As the country moved to the brink of a government shutdown Thursday, Republican and Democratic lawmakers worked frantically behind the scenes to put together a bipartisan budget deal that would avert the politically devastating work stoppages of 1995 and 1996, even as the two parties publicly refused to compromise. The last time the government closed because of a budget impasse, Republicans, led by then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich, bore the brunt of the blame, while then-President Bill Clinton saw his poll numbers climb after the showdown ended.
Today, polls show the public is ready to blame both congressional Republicans and the Democratic president equally, making a shutdown politically risky for both sides.
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House Speaker John Boehner, the chief GOP negotiator in the current budget talks, was serving his third term in the House during the closures of 1995 and 1996, and recently told his rank and file that he believes the public will again blame Republicans if Friday’s deadline passes and there is no new deal to keep the government operating.
“I’m not sure they accomplished anything by shutting the government down back then,” said Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, a close adviser to Boehner.
Despite his desire to avert a shutdown, Boehner has so far been unwilling to strike a deal with Democrats, who offered to slash $33 billion from the remaining six months of the current fiscal year. Boehner, pressured by his most conservative flank, is demanding deeper cuts targeting mostly domestic spending.
Democrats, meanwhile, rejected a number of GOP proposals during the negotiations, including a provision preventing the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gases and another that would eliminate funding for Planned Parenthood.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the stalemate had come down to a fight over the EPA and Planned Parenthood provisions, but Republicans say the size and scope of the budget cuts remain the central problem.
“There is still a disagreement in terms of making real spending cuts,” Boehner said.
House Republicans, eager to avoid the same political outcome of 15 years ago, moved to shield themselves from the blame Thursday by passing a weeklong bill to keep the government operating and to fund the Defense Department for the remainder of the fiscal year.
The “troop funding bill,” as the Republicans called it, would slash $12 billion in spending and ban the District of Columbia from spending local or federal funds on abortion services. It passed the House mostly along party lines, but the Senate, run by Democrats, has refused to take it up and President Obama said he would veto it.
Veteran Republicans who witnessed the 1995 debacle said the GOP’s move to pass the weeklong bill will help shift blame for a shutdown to Democrats, who opposed the measure.
And unlike the last budget showdown, said House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon, R-Calif., the public is far more eager for lawmakers to fight for spending cuts, given the massive size of the debt and deficit.
“When I came here in 1993, the whole budget for the year was $1.5 trillion,” McKeon said. “Now this year, we are going to have a deficit that is more than that entire budget. It’s a different time than 1995.”
