An omnibus funding bill is facing delays in Congress ahead of a Friday government shutdown deadline, with lawmakers scrambling to answer a number of open questions in the $1.3 trillion package related to border security, infrastructure projects, and gun violence prevention measures.
“What would you do if you were stuck in one place and every day was exactly the same, and nothing that you did mattered?” Bill Murray asks in Groundhog Day. “That about sums it up for me,” a drinking buddy answers.
That government shutdown, by the way, which stretched from midnight on the night of Friday, January 19, to sometime in the late afternoon of Monday, January 22, was more talked about than real. Some federal agencies took the day off, and here in Washington the traffic on Monday morning was easier…
It’s not surprising that members of Congress would have a habit of repeating a short list of talking points, given how often they face the media and how important it is for them to stay on message. But that tendency was more apparent than usual last week during a feud over a stopgap spending…
Time dulls the sharp edges of painful memories, but some events are so traumatic that they are burned into our psyches where they live on forever.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and President Trump negotiated toward a bargain on immigration reform that could have satisfied both parties and reduced the likelihood of a shutdown, the New York Times reported hours before government funding expired at midnight Saturday. Democrats would have…
On the first anniversary of President Donald Trump’s inauguration, the U.S. government shut down.
Lawmakers in the House overwhelmingly voted down a motion to adjourn Friday morning, with just 12 hours to go until a government shutdown.
Something has gotten into Ted Cruz. The Republican senator is known as a conservative firebrand willing to take on his own party, but in a Thursday meeting with reporters in his Capitol Hill office, Cruz was sounding almost ecumenical. Maybe it was the presence of Pope Francis.
In spite of the Friday night passage of an eleventh hour, one-week stopgap spending bill to continue funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the department posted a lapse-of-funding notice and shut-down procedures on its website apparently intended if the last minute efforts failed.…
Move over, Barack Obama. The Republicans are now the party of hope—at least when it comes to Obama’s expected executive order on immigration.
"Republicans could lose their House majority because of the shutdown,” blared the headline of a story published at the Washington Post’s Wonkblog by Princeton professor Sam Wang on October 8, 2013, midpoint of the 16-day shutdown. Two weeks after Wang pointed to surveys showing control of the House…
Today is a snow day in Washington so even less will get done than on a day when the sun shines. And this year has been particularly unproductive, as Laura Litvan at Bloomberg writes:
The recent government shutdown illustrated a lot of political truths. For starters, people are unhappy when the government is shut down, and they naturally tend to blame the party of less government. The media instinctively help them conclude that the Republicans are at fault.
Just 33 percent of Arkansas voters approve of the job of Democratic senator Mark Pryor, according to a new poll of likely voters from the University of Arkansas. That's Pryor's lowest rating in the annual poll since entering the Senate in 2003, while an all-time high of 41 percent disapprove of his…
Terry McAuliffe has a 17-point lead over Ken Cuccinelli in the Virginia governor's race, according to a new poll from Rasmussen. McAuliffe, the Democrat, enjoys his largest lead yet in the race with 50 percent of the vote, while Republican Cuccinelli has 33 percent. The Libertarian candidate,…
The Scrapbook has taken note of the federal government’s political use of the shutdown: the National Park Service closing down popular attractions and open spaces, scare stories about medical research and air traffic safety, and so on. In the words of Rahm Emanuel, the onetime Obama White House…
"Washington is a place where hundreds of children couldn’t play soccer this past weekend; where cafeteria workers, janitors and secretaries aren’t getting paid for who knows how long; where Metro trains and buses run empty; where shoeshine guys sit idle; and where Girl Scout troops had to cancel…
The government re-opened, and there was no default. No surprise. This was the 18th shutdown since 1976, when the current budget procedure was established. The five shutdowns under Jimmy Carter were mostly over major policy issues such as abortion (he was for it) and the construction of a…
The WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with James C. Capretta on fallout from the government shutdown and the failure called Obamacare:
The captain of the ms Noordam has announced that due to the choppy seas we won't be able to put in, as planned, at Santorini—but that rather than having another day at sea, we're boldly heading off to dock at Iraklion, Crete.
Vice President Joe Biden offered returning federal workers handshakes, hugs, and kisses -- and muffins, too -- this morning at the EPA headquarters in Washington, D.C.
The siege has been lifted. The 16-day ordeal is ended. Life, once again, is good. As Alexander Bolton and Pete Kasperowicz of The Hill report:
At sea aboard the ms Noordam, off the coast of Greece
A memo from the Office of Management and Budget director Sylvia M. Burwell on re-opening government:
President Obama signed the "deal" to re-open Congress and increase the debt limit, according to the White House. The press secretary sent this out late last night:
Even before the House vote on the so-called congressional deal to re-open the federal government and increase the debt limit, President Obama began to pivot to immigration:
Here's the so-called deal that Congress is expected to approve tonight:
On Tuesday evening, the reelection campaign for Arkansas Democrat Mark Pryor emailed supporters about a recent "secret meeting" between Republican senator Ted Cruz and a group of House Republicans at a restaurant on Capitol Hill, Tortilla Coast. Pryor campaign manager Jeff Weaver suggested that the…
THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with Jeffrey H. Anderson on the congressional deal to reopen the government and raise the debt limit:
National Park Service director Jarvis said he discussed closing the open-air monuments and memorials with the White House, as well as the secretary of the Interior Department:
Heather R. Higgins, of the Independent Women's Voice, explains "what happened yesterday" in an email I received this morning:
Just what you would expect. Shut down the government and right away, wild animals move in. They even infiltrate the White House grounds.
President Obama understands "the frustrations of the American people" more than anybody else. At least, that's what he told WABC in an interview:
THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with staff writer John McCormack on the latest in the government shutdown and debt ceiling talks:
In the White House garden, tomatoes are rotting on the vine and the weed growth is unchecked. Reuters is reporting that:
On board the ms Noordam, at port in Venice
The past two weeks have been filled with stories of government offices, agencies, services, workers, monuments, websites, memorials, and parks that have been closed, suspended, furloughed, and even barricaded. Perhaps the most notorious of the actions taken has been the barricading of the open-air…
That meeting of the big dogs, scheduled for 3:00 p.m. and designed to get to a solution of the shutdown/debt ceiling crisis?
President Obama stopped by Martha's Table food pantry in Washington, D.C. and put on a green apron:
An unnamed official sends this email to the White House's press list:
While it was inevitable that a government shutdown would involve vindictive theatrics designed to make life irksome for ordinary Americans, the directive from the White House’s Office of Management and Budget to close off the World War II Memorial on the National Mall was remarkable in that it was…
"What is at stake in this government shutdown forced by a radical Tea Party minority is nothing less than the principle upon which our democracy is based: majority rule. President Obama must not give in to this hostage taking . . . ” (Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times, Oct. 1).
All politics is local, the late Tip O’Neill is alleged to have said. The Scrapbook isn’t quite sure if that’s true. But it has certainly been true during the “shutdown” of the federal government, in which President Obama has used metropolitan Washington, D.C., as a stage on which to dramatize his…
Despite the government shutdown, Vice President Joe Biden is vacationing at Camp David this long weekend. He's joined at the Maryland retreat by his family, including his wife (Jill Biden), children, and grandchildren.
THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with staff writer Jay Cost on the government shutdown and whether the GOP has a strategy to end it with a policy victory.
The findings of the newly released NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll are simply brutal for congressional Republicans. Not only are they getting the lion's share of the blame for the government shutdown, but President Obama's numbers have actually improved. Worse, Obamacare's numbers are improving,…
Republicans seem to have been spooked by three recent polls suggesting that the American public is siding more with President Obama than with the GOP in the budget and/or debt-ceiling battles. But neither poll asked what is perhaps the key question: Do you know what the Republicans’ position…
Headline from the Hill:
Just because the government is shut down (sort of), that does not mean that members of Congress are magically relieved of the need for money to finance the next campaign during which they will spend the money to persuade constituents to return them to Washington to continue in their good work.
Since first writing about the conduct of the National Park Service yesterday, events have accelerated somewhat.
In a letter sent yesterday to Jonathan Jarvis, director of the National Park Service, 94 members of Congress question the federal government's decision to close open-air memorials during the federal government shutdown.
THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with senior writer Jonathan V. Last on his recent editorial, The Park Police.
Earlier today, an unidentified bearded man took it upon himself to bring his lawnmower and a few tools to the Lincoln Memorial to provide free groundskeeping work to the closed federal monument.
Earlier today, an unidentified bearded man took it upon himself to bring his lawnmower and a few tools to the Lincoln Memorial to provide free groundskeeping work to the closed federal monument.
The fighting goes on in Afghanistan. As does the dying. United States troops have been in the country for 13 years and more than 2,000 of them have been killed there, four of them last Sunday. As Adam Ashton of the Tacoma News Tribune reports, the dead included:
An essential tactic in the shutdown is, it seems, to deprive people of things that they need or badly want. Make them pay. And when their suffering is no longer bearable, they will come back, chastened and grateful for the blessings government bestows upon them … something like that, anyway.
An essential tactic in the shutdown is, it seems, to deprive people of things that they need or badly want. Make them pay. And when their suffering is no longer bearable, they will come back, chastened and grateful for the blessings government bestows upon them … something like that, anyway.
Northern New England is in its glory; now and for the next week or so. The leaves are nearing peak color and until yesterday, there has been a big high pressure zone parked over the area so the weather has been what would once have been described as "heavenly." It has been raining now but in a few…
Just a week before the government shutdown kicked in on October 1, the State Department awarded a five-year, maximum $5 million contract for custom handcrafted crystal stem and barware, according to a report in the Valley News, an online news site in Vermont (via Charlie Perkins). Valley News…
The government shutdown is frustrating. But it doesn’t mark the end of the Republican party, as some have suggested. Here are 8 reasons why.
A notice posted on the website of the Small Business Administration (SBA) warns furloughed employees that it is a "criminal offense" to use federal resources during the furlough period, including accessing government email accounts. Although the notice is directed to SBA employees, presumably the…
David Gelernter, on what Republicans should be saying during the shutdown:
Another open-air memorial in the Washington area is closed and barricaded off: the Iwo Jima Memorial, just across the bridge from D.C. in Rosslyn, Virginia. A source sends along this picture of the barricade set-up at the memorial, which is also called the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial:
Bill Kristol, with Molly Ball, Jon Favreau, and Jake Tapper, yesterday on CNN:
THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with editor William Kristol on the Shutdown, Obamacare, and Netanyahu's visit.
Although the government shutdown continues, it appears President Barack Obama and the White House are not getting any closer to negotiating with Republicans. A quotation from an unnamed senior administration official in today's Wall Street Journal explains why.
The Air Force and Naval academies will play as scheduled this weekend. However, overseas military personnel accustomed to getting their football on Armed Forces Network will not be able to watch.
In an attempt to dramatize the effects of the federal government shutdown, Washington state Democrats may have revealed more about their state and about the state of the economy under President Obama than they intended. The Advance, official blog of the Washington state house Democrats, posted the…
The bad news of Shutdown '13 seems not to have made things worse as measured by the weekly first time unemployment claims. Well … not much, anyway. As this headline from Bloomberg puts it:
The partial federal government shutdown is certainly serving to illuminate the stark divide between what everyday Americans care about—being free to visit monuments to American heroes on the National Mall, watching the Air Force-Navy football game—and what the modern Democratic party cares…
The World War II memorial was barricaded earlier today. So was a World War I memorial. And, it turns out, so is the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial, which is right near those others on the Mall in Washington, D.C.
The Washington Post today printed President Obama's letter to all federal employees, which was sent yesterday. The printed version appears on B4 of the paper's Metro section, "The Federal Worker" page, and is titled, "President gives shutdown notice while praising public servants."
Sometimes timing is everything. Yesterday was day one of the federal government shutdown, and one of the biggest stories of the day was the barricading of the World War II memorial in Washington, D.C., nearly preventing a group of 92 veterans from Mississippi who had been flown in on an Honor…
Fred Barnes, writing for the Wall Street Journal:
Showing the good sense for which it is famous, the federal government—specifically the Obama Department of Defense—has announced its plans to cancel the nationally televised Air Force-Navy football game on Saturday, thereby jeopardizing millions of dollars (and inconveniencing a great many…
The federal government is shutdown. That means only federal government employees that are deemed "essential" are going in to work.
At least four National Park Service workers are erecting a barricade around the World War II memorial, John McCormack reports:
Not all parks are closed during the present unpleasantness. Recreational Resource Management is announcing on its website that:
John McCormack reports on Twitter that a World War I Memorial is closed due to the federal government shutdown. However, a sign posted by the National Park Service says that despite the memorial's closure, there is an exception "for 1st Amendment activities."
Well, at least Vice President Joe Biden has some staff on hand for the government shutdown. Otherwise, who else would've edited his daily schedule sent out to the press?
The congressional GOP has finally taken a position in its budget struggle with the Obama administration that maximizes its chances for a decent outcome. Unfortunately, it only got there after going through several other steps first, a process that may have jeopardized the advantage they should be…
Harry Reid, speaking earlier today on the Senate floor about the government shutdown:
Michelle Obama will not be tweeting as frequently, due to the federal government shutdown. The announcement was made today on ... the first lady's Twitter account.
Virginia-based trade publication Politico says that President Obama is winning by shutting down the government.
Our upcoming WEEKLY STANDARD cruise had me thinking (only a bit!) about blackjack, since the ship's casino is occasionally (rarely!) frequented after dinner by TWS editors and guests. I remember being told on a previous cruise by a real gambler that the characteristic error of occasional blackjack…
The federal government has shutdown. So what does this mean for the White House? Vice President Joe Biden keeps 12 staffers and President Barack Obama keeps 129.
Seems the government is on the verge of shutting down. And just as it was about to provide affordable health care for all. How is that for bad timing?
More of that vaunted "new tone": "Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) said today that the new Republicans elected to the House of Representatives last November came to Congress 'to kill women.'"