Reuters — Trump: 'I don't see a deal' with Democrats on keeping government open

Here we go again.

Reuters
Trump: 'I don't see a deal' with Democrats on keeping government open
Reuters Staff

So there!

Zero Hedge
Top Democrats "Abruptly" Pull Out Of White House Meeting After Trump Twitter Attack

Tyler Durden

Alexander Bolton — Senate Dems hold out on spending deal, risking shutdown

Shoe now on the other foot.

Senate Democrats are holding out on backing a bill to keep the government funded through April 28, risking a government shutdown that would begin on Saturday.

Democrats may still back the funding measure, but a demand to extend miners’ health care coverage for a full year is holding up a deal.

The House easily approved the legislation Thursday afternoon, but without an agreement. the Senate can’t take an initial vote until Saturday at 1 a.m. Government funding is due to run out at the end of the day Friday.

Democratic objections are led by Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Sherrod Brown of Ohio, who are both up for reelection in 2018 in states carried by President-elect Donald Trump.

They want to extend expiring healthcare benefits for retired coal miners for at least a year. The current bill would extend the benefits for retired miners for four months, to coincide with the expiration of broader government funding April 28.

“Everybody in the caucus is insisting on demanding those two things and working to get the Republicans to agree: Buy America and one year [of health benefits] for the miners,” Brown told reporters Tuesday....

The Hill

Senate Dems hold out on spending deal, risking shutdown
Alexander Bolton

Jon Perr — Economists Warn of GOP Threat to U.S. Economy

Add to all this that a weak economy likely benefits the GOP in 2016.

PERRspectives
Economists Warn of GOP Threat to U.S. Economy
Jon Perr

Joe Firestone — Return of the Coin?

The last few weeks have seen at least two posts calling attention to the potential use of the platinum coin in America's political economy. The first to appear was Rob Urie's piece in Counterpunch provocatively titled: “The Trillion Dollar Catshit Coin” And the second was Mike Sandler's post in The Huffington Post called “Greece and the U.S. Senate: Economics for the 99%.…

Coronet
Return of the Coin?
letsgetitdone (Joe Firestone)

My podcast for Thursday, Dec 11

Today I talk about a possible government shutdown. How any Continuing Resolution does not solve the debt ceiling issue and why that's the "doomsday" scenario. Also, why you can only get this info here on this blog. Not the mainstream media, not CNBC, not the WSJ, not Fox Business, NOWHERE but here, folks.

Thurs Dec 11

Simon Maloy — What their next shutdown will really be about

Yes, they are going to do it again, because — Obama.

Republicans know shutdowns are toxic, but that doesn't mean they won't do one. They'll just blame you-know-who

Salon

What their next shutdown will really be about
Simon Maloy

Andy Sullivan — Tea Party Republicans Backed By Big Corporate Players Following Shutdown

Snake pit.

The Huffington Post
Tea Party Republicans Backed By Big Corporate Players Following Shutdown
Andy Sullivan | Reuters

David Ferguson — Cruz lashes out at Senate GOP over shutdown failure (via Raw Story )

Cruz lashes out at Senate GOP over shutdown failure (via Raw Story )

In remarks to an Iowa Republican group on Friday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said that his government shutdown and debt default plan would have worked at repealing the Affordable Care Act — also known as Obamacare — if Senate Republicans had only backed…

---

Shadee Ashtari — Ted Cruz Doesn't Rule Out Another Government Shutdown: 'I Would Do Anything'

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), the man who led the charge on the 16-day government shutdown by tying government funding provisions to defunding the Affordable Care Act, told ABC News he "would do anything" to stop Obamacare -- including another government shutdown.

President Barack Obama signed a bipartisan bill early Thursday that reopened the federal government and raised the nation’s debt ceiling, thereby avoiding default. The bill, however, only authorizes current spending levels until Jan. 15. That means Cruz may have another opportunity to employ shutdown tactics if Congress cannot broker a budget deal by January.

Speaking about defunding the Affordable Care Act on the "Sean Hannity Show" on Wednesday, Cruz said, "This is going to be multi-staged, extended political battle."

The Huffington Post
Ted Cruz Doesn't Rule Out Another Government Shutdown: 'I Would Do Anything'
Shadee Ashtari

John T. Harvey — Five Things The Shutdown Taught Us About Trying To Balance The Budget

The government just underwent a reduction in spending for sixteen days. What did we learn about how that affects the economy?

Forbes
Five Things The Shutdown Taught Us About Trying To Balance The Budget
John T. Harvey | Professor of Economics, Texas Christian University

Mehdi Hasan — The World Is Laughing At The United States Over The Government Shutdown

Not a laughing matter.

"Civilisations," wrote the legendary English historian of empire [Arnold Toynbee], "die from suicide, not murder."

The Huffington Post
The World Is Laughing At The United States Over The Government Shutdown
Mehdi Hasan

Ian Millhiser — Read This One Document If You Want To Understand Why Republicans Followed Ted Cruz Off A Cliff

Conservative Evangelicals and Tea Party classical liberals are sure that this is the endgame for them, and they are convinced that if they don't win this one, they are history:  The country will take a direction that marginalizes them. Given that picture, they have no choice but to fight to the death.

As long as they can keep control one branch of government they can essentially shut the government down for as long as elections keep them in power or their coalition breaks.

Think Progress

Read This One Document If You Want To Understand Why Republicans Followed Ted Cruz Off A Cliff

Ian Millhiser

David Edwards — GOP House members sing Christian hymn ‘Amazing Grace’ before pushing to derail Senate deal (via Raw Story )

GOP House members sing Christian hymn ‘Amazing Grace’ before pushing to derail Senate deal (via Raw Story )

Before pushing an alternative to a Senate bid to end the government shutdown on Tuesday, conservative Republicans in the House of Representatives reportedly sang “Amazing Grace,” a Christian hymn usually reserved for funerals. Rep. Darrell Issa (…

---

Ben Jacobs — This Loophole Can End the Government Shutdown

President Obama could overrule one obscure opinion from Jimmy Carter’s attorney general—and reopen the government himself.

The Daily Beast
This Loophole Can End the Government Shutdown
Ben Jacobs

Good one, but the president is going to leave the Tea Party Republicans swinging in the wind instead — unless the wind (polls) shifts.

Lisa Lambert — Federal funding in limbo, U.S. states weigh paying for programs

As the battle in Congress over the U.S. budget grinds on, states say they may soon have to choose between putting their own dollars into federal programs for residents or letting vitally important services such as food stamps lapse.

"States have thus far managed to avoid closing or suspending most programs and services by using carry-over funds or, in some cases, by using state spending to fill in for missing federal dollars," the bipartisan National Governors Association said in a letter sent to congressional leaders on Thursday. "However, states are not in a position to be the bank for the federal government,"

The letter, which was copied to President Barack Obama, asked for reimbursements for expenses that states might incur while funding for federal programs is in limbo. This included paying for personnel whose salaries are supported, at least in part, by federal grants.

Reuters
Federal funding in limbo, U.S. states weigh paying for programs
Lisa Lambert

Stephen Rosenfeld — Will Obama Abandon Tens of Millions of Seniors to Get a Budget Deal with Right-Wing Republicans?

It appears that the GOP’s price for reopening government and raising the debt limit is for Obama to “seriously consider,” as Cole said, an array of policy options targeting these needed and popular entitlements. This menu would include theunbalanced Simpson-Bowles plan of cutting retirement benefits while lowering federal income tax rates, especially in the top brackets. Or, as Obama has said, possibly changing the inflation formula that calculates Social Security increases, which would hurt the majority of seniors who have little lifetime savings.

These “grand bargain” proposals are nowhere near the political 50-yard-lines. They are far to the right, just as the shutdown and debt fight are driven by even more extreme right-wingers. Yet mainstream media coverage of would-be dealmakers is filled with revisionist history or worse, historical amnesia. Republicans who a year ago were seen as being out-of-touch—notably 2012 Vice Presidential nominee Paul Ryan—are today touted as “adults” that the White House can deal with. That’s how The New York Times portrayed Ryan this week, glossing over his slash-and-burn agenda that voters rejected in the 2012 presidential election.

There’s a real danger that the Republican extremists will move from their 5 yard line to their 15 yard line and stop there, bellowing that they have compromised while demanding lasting cuts to safety nets. Obama would then look intransigent if he keeps saying no.

AlterNet
Will Obama Abandon Tens of Millions of Seniors to Get a Budget Deal with Right-Wing Republicans?
Stephen Rosenfeld

The president will only agree to what he actually wants and then say he had to compromise. The Democratic establishment is part of the US Establishment that is represented by both the establishments of both parties.

California State Controller: Revenue and Spending Tracking Budget, Warns on impact from Shutdown

The 4+ year drag from the cutbacks at the state and local governments levels are mostly over. However the Federal government shutdown could start negatively impacting state budgets soon. Just as the states are starting to recover ... the House pulls the football away.

Calculated Risk
California State Controller: Revenue and Spending Tracking Budget, Warns on impact from Shutdown
Bill McBride

John Harvey — Debt Ceiling Theatrics

What we are witnessing in Washington is a travesty. A small group of Republicans is holding our economy hostage. As usual, the casualties will be innocent, hard-working people who have absolutely nothing to do with this debacle. In fact, it’s already started.

I say the following as someone who is not particularly a fan of the Affordable Care Act: it was introduced, debated, passed, signed into law, and declared constitutional. Then it’s chief architect was reelected. Republicans have voted to repeal it over forty times, and each time they have failed. It’s done. It’s over. It’s law.

Of course, one should be permitted to argue for changes or even repeal, that’s how the process is supposed to work. BUT, to decide to shut down the federal government, throwing American citizens out of work, because you didn’t get your way time after time is despicable.

Forbes
Debt Ceiling Theatrics
John T. Harvey | Professor of Economics, Texas Christian University

Kevin Drum — The Weird Politics of Republican Hostage Taking

Here's the weird part: The (relative) moderates want to rely on the debt ceiling for leverage, even though breaching the debt ceiling would be far more catastrophic than a government shutdown. The (relative) extremists are shying away from the horror of a debt ceiling breach and just want to continue the shutdown. Doesn't this seem backward? 

It depends on what the real motivations are. Team Boehner claims that they want to use the debt ceiling as a hostage because it's better leverage. But Team Erickson doesn't believe them. They apparently think this is just cover. The moderates know perfectly well that a debt ceiling breach would cause a market panic that in turn would force Republicans to cave in. So they're only pushing this line because they want a way out of the fight, and this will do it. Conversely, a fight over the government shutdown could go on for a long, long time, and eventually Democrats might end up caving in.

I think that Kevin Drum is correct here. Any game theorists out there?

Mother Jones
The Weird Politics of Republican Hostage Taking
Kevin Drum

Bill Mitchell — if they had another brain it would be lonely

There is growing evidence that the US Republicans are now an extremist party with a substantially tenuous grip on reality. They clearly do not understand that an economic depression is likely to follow their refusal to prevent the US Treasury to continue spending according to the current laws that the US Congress passed and which, together with the tax code, determine the current deficit. They clearly do not understand how deficits arise and the function they serve. The US might hold themselves out to be the world leaders in a range of areas but this debate is revealing how stupid the government representatives have become.

Bill Mitchell – billy blog
GOP reps – if they had another brain it would be lonely
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at the Charles Darwin University, Northern Territory, Australia