
SOURCE: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rep. Hal Rogers (R-KY) testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington
By Scott Lilly | September 30, 2013
It’s almost unbelievable that only 18 years after the disastrous shutdown of 1995, the federal government is on the brink of another shutdown. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY) presented the House floor on Saturday with the legislation that sealed the country’s fate—legislation that he and his party’s top leadership argued against for weeks.
Rep. Rogers, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), and House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), however, argued that shutting down the government over Obamacare would not go down well with the American people. In fact, Speaker Boehner went so far as to order a poll during the August congressional recess in an attempt to drive home the disastrous consequences of the strategy being pushed by the most extreme elements of the Republican Conference.
But all of that failed. The inmates were clearly in charge of the institution, and Rep. Rogers was left with the task of making the motion for the House to consider the flawed product that had been crafted largely by the backbenchers in his party. The chairman stoically sought recognition to make his motion, but he then proceeded to use his debate time more to lecture the faction in the party that had put him in this unfortunate position than to argue the substance of the bill he was asking the House to adopt. Continue reading “Good Grief! How Did We End Up on the Verge of Another Government Shutdown?”
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