Republicans and Democrats in Congress saw signs of hope on Wednesday for a break in their fiscal impasse, as members of both parties floated the possibility of a short-term increase in the debt limit to allow time for broader negotiations on the budget.
The slight shift in tone was aided by a column by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, who urged a negotiated end to the stalemate but did not mention Republican demands for linking changes in the federal healthcare law with government funding.
“Right now, we need to find common ground,” Ryan, the party’s 2012 vice presidential nominee who had been largely silent in the confrontation, wrote in the Wall Street Journal.
“We need to open the federal government. We need to pay our bills today – and make sure we can pay our bills tomorrow. So let’s negotiate an agreement to make modest reforms to entitlement programs and the tax code,” he said.
Source: Reuters – Reuters: Members of Congress see signs of hope in fiscal impasse
Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki issued a dire warning Wednesday about the impact of a prolonged budget impasse, saying millions would see their benefit checks halted if the stalemate is not resolved in the coming weeks.
Shinseki said more than 5.18 million checks worth $6.25 billion could soon be held up.
“I will not be able to pay all these beneficiaries (without a budget),” Shinseki testified before the House Veterans Affairs Committee.
He said that if something is not done by Nov. 1, “I will not be sending checks out.”
Source: FOX News – FOX News: VA chief issues dire warning, says millions of veterans might not get payments
The Pentagon told FoxNews Tuesday that as long as the government is shut down they would be stopping death benefits to the families of troops killed in combat.
“Unfortunately, as a result of the shutdown, we do not have the legal authority to make death gratuity payments at this time,” Lt. Cmdr. Nate Christensen, a Defense Department spokesman, told Fox. “However, we are keeping a close eye on those survivors who have lost loved ones serving in the Department of Defense.”
House Speaker John Boehner said that the House of Representatives would be holding a vote Wednesday to restore funding for the payments.
“I think it’s disgraceful that they’re withholding these benefits,” Boehner said.
Five troops died over the weekend in Afghanistan. Four of the bodies will be returned to Dover Air Force base Wednesday. However, the families of the dead will have to pay their own travel to Dover because the Pentagon says they can’t pay those bills. The Defense Department usually pays for that travel and for transporting the family and remains to home states for private funerals.
With a partial government shutdown now in its eighth day, President Obama took questions from reporters at the White House this afternoon.
The president’s appearance comes with no end in sight to the shutdown and the deadline looming for Congress to raise the debt ceiling or risk the first-ever U.S. government default.
Earlier Tuesday, Obama spoke briefly with House Speaker John Boehner, but no apparent progress was made in their talk. Obama underscored that he’s won’t negotiate with Republicans until after the threat of government shutdown and default have been removed, according to the White House.
Source: USA Today – USA Today: Obama says he’s open to short-term budget to end impasse
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More Veterans refused to let the White House’s Office of Management and Budget stop them from honoring their comrades at war memorials.
Veterans moved barricades to approach both the Vietnam Veterans memorial and the Iwo Jima memorial on Saturday.
NBC’s Mark Segraves reported Vietnam Veterans overran the black granite wall that lists the name of all those who paid the ultimate price for their country in the war in Vietnam.
National Park Service Rangers asked the group of veterans to respect the government shutdown but moved aside to allow the vets access to the site.
However, when members of the general public flooded into the site along with the veterans, U.S. Park Police showed up and chased the entire group out of the site. The police then put barricades back into place.
At the Iwo Jima Memorial, water-filled barricades blocked the only road allowing car access to the site.
So the World War II veterans who arrived via an Honor Flight from Syracuse, New York used the same attitude they used against the Axis: they let nothing stop them from accomplishing their goal. They simply joined together to move the barricades.
The Honor Flight crew then took dozens of veterans who need to use wheelchairs to the memorial site.
The Iwo Jima memorial is usually unguarded and unmanned by the National Park Service.
A group of World War II veterans wanted to pay honor to their fallen brothers-in-arms at the WWII memorial but discovered that the barriers had been connected to each other using wire. So Texas Republican lawmakers grabbed their wire-cutters and marched to the memorial to let those American heroes who wanted to honor their brothers in to the site.
The open-air memorial usually is not guarded by Park Service staff and there are no barricades to direct traffic flow or impede approach to the monument.
“This is Chicago thuggery,” Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) told Todd Starnes of Fox News. “The president is trying to inflict the most amount of pain and suffering. This is not some bureaucratic mistake. This is Chicago thuggery. You try to make people hurt so they don’t resist what you tell them to do in the future.”
Texas Representative Ralph Hall, 90 years old and himself a World War II veteran, said he was ready for anything the National Park Service would do to him when they showed up to let the veterans in.
“I was ready to go to jail,” said Rep. Hall. “If they got the handcuffs out, I’d have gone right with them. These veterans made great sacrifice for their country a long time ago and they traveled a lot of miles to get here. It’s our memorial.”
The Republican lawmakers ended up not needing their wire cutters as someone had already done the job before they arrived with the veterans.