Office of Management and Budget Director Jack Lew confidently dismissed the chances of a government shutdown this year, predicting that Republicans in Congress and the White House will be able to come to a consensus on cutting spending without such serious brinkmanship.
When asked how the White House and Republicans will reconcile their divergent spending views, Lew said only that a government shutdown is off the table.
“What we do have is an agreement on [between the White House and Republicans in Congress] — is that it would not be prudent to shut the government shutdown,” Lew told reporters Monday at a briefing focused on President Obama’s budget blueprint.
In the coming weeks and months, House Republicans will have three opportunities to shut down the government: (1) in March when a continuing resolution must be passed to fund the government through September; (2) when the debt ceiling must be raised in a few weeks to allow the government to continue to borrow to pay for its spending; and (3) in October when the new fiscal year begins and Congress will have to start approving additional continuing resolutions unless it’s able to pass every appropriations bill by that time.
Republican leaders have repeatedly said they want to avoid a government shutdown at least in the short term when dealing with the continuing resolution and debt-ceiling, and Democrats have viewed such a drastic move as playing to their advantage. But Lew’s comments are the first to suggest that both sides have agreed to stand down on any notion of a government shutdown.
A spokesman for Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) did not directly say whether or not there is such an agreement.
“Boehner has consistently said our goal is to cut spending, not shut down the government,” said Kevin Smith. “The only ones rooting for a government shutdown are congressional Democrats.”
Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) also blamed Democrats for stirring talk of a shutdown when asked about Lew’s comments in a briefing.
“Anytime that anyone on our side proposes a spending cut it seems that [Democratic Sens.] Chuck Schumer [NY], Dick Durbin [IL} and others had [Senate Majority Leader] Harry Reid [NV] scream ‘shut down.’ Why is it that you’re only hearing ‘shut down’ from one side?” he asked. “We have consistently said it’s not our intention to shutdown this government.
“Again, that is political talk and we ought to get that off the table and let’s go about the real business of trying to cut spending,” he added
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) last week discounted talk of a government shutdown over raising the debt ceiling.
In a similarly new GOP majority in 1995, Republican intransigence led to a government shutdown that was later credited with helping President Clinton win re-election one year later. Boehner and other GOP leaders are acutely aware of the recent history lessons and have avoided directly threatening to stop government operations in their tracks.
Tea Party favorite, Rep. Steve King (R-IA), however, last week at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) told The Hill’s Ballot Box that Republicans should stare down President Obama and force more than $100 billion in cuts from current spending.
“We’re not addressing the real problem with this,” King said. “A hundred billion dollars is a piece of cake, but that’s not staring the President down. If members of the House are sending signals that we are afraid of the President shutting down the government, then the President will get everything he’s willing to fight for.”Â
Other, more prominent Republicans have been more careful in their responses but also have not completely ruled out a shutdown. Rep. Tom Price (R-GA), the chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee, last week said Republicans are committed to defunding the healthcare law, and it’s up to Obama to determine whether he wants to shutdown the government over the issue.
House Republican leaders will include no funding for the new healthcare law later this week when they take up the continuing resolution spending bill. Passing the measure is necessary for keeping the government up and running and House Republicans and Senate Democrats are heading for a showdown of healthcare funding and other spending differences in the bill.
“Well, I think that’s up to the president,” he told CNS News. “If he wants to close down the government based on upon an unconstitutional law, then that’s his prerogative. We’re not interested in shutting down the government. What we’re interested in doing is solving the challenges that we face based upon fundamental principles in the area of healthcare and elsewhere.”
Price added that he is “committed to doing everything we can” to ensure that the “destructive aspects of the bill, which are virtually the entire thing” are rolled back.
Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN), the chairman of the House Tea Party Caucus, and Boehner seem to be singing from the same song sheet on this one. Bachmann called talk of a government shutdown a liberal ploy to frighten the American public about proposed GOP budget cuts.
“That’s not going to happen because that won’t serve anyone’s interest,” she said at a CPAC. “That’s a bugaboo that the liberals right now are trying to throw out to scare the American people. No one is going to agree to a government shutdown. That will not happen. So let’s just take that off the table.”
Additional reporting by Evan McMorris-Santoro.
