Congress fails to pass spending bill

Congress was often referred to as playing a game of hot potato as the House of Representatives and the Senate passed continuing resolutions back and forth Monday in a fight over the Affordable Care Act.

A fight that started more than a week ago with House republicans wanting to defund Obamacare has now ended with the first government shutdown in 17 years.

As the final 24 hours until the shutdown hit, the House continued to attack Obama’s health-care law as the Senate started moving toward a clean bill to keep the government open. The clean bill removed all parts of the continuing resolutions that dealt with funding for Obamacare, which uninsured Americans can officially sign up for Tuesday, and the bill just focused on government funding.

The house continued to be unable to pass any legislation without including language on the Affordable Care Act. The last resolution the House passed would delay Obamacare for a year and strip lawmakers and their aids of long-standing health benefits. The Senate again denied that resolution and a clean bill was proposed, but when sent to House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, he refused to stand down and called for a special committee to meet in the coming week to clear up the differences between the two parties.

The two branches seem to be at a stalemate as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-NV, said they would not go to conference until the House passed the clean bill proposed.

“We passed a budget because it’s the right thing to do,” Reid said. “Republicans said they wanted a budget passed and we did. We will not go to conference with a gun to our head.”

Just after midnight the Senate officially recessed until 9:30 a.m. Tuesday.

But now some 800,000 federal workers will be furloughed and national parks, monuments and museums and non-essential federal offices will close. Some workers, including prison guards, Border Patrol agents and air-traffic control officers, will continue working, but without pay.

Representative Dan Kildee, D-Mich., spoke to MSNBC reporters after the official shutdown and said he was frustrated, sad and angry the House couldn’t come to a compromise.

“The leadership of the House is so weak they can’t fight against the minority of the House that now controls things,” he said.

Seeing the deadline quickly approaching, President Obama signed a last-minute bill to fund troops and some Defense Department workers in the case of any current or future government shutdowns. Congress was able to agree on the bill in a rare bipartisan agreement for the day.

Obama released a video to American troops after the shutdown was official, ensuring them they will have the money they need to do their job. He said as Commander and Chief he has worked to make sure the armed forces has the support they need and at the same time those forces have continued to meet their responsibilities.

Unfortunately, the president said, Congress failed to meet their responsibilities and failed to pass a budget.

“Those of you in uniform will remain on your duty status. Threats have not changed and we need you ready,” President Obama said. “If you are serving in harms way we are making sure you have what you need to make sure you succeed at your missions.”