At the Brink
The U.S. government neared its first shutdown in 17 years after House Republicans early Sunday demanded a delay in implementing a new health care law as a condition for avoiding a shutdown. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid declared the House bill dead even before the post-midnight votes to delay President Obama’s health care law and repeal a tax to pay for it. Senate Democrats on Monday plan to table the Republican measures. That would give the House one last chance to pass a stand-alone spending bill to keep the government running when a new fiscal year begins on Tuesday. “The question is whether right-wing Republicans are prepared to highjack the American people and shut down the government,” Sen. Bernie Sanders said on MSNBC.
