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House G.O.P. Stands Firm on Shutdown, but Dissent Grows Obama Tells Republicans to ‘Reopen the Government’
(about 5 hours later)
WASHINGTON — The impasse in Congress that has shut much of the federal government was no closer to being resolved on Tuesday as the Senate turned down a proposal from House Republicans to enter negotiations. WASHINGTON — President Obama admonished House Republicans on Tuesday to quit fighting his three-year-old health care law and to “reopen the government,” a show of defiance that reflected Democrats’ confidence that conservatives have overreached after years of budget battles with the White House.
Republicans remained firm in their insistence that Congressional Democrats and President Obama agree to significant rollbacks in the Affordable Care Act, which began open enrollment on Tuesday, even as most government operations ground to a halt. “As long as I am president, I will not give in to reckless demands by some in the Republican Party to deny affordable health insurance to millions of hard-working Americans,” Mr. Obama said from the Rose Garden, flanked by new beneficiaries of the insurance program.
Democrats said they would not be forced into chipping away at the health law as a condition of enacting a budget to keep the government running. Then, gesturing toward his guests, he added, “I want Republicans in Congress to know — these are the Americans you’d hurt if you were allowed to dismantle this law.”
Speaking from the Rose Garden at the White House on Tuesday afternoon, President Obama said he would not give in to unreasonable demands by “one faction, of one party, of one house of Congress in one branch of government.” The president’s televised appearance captured the split-screen nature of this first of October: It was the start of a new fiscal year, with the federal government largely shuttered because of the parties’ funding impasse, yet also the inaugural day for a central piece of the landmark health care law at the center of the budget standoff.
“Congress generally has to stop governing by crisis,” he added. “It is a drag on the economy. It is not worthy of this country.” On Tuesday, uninsured Americans, about 15 percent of the population, could begin enrolling in the state-based insurance marketplaces, known as exchanges, created by the 2010 law.
He also said that with hundreds of thousands of federal employees being furloughed nationwide, many of them civilian defense workers, those workers, their families and the small local businesses that rely on their patronage would be hurt. It was unclear how long the shutdown might go on, and no one in either party could say if Republicans would remain firm in their insistence that Democrats agree to significant changes to the health care law. But on the initial day of the first shutdown in nearly 18 years — when a Republican-controlled Congress battled another Democratic president, Bill Clinton — there was little business getting done in the House or the Senate other than photo opportunities and partisan speeches.
It took less than a half-hour for the Senate to dispose of the House proposal in a 54-to-46 party-line vote. The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, who was a boxer in his younger years, swatted it down with a quick jab. One senior Republican, Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, the House Budget Committee chairman, indicated that the stalemate could go on for at least two more weeks until the nation reaches its borrowing limit. He said the deadline to address the debt limit, and avoid a default, could be “the forcing mechanism to bring the two parties together.”
“The government is closed because of the irrationality of what’s going on on the other side of the Capitol,” Mr. Reid said. Yet House Republicans also vow to oppose an increase in the debt ceiling unless Mr. Obama delays the health care law.
House leaders are presenting to their rank and file a plan to bring to the floor spending bills to fund veterans’ programs, the National Park Service and federally funded services in Washington. The idea is to ameliorate the programs most obviously affected by the shutdown, while pressing for negotiations on a broader reopening of the government tied to changes to Mr. Obama’s health care law. On Tuesday night, House Republicans tried to ease the effects of the shutdown and force Democrats into negotiation. The Republicans proposed three bills — to finance veterans’ programs, the National Park Service and federally run services in Washington — but because they introduced the measures under a procedural rule that required a two-thirds vote, each of them failed.
But that plan, like all the others that House Republicans have sent to the Senate, appears dead-on-arrival. Republicans are considering bringing up the bills again on Wednesday under a different rule that would require only a simple majority, but they have no chance of moving forward. “Senate Democrats won’t be forced to choose between cancer patients and national parks,” said Adam Jentleson, a spokesman for Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader.
“Ted Cruz is going to pick his favorite federal agencies to open? Come on,” said Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate. The mood in the White House was upbeat and enthusiastic, aides said, buoyed by a sense that Republicans were on the defensive — in the media, in their states and among others in their party.
Mr. Cruz, the Texas Republican who has led the Republican charge against the Affordable Care Act in Congress, suggested a similar piecemeal budget approach to lessen the effects of a shutdown. In past budget conflicts back to 2010, administration officials have said that media commentary amounted to “a pox on both your houses,” with reporters and pundits suggesting that both parties were equally to blame when, in the White House’s view, Republicans have been the obstructionists since they took control of the House in the 2010 elections.
With tangible signs of the shutdown beginning to hit television and circulate online — images of the Lincoln Memorial cordoned off in yellow police tape and tourists being turned away from the Statue of Liberty — all sides were showing indications that pressure to strike a deal was getting hotter. On Capitol Hill, an uneasy calm descended after the 12:01 a.m. shutdown. By the morning light the usual hordes of tourists were barred from entering the Capitol and many House and Senate aides stayed home, furloughed without pay. Republicans acknowledged that they were in the weaker position politically but argued that Democrats could not long defend their refusal to negotiate.
House Republican leaders staged a photo op in the Capitol, calling reporters and photographers into a gilded room overlooking the National Mall, where they sat down at a half-empty table. “The way to resolve our differences is to sit down and talk,” said Representative Eric Cantor, the No. 2 House Republican. “And as you can see here, there’s no one here on the other side of the table.” “At every turn, the answer has been no,” said Senator John Thune, a Republican leader from South Dakota. “I don’t think the American people see that as a reasonable proposition.”
Republicans continued their efforts to shift blame for the shutdown to the Democrats, whom they accused of intentionally letting the clock run out so they could point fingers back at conservatives. Democrats, with some support in early national polls, said they could hold firm so long as Republicans’ demands were so unreasonable — and, in their view, disingenuous.
“Well, Democrat leaders in Congress finally have their prize — a government shutdown that no one seems to want but them,” said Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader. “House Republicans worked late into the night this weekend to keep the government open. And Senate Democrats dragged their feet.” Senator Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia, noted that House and Senate Democrats had been pressing for a conference committee to negotiate a budget for the 2014 fiscal year since March but had been “blocked by Republicans 18 times in the last six months.”
Mr. Reid interrupted him. Senator Charles E. Schumer, a Democratic leader from New York, said, “At the rate it’s going,” Republicans “will have to open up the government sooner rather than later because they won’t be able to sustain their position.”
“My friend the Republican leader spoke as if George Orwell wrote his speech,” he said. “This is ‘1984,’ where up is down, down is up, east is west.” Nobody, Mr. Reid continued, was more thrilled to have the government closed than the Tea Party. “We had a good day for the anarchists,” he said. “Why? Because the government is closed.” Tensions between the parties spilled into the open, even as cracks appeared in the Republicans’ opposition.
The Republican leadership in both houses of Congress have accused their Democratic counterparts and Mr. Obama of failing to entertain even the smallest changes to the health care law, which they have said is deeply flawed and harmful to businesses. Representative Scott Rigell, a Virginia Republican with a large federal presence in his district, said his party should abandon the fight to target the health law as a condition of approving a budget. “Republicans fought the good fight,” he said.
But among the rank and file, more and more Republicans are saying they believe they have no cards left to play. Senator Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona, said of Democrats: “We’ve called their bluff, and they didn’t blink. At this point it would kind of strain logic to assume that going deeper into this when Republicans are likely to get the blame will benefit us more.”
“We’ve called their bluff, and they didn’t blink,” said Senator Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona. “At this point it would kind of strain logic to assume that going deeper into this when Republicans are likely to get the blame will benefit us more.” Nonetheless, at noon, House Republican leaders summoned reporters and photographers into a gilded room overlooking the National Mall, directing the cameras to capture the empty seats — for Democrats, they said — at the table.
Senator Saxby Chambliss, Republican of Georgia, said Republicans were running out of options. “In this case, we’ve got no leverage,” he said. “They’ve got 100 percent of the leverage.” “The way to resolve our differences is to sit down and talk,” said Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the No. 2 House Republican. “And as you can see here, there’s no one here on the other side of the table.”
In the House, Representative Scott Rigell became the latest Republican to break ranks with his leadership, saying that it was time to pass a stand-alone budget bill. “We fought the good fight,” he said. The scene so irritated Mr. Reid that he soon strode onto the Senate floor to denounce such “silly, empty Republicans stunts.”
With the ball in Mr. Boehner’s court, Republicans were left wondering what his next move would be. The House still has the ability to pass a bill that finances the government without making any changes to the health care law. If Mr. Boehner put that on the floor, it would almost certainly pass. His Republican counterpart, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader, also took to the floor. “Well, Democrat leaders in Congress finally have their prize — a government shutdown that no one seems to want but them,” he said. “House Republicans worked late into the night this weekend to keep the government open. And Senate Democrats dragged their feet.”
But, under pressure from his most conservative members, he is not doing so for now. Mr. Reid, a former boxer, interrupted with a jab. “My friend the Republican leader spoke as if George Orwell wrote his speech,” he said. “This is ‘1984,’ where up is down, down is up, east is west.” Nobody was happier to have the government closed than the Tea Party, Mr. Reid said, adding, “We had a good day for the anarchists.”
“They’re having a difficult time over there,” said Senator Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee, declining to say whether Mr. Boehner should bring the straight-up budget bill to a vote. From the White House Rose Garden, the president had the loudest megaphone and a battery of television cameras to likewise make the case that the Republican Party in Congress had been taken over by a minority of militantly conservative lawmakers who have cowed Republican leaders.
Representative Steve Israel, Democrat of New York, said in an interview on CNBC on Tuesday morning, “We could get this done in a matter of an hour as long as Speaker Boehner is willing to allow that to come to a vote.” “At midnight last night for the first time in 17 years, the Republicans in Congress chose to shut down the federal government,” Mr. Obama said. “Let me be more specific: One faction of one party in one house of Congress in one branch of government shut down major parts of the government, all because they did not like one law.”
Democrats have begun casting the debate over the budget as something much larger than the six weeks of funding that the current legislation would support. They have repeatedly said that the hard line they have taken is meant to bring an end to Washington’s vicious cycle of governing by crisis. Mr. Obama said once again that he would not negotiate over the debt ceiling and “allow anybody to drag the good name of the United States of America through the mud just to refight a settled election or extract ideological demands.” He added, “I’m not out there saying, ‘Well, I’m going to let America default unless Congress does something that they don’t want to do.’ That’s not how adults operate.”
“For one party, in one branch of Congress, to hold this country hostage in order to override that constitutional process — disrupting the lives of federal workers and the American people who depend on their services — is unconscionable,” said Representative Jim McDermott, Democrat of Washington. Mr. Obama said the full economic impact of the shutdown would depend on how long it goes on — something neither party was willing to predict Tuesday. But, he said: “We know that the last time Republicans shut down the government in 1996, it hurt our economy. And unlike 1996, our economy is still recovering from the worst recession in generations.”
While much of the capital’s attention on Tuesday was focused on the closing of federal office buildings and memorials and the furloughing of hundreds of thousands of employees, it was also the first day of enrollment in the exchanges that will become the backbone of the new health care system created under the 2010 law.
Conservatives used the media to seize on images that the online enrollment system was malfunctioning. “Surprise! Obamacare health care exchange Web sites don’t work,” said one aggregator of conservative news and commentary. On Fox News, a host of the morning show “Fox & Friends” used a laptop computer to try to contact an online representative for one of the government Web sites and complained that he had been waiting for almost an hour.