Atlantic - "The New GOP Strategy: Fund the Government à la Carte"

[TomCADem]

I guess this is one way for how one segment of one party of one house of one branch of government can start dictating policy. I doubt the EPA would ever receive funding. So much for separation of powers.

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2013/10/new-gop-strategy-government-departments-la-carte/70076/

A new possibility for resolving the government shutdown, at least in part: House Republicans are reportedly considering passing several measures to fund a few government functions, instead of the whole thing. On the one hand, this suggests that the Democrats' "no piecemeal negotiations" strategy is working. On the other, it could put the Senate in one of its toughest positions yet.

The new tactic was discussed during a meeting of the House caucus on Tuesday afternoon. According to Politico, the lucky subsets of the government are veterans affairs, the National Park Service, and the functioning of the city of Washington (where most members of Congress live, at least part-time). They would join the already-blessed military, which was granted a similar funding extension before the shutdown went into effect. Giving us four castes of government work: the military, the photo-op friendly ones that the House wants to fund today, the excepted employees at work even during the shutdown, and everyone else.

From two Fridays ago, when the House passed its first budget resolution with an amendment cutting out Obamacare funding, Senate Democrats have responded the same way: no deal. That military exemption was the only time in which the Senate has deviated from its all-or-nothing call for a clean funding resolution, even flatly rejecting a conference committee meeting with Republicans while the government stays shut.

This new proposal from the House suggests that the Senate strategy is effective. Americans predominantly blame Republicans for the shutdown (for good reason). The images of veterans swarming the World War II memorial, for example, proved irresistible to the media and media-friendly Republicans. The Republicans have gone from saying, in essence, "we're fine with no government at all" to "well, OK, this part of government is important and we will fight for it." It's an erosion of their own position, similar to their perceived backtracking from a full defunding of Obamacare in early budget proposals to a one-year delay in the most recent iteration. The Senate, by just saying no, is forcing the House to step away from its positions.

[SharonAnn]

1. OK then, I want to defund the new weapon development that has become a boondoggle

And I want to defund lots of other things, too.

But I thought, in a democracy, that we voted for our representatives, senators, and president and if we didn't like what they did then we should elect someone else.