PROOF: Sen. Harry Reid (D) and President Obama Threaten Government Shutdown

09.29.2013
10.02.2013 UPDATE: Reuters changes story. Deletes language from Sen. Reid’s intent to shutdown the gov if ObamaCare funding was not in the House funding bill.
11.07.2013 UPDATE: Number of shutdowns in U.S. history = 18, including 2013.

pelosi-reid-obama

PROOF: Sen. Harry Reid (D) and President Obama Threaten Government Shutdown

original article written by Net Advisor

WASHINGTON, DC. Despite all the political grandstanding, the facts are that the Democrats are desperate to hold on to a law that no one read, few understand, and costs have more than doubled before it even starts.

The Democrats have come out in force using every tactic in the book including intentional misrepresentations of the facts to the American public just so they can get their way, even if their promises have been false, and their arguments have been wrong.

[IMPORTANT UPDATE: Reuters journalist(s) or whomever had control of their content apparently changed their Sep 29, 2013 1:49am EDT report on or about 7:43pm EDT the same day. The new report removed all references of Senator Reid’s (D-NV) inference of Reid’s willingness to shutdown the government if ObamaCare language was removed from the House funding bill.

It is common practice for Reuters and other major media organizations redistribute their content. There are easy ways to track down original or changed articles once published on-line.

Under Point [1] (below), we have posted PDF links of the original Reuters content. The revised Reuters story and their changed headline can be viewed here (PDF – highlight added).

Reuters is one of the oldest, and largest top-rate media company. With any institution of this size, there will be employees with political bias.  As journalists, it is important to keep integrity and accuracy of news stories despite the writer’s personal political views.

For us we cite our public sources from across the media and political spectrum. We do our best to insure accuracy of content. We would hope other media organizations would honor the same. We welcome the journalists or Reuters to comment on their changes to their article in question.]

[1] Truth. Who Are the Real Obstructionists?
Finally Reuters published the truth about who is really threatening to shutdown government.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid reiterated on Saturday that the House bill would be dead on arrival in the Democratic-controlled Senate, which is not scheduled to meet until 2 p.m. on Monday.”

Obama also threatened to veto any bill that delays his healthcare restructuring.”

— Source: Reuters, originally published Sun Sep 29, 2013 1:49am EDT

Backup source of the original Reuters story:

[2] Sorry 99 U.S. Senators, Your Voice is Not Heard?
Of the 100 elected people in the U.S. Senate, it is Majority Whip Harry Reid (D-NV) (contact) who single-handedly has decided that the opinion of the other 99 Senators don’t count: It’s his way or the highway. There is no debate, no negotiation over anything that Reid or the President wants. Only Reid and Obama will decide which laws will pass, and which laws will not? Does that sound like a Constitutional Republic, let alone a Democracy?

[Side Note: Someone tell Dictionary.com that the United States is NOT a Democracy, it is a Constitutional Republic. Canada is not a Democracy either as Dictionary.com WRONGLY claims. “Canada is a constitutional monarchy” – source: The Canadian gov. Now that I’ve corrected the dictionary twice, let’s get back to this government shutdown argument.]

[3] Sorry 99 U.S. Senators, Your Voice Doesn’t Matter?
In January 2013, Democrat Senator Harry Reid advised President Obama that Obama could just bypass Congress and go ahead and raise the debt ceiling without Congressional approval.

Harry Reid: “…we believe you (President Obama) must be willing to take any lawful steps to ensure that America does not break its promises and trigger a global economic crisis — without congressional approval, if necessary…”

— Source: Politico, 01-11-2013

This of course would be unconstitutional, because by law, all bills that involve government revenue MUST originate in the House of Representatives.

“All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments as on other Bills.”

— Article I, Section 7 of the United States Constitution. (Source: Cornell Law School)

Thus Harry Reid can propose or agree to Amendments on revenue bills, but the House does not have to accept them (Reasoning).

Because ObamaCare involves various taxes on citizens and businesses, that makes this under House, not Senate authority. So if the Senate wants to shut down government because they refuse to pass funding bills passed by the House because they don’t like certain parts, then it’s the Senate’s problem – it’s Reid’s problem.

If the Senate passes the House government funding bill, and the President Veto’s that bill, then who shut down the government — Mr. President?

[4] The House Passes Funding Bill – Again
The U.S. House passed a second bill to fund the government. The original bill was effectively rejected by Democrat Senator Harry Reid because it excluded funding for ObamaCare. Reid reinserted all funding for ObamaCare back into the Bill and sent it back to the House. The new House bill includes funding for the government again, and ObamaCare but delays ObamaCare for one year. There are provisions to pay U.S. troops in the event of a shutdown, and stripping out a medical device tax in ObamaCare which has bipartisan support.

Harry Reid called the ObamaCare medical tax ‘stupid.’

[5] RELAX, the Government Has Shut Down Before – 18 Times – And No One Died!
There have been 18 U.S. government shutdowns in history. The last U.S. government shut down occurred in 1995 and 1996. No one else will probably tell you this, but look at the reasons for the last shut downs:

“The United States federal government shutdown of 1995 and 1996 was the result of conflicts between Democratic President Bill Clinton and the Republican Congress over funding for Medicare, education, the environment, and public health in the 1996 federal budget.

The government shut down after Clinton vetoed the spending bill the Republican Party-controlled Congress sent him. The federal government of the United States put non-essential government workers on furlough and suspended non-essential services from November 14 through November 19, 1995 and from December 16, 1995 to January 6, 1996, for a total of 28 days.

The major players were President Clinton and Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Newt Gingrich.”

— Source: Wikipedia

So we have been through this before, the general subject matter is virtually identical, so this is nothing new.

[6] Democrat Fear Mongers Meet ‘Chicken Little’
The Democrat fear mongers are trying to scare everyone that a government shutdown is the equivalent of Chicken Little’s story about the sky falling. We’ll, like in that story, the sky never fell, and the government soon resumed.

By the way, since the 1996 shutdown and despite two recessions, including the largest recession (2007 to “2009”?) since the Great Depression; and despite all kinds of terrorists attacks on the U.S. (9/11, Fort HoodBenghazi, and Boston for example); despite the high unemployment, and massive deficits, the stock market is higher today that it was in 1996. We have all moved on since 1996 – some people have actually been born in hospitals without ObamaCare and everything was fine.

Today, no one is talking about the impact of a government shutdown on the economy in 1995-1996 because there was none. In fact, the economy boomed (story link gone) from 1995 to about March 2000. Maybe we should shut down the government more often?

Now you know the truth.


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