As furloughed Americans across the country remain at home without pay for a fourth day, national monuments stay barricaded, and women and children nationwide see nutritional programs halted, the White House has reiterated its no-negotiation stance. And according to a senior administration official, “it doesn’t matter” to the White House how long a shutdown lasts.
According to a The Wall Street Journal article posted Thursday evening, Democrats — led by President Obama — and Republicans remain in a power struggle with the government shutdown serving as a fatality of failed compromise. The President has towed a hard line when it comes to negotiations, and Obama shows no signs of budging.
“‘We are winning…It doesn’t really matter to us’ how long the shutdown lasts ‘because what matters is the end result,'” a senior administration official told The Wall Street Journal.
And the White House’s stance is angering some House Republicans.
“Obama and the Democrats have openly vowed to kill kids cancer treatment and veterans care and now they admit why,” Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas) said in an emailed statement to Red Alert Politics. “They are extending this government shut down and intentionally hurting people because they think it will help them politically. This is why Americans have no faith in Obama.”
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney attempted to clear up the White House’s stance, though, after POLITICO’S Ben White asked Carney via Twitter if he disavowed the senior administration official’s quote.
.@morningmoneyben This is absurd. POTUS wants the shutdown to end NOW. Speaker can do that NOW by putting a clean CR to a vote. #JustVote
— Jay Carney (EOP) (@PressSec) October 4, 2013
.@morningmoneyben So am I, Ben. We utterly disavow idea WH doesn’t care when it ends. House should act now, no strings attached. #JustVote
— Jay Carney (EOP) (@PressSec) October 4, 2013
Leadership from the House and Senate met with President Obama earlier this week, offering a small glimmer of hope that there would be progress made in negotiations. But little was accomplished, and the President remained steadfast in his no-negotiations rhetoric.
Additionally, both chambers continue to volley bills back and forth, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) refuses to go to a conference committee despite the House’s vote to do so as the countdown to a government shutdown hit zero.
The Senate plans to work through the weekend though, and yesterday the House began voting on a series of small bills to fund government programs like benefits for veterans and the National Institutes of Health.
