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After 10 PM EST on Friday, The U.S. Senate rejected a deal that would fund the U.S. government for another month:
Only five Democrats voted to advance the bill — Sens. Joe Manchin (W.Va.), Joe Donnelly (Ind.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.) and Claire McCaskill (Mo.), who are all up for reelection this year in states carried by President Trump in 2016 election, and newly-elected Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.).
Republicans were also not united, as Sens. Rand Paul (Ky.), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Mike Lee (Utah) and Jeff Flake (Ariz.) also voted against advancing the legislation. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who is battling brain cancer, was absent.
The procedural vote remained open late Friday, though it needed 60 votes to pass and was well short of that number with 48 senators voting against it.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer continued to negotiate after the vote opened (archive), but no deal has been reached yet. As of midnight (5 minutes before this story went live), the government shutdown was in effect.
At Wikipedia: Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Government shutdowns in the United States.
- What's the Government Shutdown 'About'?
- D.C. Stays Open This Time Around — Even If Federal Government Shuts Down
- Senate Lacks Votes to Advance GOP Spending Bill: Shutdown Update
- The CHIP Debacle Shows Democrats Need to Put the Government on Autopilot
- 'We Have to Stand Our Ground.' Activists Push Democrats to Fight for DACA Recipients in Shutdown
- Shutdown? It Could Be Forgotten in a Trumpian Flash
- Analysis: Emboldened Democrats take a risk on a shutdown
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Sulla on Saturday January 20 2018, @06:28AM (5 children)
I have worked in accounting at two different states and seen the effect of furlough days. The federal government has done furlough days in the past but it is pretty common at the state/county/muni level. Even if they pay in retro as if vacation days that is a period of time lights are off, the heaters are on 50/60 instead of 70/75, computers are not on, a day we don't have to pay for cleaning supplies. Water and electric lower.
The costs end up lower when states have to do it, the only reason for the fed to end up more expensive is spite or lack of knowing how to run a budget.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 20 2018, @07:00AM (4 children)
Why weren't you shut down, if in fact you were a state employee? I sense that the bullshit is strong in this one.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Sulla on Saturday January 20 2018, @08:47AM (3 children)
When I was working for Alaska I was working a couple of years after a succesful furlough and I moved out of state before another came into effect. Alaska has commonly used them when oil price changes caused budget overruns. The better way to fix budget gaps is examining where to cut costs and reduce overhead but sometimes that doesn't work and layoffs and furlough days are required. A 15 hour furlough in AK recently fixed a 9 million dollar budget gap as referenced in a prior post.
When I worked for Oregon I began work the year after a furlough that brought helped mend a budget issue.
Alaska in particular was interesting because the budget was based on a weighted average of prior year oil tax take. Several boom years caused a budget that was too large when oil prices fell through a couple years ago.
Although a big hit I would rather miss out on 3k for a year than have a state operating in the red. It is preferred that budget managers/planners do their job to avoid the issue in the first place but unforseen events do happen.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday January 20 2018, @05:10PM
Can you break down that $9M: how much was saved energy costs (that ultimately used fewer resources), vs. how much was reduced services costs that took money out of the pockets of the service providers and how much was direct salary reductions for the workers which took money directly from their pockets and then saved the work for them to do after the shutdown was over?
It's not so much saving money as it is spreading the pain onto the workers. Fixes one big balance sheet by siphoning off from thousands of smaller ones.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Sunday January 21 2018, @03:29AM (1 child)
Or in the case of the previous administration, the shutdown was engineered to be expensive, cuz that'll show 'em.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 21 2018, @06:52AM
This one, of course, is different, since the Republican party controls both Houses and the Presidency. So it wil the be the most Fabulous Government Shutdown ever! It will be a fanastic shutdown! A record-breaking shutdown, with the best ratings! A Make Trump Great Again Shutdown. Until the indictments, anyway.