“I voted in favor of a Continuing Resolution that maintains government funding through December 11, 2015″.
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“It’s our responsibility to look at the facts of being in divided government”, Republican Martha McSally said. It was through an online search that she first came across was Planned Parenthood.
“Whether you like them or not isn’t the point”.
Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, D-Flagstaff, said the vote lets the government avoid “a catastrophic shutdown”, but that this is “no time for Congress to pat itself on the back“.
In the Senate, Alexander said shutting down the government as a way of expressing opposition to Planned Parenthood or any other contentious issue “is not the right thing to do”.
“Planned Parenthood helps us to serve those in our communities who are the most vulnerable”, said Dr. Leana Wen, Baltimore City Health Department commissioner.
Planned Parenthood insists the videos were deceitfully edited, and that its staff was merely discussing the process for obtaining tissue and the legal payments by researchers to cover expenses including transportation. Now a few politicians want to stop all federal funding.
Kristen Day, director of the group Democrats for Life of America, told CNA taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood amounts to “corporate welfare for one organization”. No Democrats voted against it.
A Quinnipiac University poll released Monday found that 69% of those surveyed responded that the government should not be shut down in order to defund Planned Parenthood.
The funding measure fails to address the nation’s $18 trillion debt, contains an additional $20 billion in “budgetary gimmicks” and continues funding for President Barack Obama’s “often unconstitutional and radical policies”, DesJarlais said. “This was a mistake, and it s why people are so frustrated with Washington“. The House followed suit in the afternoon, passing a concurring measure on a 277 to 151. A large majority of Republicans voted against the measure, which did not meet conservatives’ demands to cut off money to women’s healthcare provider Planned Parenthood amid an abortion controversy.
“In the coming weeks, Congress must come together to avert further crisis and negotiate a budget that will responsibly end the sequester and meet the needs of the American people”. But infighting among congressional Republicans after House Speaker John Boehner’s abrupt resignation last week will make efforts to craft any package extremely hard.
A similar fight over implementing Obama’s health care law sparked a 16-day shutdown two years ago that Boehner, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and other top Republicans did not want to repeat in election season. The Ohio Republican announced Friday that he will leave Congress on October 30.
The government remains constrained by spending curbs that have essentially frozen budget levels since 2011. Republicans are leading the drive to boost defense while Obama is demanding equal relief for domestic programs.
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“The uncertainty and unnecessary tumult of playing games right up to the brink of a government shutdown is not helpful to our fragile economy”. Democrats demanding a new budget deal have blocked work in the Senate, while a fight over the Confederate flag halted work in the House with only six of the 12 annual spending bills having passed.
