Would Boehner shut down the government over Planned Parenthood? (updated)

[ProSense]

WOULD BOEHNER SHUT DOWN THE GOVERNMENT OVER PLANNED PARENTHOOD?....

The good news is, Democrats and Republicans have reportedly reached a general agreement on the size of the cuts for the rest of the fiscal year. As of this morning, the package is up to $34.5 billion, from $33 billion, and now reportedly includes some additional reductions in military spending.

The bad news, Republicans still want to use the budget to wage a culture war, and tomorrow night, will shut down the government to advance this agenda.

Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the top Democrat in the Senate, said Thursday morning that he is "not nearly as optimistic" about avoiding a shutdown as he was after a Wednesday night Oval Office meeting and said "it looks like it's headed in that direction."

Mr. Reid said that Republicans have "drawn a line in the sand" on issues of abortion funding and changes to the clean air act, and he said those issues could not be resolved in the hours left before a government shutdown.

"The numbers are basically there. But I am not as nearly as optimistic, and that's an understatement, as I was eleven hours ago," Mr. Reid said on the floor of the Senate. "The only thing holding up an agreement is ideology."

In case this isn't already clear, we're dealing with obvious madness. Republicans want to cut off Planned Parenthood and gut the Clean Air Act, but instead of pursuing legislation to achieve their goals, they're insisting that this be part of the budget. Democrats can't go along with this nonsense, and John Boehner is too weak a Speaker to tell his caucus to act like grown-ups, so the entire process is unraveling.

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Updated to add this from TPM: Is It Really About The Deficit?

Looks like all those poison pill policy riders House Republicans attached to the budget -- on abortion, the environment, etc -- are the big sticking points preventing a deal to fund the government. Which is pretty telling indication of how serious the GOP really is about deficit reduction. Not very.

Harry Reid just said on the Senate floor that he's less optimistic now than when he left the White House meeting last with the President and Speaker Boehner. The White House just announced Reid and Boehner will return for another session at 1 p.m. ET.

[PlanetBev]

1. My biggest fear

is that Obama and the Democrats will cave in on the Planned Parenthood issue and sell women down the river. The first thing to get jettisoned is women's rights.

[randr]

2. They must not let lies and the agenda of the Koch bros

to drive our nation into a fascist unchristian hell.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

3. The obvious solution to me

is to have the GOP detach the riders and hold separate votes on the issues (with no guarantee that it will get an up-or-down vote in the Senate). If the American people really want it and the majority of Congress (and Obama) wants it, then it will happen. If not, it won't. It should be debated on it's own merits and shouldn't be allowed to cause a government shutdown IMHO.

[Andy823]

4. I agree.

But the republicans know they cant get what they want passed that way, they have to try and sneak it in to the budget! Seems like Boehner is trying to say it's still about the "money" instead of admitting it's all about putting things in that they know they can't get on a stand alone vote!

[Proud Liberal Dem]

5. It's dumb

However, I suppose that Obama could always throw the whole "I want a clean bill" tantrum that Bush and the Republicans threw when the Democratic Congress in 2007 tried to attach a timetable to that year's troop funding request. I guess the Republicans have already forgot the fit they threw over the Defense Authorization Bill last year that included a repeal of DADT. McCain and others weren't afraid to make sure that THAT didn't get a simple up-or-down vote (or any vote at all, actually). :shrug:

Republicans suck and can't win anything without cheating somehow and they're pretty stupid to think that President Obama is going to agree to defund his own health care law! :banghead: :puke:

[Hippo_Tron]

6. No, Planned Parenthood is just leverage to agree to more overall spending cuts

Boehner knows that Democrats are never going to cave on Planned Parenthood, but he thinks he can get them to give in to more overall spending cuts in exchange for taking Planned Parenthood out of the bill.

But Boehner is really overplaying his hand here, IMO. If the government shuts down, Boehner runs the risk of appearing to have shut down the government over Planned Parenthood.