While prospects of a government shutdown on Oct. 1 are waning as House Republican leaders are said to be unveiling on Sept. 8 a “mostly clean” continuing resolution to fund the government, Republicans’ plans to defund Planned Parenthood could spark a reprise of 2013, according to political analyst Andy Friedman of the Washington Update.
In 2013, the government shut down “due to a dispute over defunding the Affordable Care Act,” Friedman told ThinkAdvisor. “Now there is talk among Republicans about defunding Planned Parenthood, a proposal the president [Obama] is almost certain to veto.”
Also, there is disagreement among lawmakers “on the amount of funding for social programs generally,” Friedman says.
There’s also a difference in timing this year as to when the debt limit must be raised. In 2013, “the government ran out of money and had to borrow by mid-October, setting up an incontrovertible deadline that Congress had to address, reopening the government in the process,” Friedman says. “This year we’re told the debt ceiling will not have to increase before November or even December. So, if the government shuts down, what forces Congress to compromise and reopen it in the near term?”
Analyst Joe Lieber of Washington Analysis notes in his Tuesday commentary that House GOP leaders will seek to pass a “mostly clean” CR by the Oct. 1 deadline, but says that his firm “acknowledges that fears have grown inside the Beltway that a showdown over defunding Planned Parenthood has raised the prospects of a shutdown fight.”
Says Lieber: “The House GOP leadership could very well move legislation that defunds Planned Parenthood then blame the Senate for inaction, where there are not enough votes to overcome a certain Democratic filibuster.”