October 17, 2013

Some 800,000 federal employees went back to work this morning after a 16-day shutdown of the United States government. The political stand-off between the Republican majority in the House of Representatives and Senate Democrats and President Barack Obama ended just minutes before a midnight deadline after which the government’s ability to borrow money by selling bonds would have expired.

A bill brokered by Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D., Nevada) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Kentucky) finances the operations of government until Jan. 15, 2014, and raises the nation’s debt limit through the middle of February. The Senate passed the measure last night by an 81-to-18 vote. The House followed suit, passing the bill by a vote of 285-to-144. Eighty-seven House Republicans broke ranks to join a united Democratic caucus in approving the measure.

An attempt to defund the Affordable Care Act by hardline conservatives in the House of Representatives collapsed on October 16, when both houses of Congress passed legislation financing the federal government and raising the debt limit.  (© Brooks Kraft, Corbis)

Passage of the measure ended a stalemate led by hardline conservatives, generally members of the House Tea Party caucus. The caucus pushed their Republican leaders to use the double threat of a shutdown and a default on the national debt to defund the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as “Obamacare.”

Political experts generally agree that pushing the federal government to the edge of a fiscal meltdown for political gain was a major misstep by Congressional Republicans. A Washington Post-ABC public opinion poll taken earlier this week found that 74 percent of Americans disapproved of the way Republicans in Congress were handling the negotiations. A Pew poll taken yesterday found that public approval of the Tea Party was in free fall. Only 20 percent of polled Republicans now support the Tea Party movement. The Wall Street credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s announced yesterday that the shutdown had drained at least $24 billion out of the already fragile U.S. economy.  Conservative radio pundit Rush Limbaugh described the Republican shutdown and subsequent surrender as “One of the greatest political disasters I’ve ever seen.”

Additional World Book articles:

• National budget
• Tempest in a Tea Party (a special report)

October 1, 2013

A central provision of the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as “Obamacare,” went into effect today amid a general shutdown of the U.S. government. Federal and state-run insurance exchanges opened for business this morning. As many as 7 million uninsured Americans are eligible to buy affordable health insurance on these exchanges.

Condemning the Affordable Care act as an unprecedented intrusion into Americans’ private lives, Congressional Republicans waged a years-long campaign to undermine it. The latest effort led to today’s government shutdown. A number of Republicans in the House of Representatives, in particular the Tea Party caucus, demanded that the law be repealed or stripped of funding as a condition for continuing to fund the government. The Senate refused to pass the House bill, and House leaders refused to even bring the Senate-approved budget up for a vote. (Political experts note that the Senate bill would have passed in the House, largely with Democratic votes, if it had been brought to the House floor by Speaker John Boehner. They suggest, however, that if Boehner had brought the Senate bill up for a vote in defiance of the Tea Party caucus, his action would have cost him his position as speaker of the House.)

With no new budget or budget extension in place, the U.S. government shut down this morning at 12:01 a.m. At least 800,000 federal employees will likely be sent home without pay as many government agencies prepared to close their doors. More than 1 million others will be asked to work without pay. President Barack Obama signed legislation late on September 30 ensuring that uniformed members of the military will be paid during the shutdown. The 533 current members of Congress will also receive their paychecks.

The shut down of the U.S federal government on October 1 led to the closing of national parks and monuments across the nation (c George Goodwin, Monkmeyer).

Republicans in Washington, D.C., and in state capitals across the country, have battled to repeal the health care law since its passage in 2010. The House of Representatives took 40-some symbolic votes to nullify it or eliminate its funding. Legal challenges led by Republican governors ended in June 2012 when the Supreme Court validated its most controversial provision: the individual mandate, which specifies that Americans not receiving health coverage from their employers or from the government must purchase individual plans or pay a fine.

Several provisions of “Obamacare” went into effect prior to today: children can now remain on their parents’ insurance plans up to age 26; children with pre-existing health conditions can no longer be denied coverage; senior citizens now enjoy prescription drug discounts; and insurance companies can no longer place lifetime limits on health coverage. Another major provision—the employer mandate—requires employers with at least 50 full-time workers to provide insurance or incur a $2,000 per employee penalty. Implementation of that provision has been delayed until 2015.

Additional World Book articles:

• Congress of the United States 2010 (a Back in Time article)
• Health Care Reform–What’s in it for You? (a special report)
• Medicaid in Distress (a special report)
• Tempest in a Tea Party (a special report)

September 30, 2013
A shutdown of the U.S. federal government looms, as Democratic and Republican lawmakers remain deadlocked over stopgap legislation to fund government operations. Without passage of a finance bill by both houses of Congress, the government will be forced to close all nonessential federal services at midnight on October 1.

Speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner (above), leads a Republican Party intent upon tying the U.S. budget bill to delaying or denying funding to the Affordable Healthcare Act, passed in 2010. Senate Majority leader Harry Reid (above left) has vowed that the Senate will not vote for the House's version of the finance bill (United States House of Representatives).

(U.S. Senate)

The key point of contention in the political stalemate is the Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama’s landmark health care legislation. A number of Republicans in the House of Representatives—in particular the Tea Party caucus—demand that the law be repealed or stripped of funding as a condition for keeping the government running. The House passed its latest version of a stopgap funding measure on September 28. The bill included a year-long delay in the implementation of what has come to be called “Obamacare.” It also included a measure that would permanently eliminate a medical-device tax that was designed to partially fund the new health care system. Legal experts point out that eliminating the tax would essentially cripple the act. Senate Majority leader Harry Reid has vowed that his Democrat-led chamber will reject the House bill, and in fact, the Senate failed to go into session on September 29 despite the political crisis.

A government shutdown would place more than 700,000 federal employees on unpaid leave, with no guarantee of receiving back pay once the deadlock is over; Social Security, federal pension, and veterans’ benefit checks would be delayed; Medicare and Medicaid payments would be disrupted; and many government facilities, including immigration services  and passport and visa offices, would be shut down; the national parks and Smithsonian museums would also close.

President Obama emphasized today that the simple solution to the standoff is for House Republicans to pass the budget that was passed by the Senate on September 27. Of course, the Senate legislation does not gut the Affordable Care Act. Political experts note that the Senate bill, if brought to the House floor by Speaker John Boehner, would almost certainly pass, largely with Democratic votes. However, they suggest that if Boehner were to bring the Senate bill to a vote in defiance of the Tea Party caucus his action would likely cost him his position as speaker of the House.

Major portions of the Affordable Care Act, which a Democrat-controlled Congress passed in 2010, are due to go into effect tomorrow. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the act was constitutional in 2012.

Additional World Book articles:

• Congress of the United States 2010 (a Back in Time article)
• Health Care Reform–What’s in it for You? (a special report)
• Medicaid in Distress (a special report)
• Tempest in a Tea Party (a special report)