"This isn't some damn game"

by Jake Sherman and John Bresnahan, Politico, October 4, 2013.

This was the “hang tight” meeting.

It’s the fourth day of a government shutdown, and that was the message House Republican leaders delivered to their members Friday morning in a closed session in the Capitol.

House Republicans appear as dug in as ever in their budget showdown against Senate Democrats and President Barack Obama. Neither side is blinking, as the government shutdown heads into the weekend.

“If we’re stuck with Obamacare as long as he’s president, we want it applied equally to all Americans,” House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) said.

Republicans have asked that Obama delay the mandate that individuals buy health insurance for one year, and cancel subsidies for congressional staff, lawmakers and White House personnel.

Speaker John Boehner - and Republicans at large - are seizing on an anonymous quote from a White House aide in the Wall Street Journal, that said the Obama administration didn’t care how long the shutdown lasted, since the president was winning.

“This morning, I get the Wall Street Journal out, and it says, well we don’t care how long this lasts, because we’re winning. This isn’t some damn game,” Boehner (R-Ohio) said, his voice raised. “The American people don’t want their government shut down, and neither do I. All we’re asking for is to sit down and have a discussion…reopen the government and bring fairness to the American people under Obamacare. It’s as simple as that. But it all has to begin with a simple discussion.”

Boehner tried to inject some levity into the tense times, reading a stack of letters from children at Sacred Heart School in Washington. The letters included advice on how to handle the political situation in Washington.

The House and Senate will remain in session this weekend, but no breakthroughs are expected. House Republicans see the Oct. 17 debt ceiling deadline as the true backstop for action. Many senior Republicans close to Boehner are holding out for a big budget package, but few think that could come together in the 13 days before the debt ceiling must be hiked.

Meanwhile, the House Republicans will use this weekend to continue to send narrowly targeted bills to open slices of the federal government. Senate Democrats have rejected those bills, and the White House said they’d veto them.

On Friday afternoon Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who has been one of the chief boosters of the “mini CR” strategy, attempted to pass House bills — including one funding veteran services — by a unanimous vote knowing full well Democrats would reject them.

“I understand the Democrats in this chamber are committed to Obamacare with all of their heart, might and soul, but the veterans of this nation should not be held hostage to that commitment,” Cruz said.

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) then objected “on behalf of all American who should not be left behind.” But House Republicans are still behind this strategy, even if it dead-ends in the Senate.

“What we’re doing is good, and we’re developing new bills by the hour,” Appropriations Chair Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) said. “This will go on until the Democrats come around.”