House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Sunday there are not enough votes to in the House to pass a clean stopgap spending bill to fund the government, prompting Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) to challenge him to bring such a vote to the House floor.
"There are not the votes in the House to pass a clean CR," Boehner said on ABC's "This Week With George Stephanopoulos."
Schumer responded by calling for Boehner to test his belief.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said Sunday that it's "irresponsible" for President Obama and his allies to be talking about the prospect of defaulting if the debt ceiling isn't raised by a key deadline later this month.
"I think it's irresponsible of the president and his men to even talk about default. There's no reason for us to default. We bring in $250 billion in taxes every month. Our interest payment is $20 billion. Tell me why we would ever default," Paul said on NBC's "Meet The Press." "We have legislation called the Full Faith and Credit Act, and it tells the president you must pay the interest on the debt. So this is a game."
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) said Sunday that lawmakers should address the debate over raising the nation's debt ceiling only after the standoff over the government shutdown is resolved.
"I want to worry about the debt ceiling after we get through the CR," Cruz said on CNN's "State of the Union."
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Sunday that the House will not pass a clean increase of the nation's debt limit later this month, and reiterated his call for President Obama to negotiate over the matter.
"We're not going to pass a clean debt limit increase," Boehner said on ABC's "This Week With George Stephanopoulos."
Treasury Secretary Jack Lew warned Sunday of dire consequences if lawmakers don't raise the debt ceiling later this month.
"If the United States government, for the first time in its history, chooses not to pay its bills on time, we will be in default," Lew said on CNN's "State of the Union." "There is no option that prevents us from being in default if we don't have enough cash to pay our bills."
House Speaker John Boehner arrives on Capitol Hill on Saturday. (Chris Maddaloni/Getty Images)
As the fifth day of the federal government shutdown began, members of the House came together in a moment of rare bipartisanship to pass a bill, by a vote of 407 to 0, approving back pay for furloughed government workers.
President Obama has expressed his support for the measure.
Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid supports the measure, but said Saturday that if furloughed workers are guaranteed back pay, there's no reason to keep them out of work.
Redskins running back Roy Helu stiff-arms Oakland Raiders linebacker Nick Roach (53) during a game in Oakland on Sept. 29. (Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP)
President Obama said he would consider changing the name of the Washington Redskins because it offends Native Americans.
"If I were the owner of the team and I knew that the name of my team, even if they've had a storied history, that was offending a sizable group of people, I'd think about changing it," Obama said in an interview with the Associated Press published Saturday.
The president became the latest to weigh in on the controversy surrounding the name of Washington's football franchise. Team owner Daniel Snyder has said he will not change the team's name, but a growing number of news organizations have decided to no longer use it in stories.
Obama said he did not think the team meant offense by the name, which has been with the franchise since it was in Boston in 1933. The team moved to Washington in 1937 and has become among the top franchises in terms of revenue in the National Football League.
NFL owners are meeting in Washington on Monday, and a protest against the team's name is planned.
The government shutdown now wrapping up its fourth day has forced lawmakers to cancel committee hearings, play tour guide for constituents, go without their catered hot lunches and to ration precious commodities.
Some of the final tourists to get in to the U.S. Capitol the normal way this week. (Post)
The scramble is on, especially at the House and Senate gyms, where trainers and attendants are on furlough, according to several lawmakers who frequent the facilities. Knowing they'd likely be temporarily out of a job within hours, House gym laundry staffers left behind about 250 cleaned and pressed towels. But lawmakers say they were mostly used up by Wednesday.
Updated: 2:15 p.m. Friday:
Hundreds of thousands of rank-and-file federal employees were forced out of the office Tuesday morning because of the start of a government shutdown and won't be paid over the course of the impasse.
But members of Congress and the president, who are so at odds over who caused the shutdown, will continue being paid and must be by law. That's because their jobs are authorized by the U.S. Constitution and are paid with mandatory funds, not discretionary spending dependent on annual appropriations.
(John Gress/Reuters)
Hillary Clinton says she'll probably start giving serious thought to another presidential run next year.
"I want to think seriously about it; I probably won't begin thinking about it until sometime next year," Clinton told Newsday after a speech on Long Island. "I will think about it because it's something on a lot of people's minds. And it's on my mind as well. But I want us to think more broadly."
