Wake Up To Politics - October 1, 2015
Thursday, October 1, 2015
404 Days until Election Day 2016
123 Days until the Iowa Caucuses
27 Days until the Next Republican Debate
12 Days Until the 1st Democratic DebateIt's Thursday, October 1, 2015, I'm Gabe Fleisher for Wake Up To Politics, and reporting from WUTP world HQ in my bedroom - Good morning: THIS IS YOUR WAKE UP CALL!!! Happy October!
To send me questions, comments, tips, new subscribers, and more: email me at wakeuptopolitics@gmail.com. To learn more about WUTP and subscribe, visit the site: wakeuptopolitics.com, or like me on Twitter and Facebook. More ways to engage with WUTP at the bottom.
Capitol Hill News
Shutdown Averted…For Now Both house of Congress passed a “clean” continuing resolution (CR) Wednesday that funds the government through December 11, and doesn’t touch Planned Parenthood, just hours before the current funding plan was set to expire at midnight.
The Senate passed the CR by a 78-20 vote at about 10am. All 46 Senate Democrats voted for the bill, joined by 32 Republicans. Among the 20 Republicans who voted against the measure were presidential candidates Ted Cruz (TX) and Rand Paul (KY), while the other GOP two presidential candidates in the Senate, Marco Rubio (FL) and Lindsey Graham (SC), both missed the vote.
The short-term funding bill then went to the House, where it was passed 277-151. All of the “nay” votes were from hard-line conservative Republicans, with just 91 House Republicans voting on the measure, meaning GOP leadership had to rely on Democratic votes to clear the CR. All 186 House Democrats supported the bill. The measure cleared the lower chamber just before 5pm, about seven hours before the deadline.
Notably, House leadership candidates were split on how they voted Wednesday. Kevin McCarthy voted “yea,” while his opponent for the Speaker’s gavel, Daniel Webster, voted “nay”. Meanwhile, Majority Leader candidates Steve Scalise (“yea”) and Tom Price (“nay”) were also split, as were the Majority Whip contenders (Patrick McHenry, Markwaynne Mullin: “yea”, Pete Sessions, Dennis Ross: “nay”).
Make no mistake: members of the House GOP Conference were watching this vote, and it will come up as a litmus test of conservatism in next week’s leadership elections.
Finally, President Barack Obama signed the bill into law at around 8:15 PM, with less than four hours to go before the government shuts down.
But this doesn’t mean the shutdown threat – or the Planned Parenthood funding fight – is done. The CR funds the government for just 10 more weeks, meaning before we know it, we’ll be back to Square 1, and staring down another deadline,
Next time, however: don’t expect Republicans to go so easily. Mark your calendars for December 11…there will be a fight over Planned Parenthood, and conservatives are willing to shut the government down over it.
White House Watch
The President’s Schedule At 2pm Eastern Time, President Barack Obama sits down for his weekly meeting with Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, the only event on his public schedule today.
Question of the Day
Today’s Question More than half of the Republican conference voted against the CR, meaning Speaker John Boehner broke what informal rule by bringing the funding bill to a vote in the first place?
Email me (wakeuptopolitics@gmail.com) with your answer sometime today – correct respondents get their name in tomorrow’s Wake Up!
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For more on Wake Up To Politics, listen to Gabe on NPR's "Talk of the Nation, the Political Junkie podcast, and St. Louis Public Radio; watch Gabe on MSNBC's "Up with Steve Kornacki, and read about Gabe in Politico, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Globe, and the St. Louis Jewish Light