The House and Senate show no signs of coming to a deal on a funding measure. But the showdown to come, over the debt ceiling, could be even worse.
If Congress doesn’t do something—and fast—the government is going to shut down in four days.
And there’s little sign a breakthrough is coming.
The Senate is expected to pass a stop-gap measure Friday afternoon, which would keep the government open temporarily. But that proposal is a non-starter in the House, since it doesn’t defund Obamacare. President Obama has promised to veto any bill that cuts funds to his signature legislative achievement.
That’s left the pressure on House Speaker John Boehner. He lunged at a new strategy Thursday, hoping to get his conference to come along on a short-term spending deal by offering them a conservative wish-list of items in the upcoming fight over the debt ceiling. Republican demands included a one-year delay of Obamacare, and conservative shifts on economic and regulatory policy, as the price of raising the nation’s borrowing capacity. As New York magazine’s Jon Chait noted, they amount to enacting the agenda of the man who Obama defeated in last fall’s election, Mitt Romney.
Obama has vowed not to negotiate over the debt limit, citing the dangerous precedent it would establish.
But it’s not even clear that the debt ceiling strategy will attract enough GOP support in the House. Already some Tea Partiers have said it doesn’t go far enough. That leaves the shutdown a looming threat.
Without a deal, a government shutdown affecting a variety of federal services from national parks to soldiers’ paychecks, could come Tuesday. The budget year ends September 30.
A shutdown would hurt the economy and harm hundreds of thousands of federal workers. But a debt default would be far worse, preventing the U.S. from re-paying its creditors, risking the country’s credit rating, and potentially making it far harder for the U.S. to borrow money in the future.
NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell contributed to this report.
