Newt Gingrich=Ted Cruz=Pat Roberts≠Bob Dole (Which is to say the former are less than equal to the latter.) A couple of weeks ago exactly 17 Senate Republicans joined Ted Cruz in voting to continue the shutdown, and reset the clock back approximately 18 years. When the previous fiscal year ended on September 30, 1995, Democratic President Bill Clinton and the Republican-controlled Congress had not passed a budget. The Republican House Speaker, Newt Gingrich, had promised to slow the rate of government spending. When Democratic President Bill Clinton refused to cut the budget in the way Republicans wanted, Gingrich threatened to refuse to raise the debt limit, which would cause the US Treasury to suspend funding other portions of the government to avoid putting the country in default. Clinton said Republican amendments would strip the U.S. Treasury of its ability to dip into federal trust funds to avoid a borrowing crisis. Republican amendments would have limited appeals by death-row inmates, made it harder to issue health, safety and environmental regulations, and would have committed the President to a seven-year budget plan. Clinton vetoed a second bill allowing the government to keep operating beyond the time when most spending authority expires. A GOP amendment opposed by Clinton would not only have increased Medicare Part B premiums, but it would also cancel a scheduled reduction. The Republicans held out for an increase in Medicare part B premiums in January 1996 to $53.50 a month. Clinton favored the then current law, which was to let the premium that seniors pay drop to $42.50. Since a budget for the new fiscal year was not approved, on October 1 the entire federal government operated on a continuing resolution authorizing interim funding for departments until new budgets were approved. The continuing resolution was set to expire on November 13 at midnight, at which time non-essential government services were required to cease operations in order to prevent expending funds that had not yet been appropriated. Congress passed a continuing resolution for funding and a bill to limit debt, which Clinton vetoed as he denounced them as backdoor efforts to cut the budget in a partisan manner. On November 13, Republican and Democratic leaders, including Vice President Al Gore, Dick Armey, and Bob Dole, met to try to resolve the budget and were unable to reach an agreement. On November 14, major portions of the federal government suspended operations. The Clinton administration later released figures detailing the costs of the shutdown, which included payments of approximately $400 million to furloughed federal employees who did not report to work. The first budget shutdown concluded with Congress enacting a temporary spending bill, but the underlying disagreement between Gingrich and Clinton was not resolved, leading to the second shutdown. The second shutdown lasted 22 days as White House and Congressional negotiators worked out a balanced budget agreement that included modest spending cuts and tax increases. During the crisis, while being questioned at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast by Lars-Erik Nelson, Gingrich made a complaint that, during a flight to and from Yitzhak Rabins funeral in Israel, Clinton had not taken the opportunity to talk about the budget and Gingrich had been directed to leave the plane via the rear door. The perception arose that the Republican stance on the budget was partly due to this snub by Clinton, and media coverage reflected this perception, including an editorial cartoon which depicted Gingrich as an infant throwing a temper tantrum. Opposing politicians used this opportunity to attack Gingrichs motives for the budget standoff. Later, the polls suggested that the event damaged Gingrich politically and he referred to his comments as his single most avoidable mistake as Speaker. Imagine. A Republican Congressional leader depicted as an infant throwing a temper tantrum. Hard to believe. washingtonpost/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/10/16/who-voted-against-the-senate-bill-to-end-the-government-shutdown/
Posted on: Sat, 26 Oct 2013 02:40:32 +0000
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