have worked something out months ago, instead of this bullshit.

Don't you know? The government is looking out for you!

[Hyan]

Is there any chance this ends up being as entertaining as the rest of the year has been? Hopefully it escalates to a civil war at least.

Gotta start preparing for 2012 by now at the latest.

[Xno Kappa]

There's going to be an assload of Article 15's in the military if a budget isn't passed.

[Yuri-G]

oh fuck corn, don't get me started on corn. biggest two-bit snake oil scam of the 21st century.

[aurik]

Just goes to show that the republicans aren't serious about cutting spending if they're not willing to compromise to get it done.

[Yuri-G]

out of curiosity, anyone have numbers on planned parenthood's funding? willing to bet it's around .0001% of the national deficit. and NPR is even less... I don't know how the GOP thinks anyone's being fooled when they say they're cutting this stuff to save money.

edit: nevermind, I was being lazy, according to wiki it was $349.6 million in the 2008 fiscal year. deficit is about 14 trillion. yeah I think I was right on the money there.

[Meresgi]

Just goes to show that the republicans aren't serious about cutting spending if they're not willing to compromise to get it done.

That's how you properly republican, you complain the other side won't make concessions to you, while you make zero concessions to them.

[aurik]

NPR is about 5 million, about 1/20th of 1% of 1% of the federal budget.

[Kuya]

I am expecting to democrats to accept a lot of the republican's demands. The democrats will then claim this was a victory because they didn't accept even more extreme republican proposals.

[Drex]

Someone on another website talking about this had a brilliant input

Donald Trump is trying to get nominated for presidential candidate...not saying i would vote for him...but he is a business man...he would have our deficite settled in a year...

Only thing worse than stupid politicians is stupid people trying to create stupid politicians

In any case, a little of this:

I am expecting to democrats to accept a lot of the republican's demands. The democrats will then claim this was a victory because they didn't accept even more extreme republican proposals.

plus some more shady accounting practices so they can even more strongly mis-report our financial situation will be the result of all this.

[Kuya]

People need to understand that what people say they're gonna do outside of office, and what they do inside of office are often very very different things. The only thing you can expect from Donald Trump is that he would want to cut taxes, which, suprisingly, does not help a deficit (mostly).

[Acturus]

I am expecting to democrats to accept a lot of the republican's demands. The democrats will then claim this was a victory because they didn't accept even more extreme republican proposals.

I want to laugh, but I just can't.

[Drex]

People need to understand that what people say they're gonna do outside of office, and what they do inside of office are often very very different things. The only thing you can expect from Donald Trump is that he would want to cut taxes, which, suprisingly, does not help a deficit (mostly).

That and drive the country into bankruptcy while protecting his own personal holdings...which doesn't sound so different from what the government is doing. Maybe Trump would be good after all, since he's already mastered the strategy our government seems to be implementing for dealing with debt.

[Kurokikaze]

Republicans say Democrats need to "get serious about cuts" but don't specifically say whats causing all the bullshit. God damnit.