Thread: Obama ‘cannot guarantee’ benefits checks will be paid if debt deal isn’t reached

ABC Ignores Its Own Question Assigning Shutdown Blame to Obama, Touts 'Outrage' Against GOP
By Scott Whitlock | October 2, 2013

As Barack Obama wrapped up a speech from the White House on Tuesday, reporter Jon Karl of ABC actually shouted a tough question at the President, wondering, "...If you won't negotiate, how can you get a solution? How can you bring an end to this if you won't talk to the congressional leaders?" [See video below. MP3 audio here.] Anchor George Stephanopoulos noted that "Obama ignor[ed] a question from our own Jon Karl." Karl's network, on World News and Good Morning America, ignored it as well. NBC and CBS blamed the Republicans.

Instead of repeating his question on World News, Karl parroted Democratic talking points: "Today the President accused Republicans of waging an ideological crusade against Obamacare while he rejected their latest offer to re-open just part of the government." Anchor Diane Sawyer assigned responsibility to the GOP House: "And everywhere tonight, Americans are saying they are fed up with the congressmen who dig in and force the U.S. government to screech to a halt." "A lot of people outraged," she added. Did Obama play a part in the drama? Sawyer didn't say.

The best Karl could manage was to wonder: "Republicans sat across from empty chairs saying Democrats refuse to negotiate, while President Obama placed the blame entirely on Republicans."

In the piece, correspondent Jeff Zeleny harassed a conservative congresswoman, Vicky Hartzler :"Do you feel guilty at all that your paycheck is still coming and some of your staff might not be, or the janitors, the other workers across the government? I mean, is that awkward?" (Zeleny on Tuesday eagerly announced "cracks emerging" via a Republican Congressman – who already opposed the shutdown.)

Over on the CBS Evening News, Scott Pelley made sure to point out: "The most conservative Republicans in the House refused to pass a bill to fund the government unless it includes a significant rollback of the health care law."

Later, Pelley helpfully regurgitated, "This afternoon President Obama labeled this 'The Republican Shutdown."

Nancy Cordes pointedly explained, "I asked a Tea Party Republican today how long he feels comfortable keeping the government closed over Obamacare."

No effort was made to put blame on Obama.

NBC's Nightly News highlighted government workers protesting the strike. EPA employee Elizabeth Lytle attacked, "Congress needs to be turned over somebody's knee and spanked real hard because they`re acting like small children."

For more on the Nightly News coverage of the shutdown, go here. http://newsbusters.org/blogs/kyle-dr...blame-shutdown


[Thanks to MRC intern Paul Bremmer for the transcript.] A transcript of the October 1 World News segment is below:

DIANE SAWYER: And a good evening to all of you. As we come on the air right now here is what is happening coast to coast across this country. It is day one of the first government shutdown in 17 years and we are seeing 800,000 workers coast to coast sent home without pay. Monuments and museums turn away school children. World War II veterans had to push their way forward to honor their fallen brethren. And everywhere tonight, Americans are saying they are fed up with the congressmen who dig in and force the U.S. government to screech to a halt. We begin now with ABC's chief White House correspondent Jonathan Karl in Washington on the shutdown, the outrage, and what comes next. Jon?

JONATHAN KARL: Diane, we are one day into this shutdown and not a single step closer to resolving the impasse. Today the president accused Republicans of waging an ideological crusade against Obamacare while he rejected their latest offer to re-open just part of the government. [begin voiceover] Nearly 100 World War II veterans made the trek from Mississippi to Washington today only to see this, the memorial dedicated to their service closed. World War II infantryman James Nations had no idea.

JAMES NATIONS: We didn't know anything about it being shut down. We didn't watch the news this morning.

KARL: But somebody, not clear who, got the barricade lifted just long enough so they could get in. The shutdown has hit 800,000 federal workers around the country the hardest -- no work, no pay.

MAN: I live from paycheck to paycheck unfortunately.

WOMAN: These are real people's lives that are being affected and ruined and thrown into chaos.

OLD WOMAN: I'm getting tired of feeling like a ping-pong ball.

KARL: In fact, the whole mess started with a twisted game of political ping-pong, the first volley a week ago Friday -- the Republican House passing a government funding bill that also defunded Obamacare. A week later the Senate rejected it, sending its own bill back to the House. The House tried a slightly different version again Sunday, the Senate rejected, and then back and forth twice more yesterday. And today, Republicans sat across from empty chairs saying Democrats refuse to negotiate, while President Obama placed the blame entirely on Republicans.

BARACK OBAMA: This Republican shutdown did not have to happen.

KARL: That's why people all over the country are finding their government parks and facilities shut down.

MAN: Bunch of jerks running the show up there and it's not fair.

WOMAN: We’ve got families that we need to support, and they are playing with our livelihood.

MAN: I think it's crazy. I mean, the whole holding the government hostage over Obamacare is just ridiculous.

KARL: Perhaps sensing the anger, several Tea Party Republicans told ABC's Jeff Zeleny they've asked that their paychecks be withheld during the shutdown.

JEFF ZELENY: Do you feel guilty at all that your paycheck is still coming and some of your staff might not be, or the janitors, the other workers across the government? I mean, is that awkward?

REP. VICKY HARTZLER: Well, we are working. We're here today and we've continued to work, but I am going to also ask them to hold my salary as a gesture.

KARL: Even the ‘We the People’ section of the White House website is shut down. That's where people can submit their own petitions. The latest petition, the last one before the website went dark, Diane, was one saying that there should be a law that members of Congress not get paid unless they perform their budget duties on time. I would imagine that would get a lot of support around now.

SAWYER: A lot of people outraged. Shutdown signs absolutely everywhere. We thank you, Jon.

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/scott-w...#ixzz2gt0HvcSo

CATHOLIC PRIESTS IN MILITARY FACE ARREST FOR CELEBRATING MASS DURING GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

“They were told they cannot function because those are contracted services and since there’s no funding they can’t do it – even if they volunteer.”

The U.S. military has furloughed as many as 50 Catholic chaplains due to the partial suspension of government services, banning them from celebrating weekend Mass. At least one chaplain was told that if he engaged in any ministry activity, he would be subjected to disciplinary action. “In very practical terms it means Sunday Mass won’t be offered,” Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the Archdiocese for the Military Services told me. “If someone has a baptism scheduled, it won’t be celebrated.” The Archdiocese for the Military Services tells me the military installations impacted are served by non-active-duty priests who were hired as government contractors. As a result of a shortage of active duty Catholic chaplains, the government hires contract priests.

A well-placed source told me that a furloughed Air Force chaplain was threatened after he offered to forgo pay. Broglio said some military bases have forbidden the contract priests from volunteering to celebrate Mass without pay. “They were told they cannot function because those are contracted services and since there’s no funding they can’t do it – even if they volunteer,” he said.

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/...cmp=latestnews

Current state of DC



http://youtu.be/1yfSlS52uRM

Originally Posted by Jolie Rouge

The White House says it’s "winning,” but this isn’t a game.

The American people don’t want their government shut down and neither do I.
All we’re asking for is to sit down and have a discussion and to bring fairness
- reopen the government and bring fairness to the American people under ObamaCare.

Then there are those that say the republicans are "Not Negotiating".

No ... I am serious ...

Feds Try to Close the OCEAN Because of Shutdown
by Mike Flynn 5 Oct 2013, 7:08 AM PDT

Just before the weekend, the National Park Service informed charter boat captains in Florida that the Florida Bay was "closed" due to the shutdown. Until government funding is restored, the fishing boats are prohibited from taking anglers into 1,100 square-miles of open ocean. Fishing is also prohibited at Biscayne National Park during the shutdown. http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/10/0...stributor.html

The Park Service will also have rangers on duty to police the ban ... access to an ocean. The government will probably use more personnel and spend more resources to attempt to close the ocean, than it would in its normal course of business.

This is governing by temper-tantrum. It is on par with the government's ham-fisted attempts to close the DC WWII Memorial, an open-air public monument that is normally accessible 24 hours a day. By accessible I mean, you walk up to it. When you have finished reflecting, you then walk away from it.

At least that Memorial is an actual structure, with some kind of perimeter that can be fenced off. Florida Bay is the ocean. How, pray tell, do you "close" 1,100 square miles of ocean? Why would one even need to do so?

Apparently, according to an anonymous Park Service ranger, “We’ve been told to make life as difficult for people as we can. It’s disgusting.”

Centuries ago, King Canute famously failed to command the ocean tide to stop. His display was actually a means to educate his subjects on the limits of royal power. Today, however, our President actually believes he has the power to control the oceans.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Governm...se-of-Shutdown

Unbelievable: Police prevent drivers from pulling over and viewing Mt. Rushmore

Kinsey Holley @kinseyholley

And now the feds have put up cones to keep people out of scenic overlooks on Mount Rushmore.
Because they're !@#$%&*.

3:55 PM - 5 Oct 2013

How far will the Obama Administration go to make sure the government shutdown is as unpleasant as possible? This far:

El Rushbo II @GabrielTompkins

Police ordered to place cones so viewers can't pull off and view Mt. Rushmore...run over the cones.



5:02 PM - 5 Oct 2013

This Twitter user makes a good point:

Aslan's Girl @Aslans_Girl

The orange cones set up at Mt Rushmore to prevent ppl from pulling over to the side is a major SAFETY issue!! http://wp.me/p1kzlW-ihD

4:05 PM - 5 Oct 2013

As Sen. Harry Reid might say, what are a few lost lives in the larger scheme of things? http://twitchy.com/2013/10/02/meltdo...to-their-fate/


http://twitchy.com/2013/10/05/unbeli...g-mt-rushmore/

NEWSFLASH: The Government is 83% Open
Posted 10.05.13 by Matthew Burke,

With all the weeping and gnashing of teeth from the Obama regime and his minions, you would think that the government is in full “shutdown” mode. Newsflash: It is not. In an article by Byron York in the Washington Examiner, York reports that based on government spending, the true measure of the extent in which the government is really operating, only 17% of the government is actually closed, while 83% is still open: http://washingtonexaminer.com/wheres...rticle/2536862

Based on estimates drawn from CBO and OMB data, 83 percent of government operations will continue. This figure assumes that the government pays amounts due on appropriations obligated before the shutdown ($512 billion), spends $225 billion on exempted military and civilian personnel, pays entitlement benefits for those found eligible before the shutdown (about $2 trillion), and pays interest costs when due ($237 billion). This is about 83 percent of projected 2014 spending of $3.6 trillion.

Why in the world is this considered an apocalypse of historic proportions by the Obama regime and his Marxist sycophants? The overwhelming majority of American families have had to cut back this much (17%), and in many cases, much, much more the past five years. Why is it that only government must grow every year, despite the fact that the those who pay their salaries, us taxpayers, have seen our incomes decline over the past several years?

And what about the regime’s and the lamestream media’s reckless fear-mongering on the debt ceiling, repeating ad nauseum the mantra that if the government can’t continue to irresponsibly spend more than it takes in, that this must end in “default,” as if living withing their means wasn’t even an option? The government is racking in, on average, $200 million dollars per month. Interest on the national debt is around $30 million per month. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that if a default happens, it is because Obama and his ilk want it as the final and ultimate protest in his “Cloward and Piven” strategy to destroy America.

Here’s another newsflash: Taxation has never been higher in real terms. The Obama regime sucked a record $2.47 trillion out of our wallets that past year. If they’re receiving record income, then why can they not match their expenditures to match this record number? And guess what? When you get you’re next paycheck, notice that money continues to be confiscated from your earnings, despite the so-called government shutdown.

Remember the sequester, when a 2% cut in the rate of growth of federal government spending was deemed the end of humanity? If any family or business was faced with a 2% cut in the rate of growth of their income, it wouldn’t even be an event.

Words like “terrorist, al-Qaeda, Taliban, anarchists, suicide bombers,” etc., have been used to describe those who identify with the Tea Party movement. Perhaps this is part of the “new tone” and “new civility” Obama lectured us about. Liberal talking points, issued from the propagandists in the Obama regime, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and even some RINOs like Congressman Peter King seemingly always include the narrative that politicians and bureaucrats (government) are being “held hostage.” Now they know how the taxpayers have felt for decades. Live with it. Or, as Harry Reid would say, “Get a life!”

http://teapartyheadlines.streamshare.com/posts/7753

Congress and President Barack Obama sent a message to the 800,000 government employees furloughed by the federal shutdown: We don't know when the impasses will end but you will get reimbursed for lost pay once the government reopens.

With the partial shutdown entering its fifth day, the GOP-run House passed a bill Saturday that would make sure the furloughed workers get paid for not working. The White House backs the bill and the Senate was expected to OK it, too, but the timing was unclear.

WHAT!! So, the government shutdown is really just a paid vacation?? And I guess they will have to pay them for overtime so they can catch up on all the work that they didn’t do while they were off. Guess who’s paying for all of this? We are. I know it wasn't the federal works fault and I'm not mad at them, but i'm mad at ALL the bozos on capital hill Republican's and Democrats, and don't have any faith they can do anything but put my money in their pockets.

Shutdown meltdown: Elderly residents kicked out of private Lake Mead homes; 60 families affected
http://twitchy.com/2013/10/06/shutdo...lies-affected/

Okay, it's time to go take over the White House. I can live with closing down US Parks; furloughing civilians; not paying the Secret Service but not provide NFL to our troops overseas. This is INSANE!

Originally Posted by Jolie Rouge

BREAKING: the federal government deployed more security to protect the now closed WWII memorial from WWII vets than Obama deployed to protect the US consulate the night of the Benghazi attacks.




Rand Paul: Obama Sent More Guards to War Memorial Than Benghazi
by Evan McMurry | 2:56 pm, October 2nd, 2013

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) tweeted stinging criticism of the World War II Memorial closure on Wednesday afternoon, claiming the Obama administration had dispatched more security guards to man the barricades at the D.C. memorial than they had to the embattled U.S. consulate in Benghazi last year.



The World War II Memorial was closed on Tuesday, along with a number of other government installations, angering veterans who had traveled to Washington, D.C. to visit it, and drawing outrage from Republicans, some of whom accompanied the vets on Wednesday to remove the barriers.

Paul, meanwhile, has been one of the most vocal lawmakers on the subject of Benghazi, routinely calling out both President Barack Obama and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for what he considered an inadequate response to the September 11, 2012 attack on the consulate.

The internet quickly reminded Paul that GOP funding approval played a role in both events:



http://www.mediaite.com/online/rand-...than-benghazi/

Obama manages the White House, which manages the Office of Management and Budget, which manages the National Parks Service. And according to a Parks spokeswoman and reported by Buzzfeed's Ben Johnson, the OMB ordered the barricades erected. https://twitter.com/bennyjohnson/sta...13993579687936

..

Check this out and it even shows a video of what actually happened not just some puff piece saying everything is just grand. I bet that talking points memo site is owned and operated by obummer and the dnc.

http://dailycaller.com/2013/10/01/ob...d-rejected-it/

If you don't want to read watch and listen to what actually happened then simply google - 'did obama reject veterans request to visit the WWII memorial'

Why did obama deny the request in the first place? Why was the park closed in the first place when in fact all it is is a sidewalk? Why did he administration threaten to throw anyone in jail that breached the barrier?

Answer me those things and if you are honest with yourself and others out here you will see something truly ugly resides in the white house.

It's not until this became a big issue all over the media that the park service and the admin capitulated.

...

I'm with you on this. Also, when the Ohio Honor Flight President Lee Armstrong called the parks service, he was told that if the veterans tried to gain access to the memorial, they would face arrest.

“I said, are you kidding me? You’re going to arrest a 90/91-year-old veteran from seeing his memorial? If it wasn’t for them it wouldn’t be there. She said, ‘That’s correct sir.’”

http://americanmilitarynews.com/2013....kz2U0910.dpuf

..

How do you figure the republicans shut down the government - when all the time before the shutdown all we heard from the dems and BO was that they will not negotiate? What happened to the bi-partisan compromise that the dems used to love and spout when W was in office?

Basically the dems are saying you give us everything we want, no compromise with anything even though we are $17 Trillion in debt and are on an unsustainable fiscal path. Is that governing or is that tyranny?

I know they weren't arrested because that would have looked real bad in the press so they capitulated and let the vets in.

Is that any way to govern from both sides? Aren’t they supposed to compromise? Do you think that these congressmen and senators just all of a sudden woke up and said let's stop government and don't fund obamacare?

In case you don’t know, its because of their constituents and a majority of the public doesn’t want this law to be fully enforced. Even obama doesn’t want it fully enforced as he has given waivers to some and subsidies to others like government workers while still wanting to stick it to us ordinary Americans. If obama can not enforce the law entodo' then why enforce it on the people who don't have lobbyists in the WH? I guess these few true American law makers are our lobbyists while the POTUS and the dems don't seem to care about the regular folk.