The House began to consider yet another counterproposal to delay
ObamaCare as the minutes melted away in advance of a midnight deadline
Monday -- as President Obama said he's holding out hope that Congress
will come together "in the 11th hour."
A shutdown "does not have to happen," Obama said, during remarks at the White House.
Congress has until midnight to craft a spending bill, or else the
government will begin to wind down. Both sides, though, are digging in
deep.
The Senate earlier Monday rejected a GOP proposal that would delay
the health care law by one year and repeal an unpopular medical device
tax. Senate Majority leader Harry Reid warned Republicans not to fiddle
with the spending bill any more. "As we said Friday, nothing has
changed. If they try to send us something back, they're spinning their
wheels," Reid said.
House Republican leaders already have their new counterproposal at
the ready -- a bill that would delay the so-called individual mandate by
a year while ensuring that high-level administration officials, members
of Congress and their staff get their health insurance through
ObamaCare without an additional government subsidy.
"It's a matter of fairness for all Americans," House Speaker John Boehner said.
The measure, though, is running into some problems in the chamber.
Some lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are reluctant to back the
measure, because they don't want to hurt their own staff by taking away
additional subsidies for their health care costs. According to the site
Legistorm, the average House staffer salary is under $60,000.
The House needs to clear an initial hurdle on the proposal early Monday evening for the bill to proceed.
Ahead of a House vote, Obama said Congress can avert a shutdown by
passing a straight budget bill without "extraneous and controversial
demands."
Obama warned that a shutdown would hurt all Americans, noting that the federal government is the country's largest employer.
"A shutdown will have a very real economic impact on real people, right away," Obama said.
A prior Republican effort to include a provision defunding ObamaCare
in the budget bill failed. House Republicans then voted, early Sunday,
to add amendments delaying the health care law by one year and repealing
an unpopular medical device tax.
The Senate, in a 54-46 vote, rejected those proposals on Monday afternoon.
In a rare note of optimism, Obama said earlier Monday that he's "not at all resigned" to a shutdown.
But the path forward is not clear. With nothing less than the
operation of government on the line, the battle in Congress over
ObamaCare was shaping into a test of wills.
Reid has outright stated he will not accept any measures that
undermine the health care law as part of the budget bill. With the bill
back on the House side, Boehner and Reid now face off with their final
set of chess moves in a very narrow time frame. Lawmakers have until
midnight to strike a deal.
Reid wants Boehner to simply call up the "clean" budget bill, without
any ObamaCare provisions, and presumably let it pass with majority
Democratic support.
"I have a very simple message to John Boehner: let the House vote," Reid said Monday.
On Sunday, House Republican Whip Kevin McCarthy indicated his caucus might still have a few more plays left.
"We have other options for the Senate to look at," he told "Fox News Sunday."
But at this stage, a shutdown is highly possible, and congressional leaders are hard at work trying to assign blame.
Democrats have already labeled this a "Republican government
shutdown." But Republicans on Sunday hammered Reid and his colleagues
for not coming back to work immediately after the House passed a bill
Sunday morning.