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Bloomberg looks at the White House contingency plan in the event of a government shutdown next week.
“About three-fourths of president’s 1,701-person staff would be sent home. The national security team would be cut back, fewer economists would be tracking the economy and there wouldn’t be as many budget officials to track spending. White House policy decisions on the environment and drug policy might get postponed, as the executive mansion struggles to cope with a shutdown of the government.”
“With Congress locked in near-continuous budget and debt limit battles, one influential lawmaker has been noticeably quiet this year,” Roll Call reports.
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), “the House Budget chairman and the GOP’s 2012 vice presidential candidate, has been a trusted, go-to source on budget and fiscal issues in the party for years. Yet the Wisconsin Republican has not, seemingly, been at the forefront of the most recent fight over a stopgap spending bill, nor has he been a loud voice on the debt limit.”
A new Kean University poll in New Jersey finds Cory Booker (D) leading Steve Lonegan (R) in the U.S. Senate race by a wide margin, 52% to 33%.
“Imagine if you had a Republican president and a Democratic speaker, and
the Democratic speaker said, well, we’re not going to pass the debt
ceiling unless we raise corporate taxes by 40% or unless we pass
background checks on guns or whatever other list of agenda items
Democrats were interested in. Does anybody actually think that we would
be hearing from Republicans that that was acceptable behavior?”
— President Obama, quoted by the Washington Post.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said that the Senate “is done acting on legislation to avert a government shutdown, and that House Republicans have no choice but to pass the Senate’s bill if it wants to keep the government open,” The Hill reports.
Said Reid: “I want everyone to listen and to hear: the United States Senate has acted. This is the only legislation that can avert a government shutdown, and that time is ticking as we speak.”
He added: “If Speaker Boehner wants to avoid a government shutdown, he will pass our resolution. Otherwise, it’s a government shutdown.”
Alan Simpson: “First, this is not about Dick Cheney. Dick Cheney and I have known each other for over 45 years. He is a dear and loyal friend who I would protect and be loyal to the end of my days. I have proved that trait many a time for him, and he has done the same for me. We have campaigned for each other each and every time we ran – and neither of us ever lost an election! We have been in the trenches, we’ve been carpet bombed, shot at and missed, shot at and hit, abused, trampled, been both victims and victorious, and I would lay my life down for him. So indeed, it is not about Dick. It is about Lynne and Liz Cheney. So hang on tight because you are going to get some clear and true facts without rumor and innuendo, or any accompanying B.S. and mush.”
President Obama announced he had a phone conversation with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, the first direct communication between leaders of the two nations since 1979, NBC News reports.
Said Obama: “The two of us discussed our ongoing efforts to reach an agreement over Iran’s nuclear program. I reiterated what I said in New York. While there will surely be important obstacles to moving forward and success is not guaranteed, I believe we can reach a conference of solution.”
A state judge “ruled to legalize same-sex marriage in New Jersey, saying gay couples would be denied federal benefits if the state kept allowing only civil unions,” the Newark Star Ledger reports.
“Superior Court Judge Mary Jacobson granted an emergency request by six gay couples, ordering state officials to begin officiating same-sex marriages on Oct. 21.”
Mitt Romney told CNN that he disagrees with the GOP tactic of trying to defund Obamacare.
Said Romney: “We’re more effective tactically not to use a shutdown of some kind to pursue the anti-Obamacare objective. I don’t think that will be as effective.”
He added: “I think there’s a better way of getting rid of Obamacare — my own view — and that is, one, delaying it by at least a year. That was Senator Manchin’s idea, the Democrats’ idea. The other would be potentially working hard to get Republicans elected to the House and Senate and they’d be able to do in a traditional way.”
Out next week: Blowback, a spy novel by former CIA operative Valerie Plame.
Plame spoke to the New York Times: “I’ve always been really dismayed at how female CIA officers were portrayed in fiction. They’re always these cartoonish, cardboard characters, big on sexuality, big on gunplay. I wanted to depict something more realistic but still entertaining.”
Robert Costa has a fascinating report on how Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is now playing an inside game with House Republicans.
“Leadership sources, for their part, are startled by Cruz’s attempt to shape House strategy and work against the speaker. They knew he’d oppose Boehner’s playbook, but they didn’t expect him to huddle with conservatives and ask them to ignore it. So, Cruz’s meetings have made him a key House player, but they’ve worsened his already-fraught relationship with the leadership.”
The Senate voted “to end debate on a short-term spending measure in an effort to send it back to the House, with just four days to go before a threatened federal government shutdown,” the Washington Post reports.
“The fate of the bill remained in limbo in the House as the Republican Party’s rebellious right wing is blocking a strategy by Speaker John A. Boehner (R-OH) for navigating a series of deadlines to keep the government funded and avoid the nation’s first default.”
Wall Street Journal: “Republican leaders in the House have already said they won’t pass the version that the Senate approves, setting up a weekend of legislative volleying between the Democratic-controlled Senate and GOP-led House.”
National Journal has the Senate roll call.
A new Public Policy Polling survey finds Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is now the top choice of Republican primary voters to be their presidential candidate in 2016.
Cruz leads with 20% support, followed by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) at 17%, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) at 14%, Jeb Bush at 11%, Sen. Marco Rubio at 10% and Rep. Paul Ryan at 10%.
Jonathan Chait: “Obama can’t tame the monster he created gradually; he has to kill it completely. Bargaining his way through this crisis would do Obama no good, even if he could get through it by offering up a meager or even symbolic concession. Anything that allows Republicans to believe they can trade a debt-ceiling threat for policy concessions simply creates a new hostage crisis the next time the debt ceiling comes up. This negotiation is Obama’s only chance to halt the routinization of debt-ceiling extortion…”
“The stakes are higher than resisting the specific demands Republicans are making, and higher even than the economic havoc of a debt breach. Obama is fighting to save his presidency.”
Wonk Wire: Breaching the debt ceiling would be catastrophic
Joshua Green: “If Congress could maintain even a semblance of functionality, then no one should want the government to shut down. According to the Congressional Research Service, the back-to-back shutdowns brought on by Newt Gingrich in 1995 and 1996 cost the country $1.4 billion. But it’s now clear that Congress can’t operate smoothly, and even a conclusive national election won’t break the cycle of dysfunction.”
“That’s why I’m rooting for a shutdown and you should be too — at this point, it’s the safest way to jolt Washington back to its senses.”
Ezra Klein: “It looks like we may have a shutdown after all. And that may be a good thing.”
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) got a little tongue-tied honoring the Tuskegee Airmen at a ceremony in Phoenix, KSAZ reports.
“I just thank the Lord for carrying me through all of this. It really drove my detractors crazy because I had the joy of
Jesus in me, and they didn’t understand it.”
— Former Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX), quoted by the Washington Examiner, on his money laundering conviction being overturned.
Jon Stewart noticed that God may be sending mixed signals to the Pope and the Republican party.
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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