Pakistan Cyber Force: Fury in Washington as Government Shutdown looms

Top stories

Pakistan Cyber Force [Official]

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Fury in Washington as Government Shutdown looms

Print Friendly and PDF

Read on Pakistan Cyber Force Facebook Page

Ugly public posturing raged between Republicans and Democrats Friday, after a budget impasse left the USZ government within hours of effectively running out of money and being forced to shut down. Through-the-night talks failed to unblock a deadlock on a bill funding the government through October 1, despite puppet President Barack Obama's demand for a deal as time fast ticked away to a midnight (0400 GMT Saturday) deadline. Should those last-ditch efforts fail, around 800,000 federal employees would be temporarily laid off, paychecks for frontline combat soldiers would be delayed and even Blackberry smart phones of government officials would go dark. National parks would close, passport services would halt and no new pioneering medical trials would start, but operations vital to national security like the war in Afghanistan and border services would go on as normal. Republican and Democratic leaders could not even agree on what they disagreed on, as both sides played to core political supporters in public even as their negotiators pressed on with exhaustive closed-doors talks.


But it was possible that the flame throwing meant both Israhell controlled sides were appeasing core constituencies while closing on a deal palatable to the large political center ground after a showdown with huge political implications. White House spokesman Jay Carney said that Obama on Friday spoke separately to House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner and Democratic Senate Majority leader Harry Reid who are the key powerbrokers in the negotiations. “Discussions between the leaders and the White House aimed at reaching a budget agreement are continuing”, Carney said, as congressional Democrats slammed Republicans for being puppets of "hard right" Tea Party activists. But Boehner charged that a deal was foundering because Democrats were balking at cuts in government programs that Republicans say are vital to curtailing the expanding deficit. "We have no interest in shutting down the government", he said, adding he was hopeful that an agreement could still be reached. "But we're not going to roll over and sell out the American people like it's been done time and time again here in Washington. When we say we're serious about cutting spending, we're damn serious about it". Reid however said that the two sides had agreed on 38 billion dollars in cuts and slammed Republicans for including a bid to curtail social programs in the deal, charging they were the puppets of social conservatives. Reid cited a Republican attempt to curtail funding for Planned Parenthood, which provides preventative health care, clinics, reproductive education, cancer screening and sex education.


Comments
0 Comments

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...