With eight days left to avert a possible government shutdown, congressional leaders from both parties on Sunday passed around blame, but offered no clear path to a compromise that would allow for continued financing of government operations.
In television appearances, Republicans and Democrats accused each other of being responsible for the impasse. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader of the House, called her opponents “legislative arsonists.”
“They’re there to burn down what we should be building up in terms of investments in education and scientific research and all that it is that makes our country great and competitive,” she said.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said that Democrats in the Senate would probably use “brute political power,” by trying to invoke a simple majority vote that would not rely on Republicans to block a bill passed by House Republicans last week that linked financing for the government to the elimination of financing for President Barack Obama’s health-care law, which is about to go into full effect.
Senate Democratic leaders are likely to respond to the House bill in the coming days by stripping out the healthcare provision and sending it back to the House, where Republicans will have little time to respond before the Oct. 1 deadline.
The wrangling over the budget comes as lawmakers consider separate legislation that would let the United States avoid a first-ever default on its debt obligations. House Republicans are planning legislation that would attach a one-year delay in the health-care law in exchange for increasing the nation’s credit limit of $16.7 trillion.
Obama, speaking to political allies Saturday evening, showed little patience for the GOP efforts.
“We will not negotiate over whether or not America should keep its word and meet its obligations,” Obama told the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation dinner.
“We’re not going to allow anyone to inflict economic pain on millions of our own people just to make an ideological point.”
Cruz on Sunday called on Republicans in the House and Senate to unite around the repeal of money for the healthcare law, which both sides often call Obamacare. Should a government shutdown occur, he said, it would be the fault of Obama and Senate Democrats, who have refused to negotiate over the health-care law.
“We’ve been standing up, leading the fight to defund Obamacare,” Cruz said, adding later, “I believe we should stand our ground.”
Cruz said Senate Republicans should mount a procedural roadblock that would require 60 votes for any changes to the House bill.
However, Cruz faced criticism within his own party.
“It’s not a tactic that we can actually carry out and be successful,” said Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla.
“The answer now in the Senate, by those who propose this strategy, is to filibuster the very bill they said they wanted.”
Across the Capitol, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said he would keep the health law intact despite Republicans’ attempts “to take an entire law hostage simply to appease the Tea Party anarchists.”
Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., accused Cruz and Republican leaders of refusing to accept Obama’s re-election last November, which she described as in part a referendum on Obama’s health-care law.
“I don’t think in America we should throw tantrums when we lose elections and threaten to shut down the government and refuse to pay the bills,” Mc-Caskill said. “The American people had a choice last November. They had a choice between someone who said, ‘Repeal Obamacare,’ and President Obama.”
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, whose faceoff with President Bill Clinton led to government shutdowns that inflicted significant damage on the GOP and helped resurrect Clinton’s political fortunes in time for his 1996 re-election bid, said his GOP colleagues should not yield.
“This is not a dictatorship. Under our Constitution, there should be a period of tension and there should be a compromise on both sides,” Gingrich said.
Robert Reich, who was Clinton’s labor secretary, said that works only if both parties are willing to negotiate.
“Sorry, under our constitutional system you’re not allowed to risk the entire system of government to get your way,” Reich said.
Pelosi spoke on CNN’s State of the Union. Cruz and McCaskill were interviewed on Fox News Sunday. Reich and Gingrich appeared on ABC’s This Week. Coburn was on CBS’ Face the Nation.
Information for this article was contributed by Michael Schwirtz of The New York Times and by Philip Elliott of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 09/23/2013