PTX UQ

Will Pass
GOP willing to concede debt ceiling debate but still close credit risk proves
Raw Story 9/26 [The Raw Story, credible news outlet on Washington politics, GOP lawmakers consider plan to lift debt ceiling in
exchange for Obamacare delay, http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/09/26/gop-lawmakers-consider-plan-to-lift-debt-ceiling-in-exchange-for-
obamacare-delay/, 9/26/13, 9/27/13, CW]

With five days until a possible U.S. government shutdown, lawmakers were mulling options Thursday for
keeping agencies open while potentially postponing a battle over President Barack Obamas health care law.
The Senate expected to approve a stopgap funding bill soon that strips out a provision defunding the controversial health
law, while House Republicans were to confer early Thursday over possible plans to shift the health care fight to mid-
October, when lawmakers will need to raise the debt ceiling. Congress is deeply fractured over how to spend
within the governments means, and they have yet to come to terms over a budget that funds federal operations beyond next Monday, the
final day of the current fiscal year. After the Senate moved forward Wednesday on the temporary spending bill, the chambers top Democrat
Harry Reid stripped it of the health care provision, insisting that nothing that defunds so-called Obamacare will pass the Senate, as it did in
the House. Republican and Democratic leaders agreed to compress the procedural time before the next Senate vote, meaning the chamber
could pass its legislation on Saturday, leaving the lower house barely 48 hours to pass the amended bill. Any changes to the bill by House
Speaker John Boehner would require the reworked version to go back to the Senate for approval, almost certainly leading to a government
shutdown. I would hope we can expedite this, Reid said. We have a lot to do and I hope we can get
there as quickly as we can. If no deal is reached, many government agencies would shut down beginning Tuesday, and hundreds
of thousands of federal workers would be ordered to stay home with no pay. Meanwhile, a congressional source said House Republicans were
considering reworking their budget measure to include a one-year delay of Obamacares so-called individual mandate, which requires nearly all
Americans to have insurance by January 2014 or pay a fine. It is an option that some people like, a Republican aide told AFP. Other
Republicans, however, have spoken of the potential for passing a clean stopgap budget and shifting the Obamacare fight to the debt ceiling,
where they feel they might have more leverage. Boehners leadership team was expected to propose that plan to the caucus Thursday,
according to the Washington Post. With the attention earlier this week on the Senate, conservative Senator Ted Cruz took to the floor Tuesday
for an extraordinary, 21-hour speech railing against Obamacare as the biggest job killer in this country. Many Republicans
expressed opposition to Cruzs delay strategy, warning it could leave insufficient time for the House to
consider the Senate measure. They said Republicans would be blamed for a shutdown debacle, and it would hurt the partys
standing with voters. White House spokesman Jay Carney weighed in, saying it would be irresponsible to not fund the essential functions of
the government out of ideological pique. As lawmakers squabble over the way forward, the need to raise the US debt ceiling was rapidly
approaching. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew warned that the government will reach its statutory debt cap by October 17, and that failure to
raise it would lead to catastrophic default. If we have insufficient cash on hand, it would be impossible for the United States of America to
meet all of its obligations for the first time in our history, Lew said in a letter to Boehner. Lew urged Congress to act immediately to
increase the borrowing limit, which has been locked at $16.7 trillion since May. Some Republicans have suggested that the
House pass a measure this week that raises the debt ceiling but delays elements of the health law. House Democratic
leader Nancy Pelosi is squarely opposed to that approach, and she crafted a letter to Obama signed by 185 members of her caucus saying they
will support a clean extension of the debt ceiling when the House takes up this issue. And Carney
reiterated Obamas position that raising the debt ceiling is not a subject of negotiation. During a bruising 2011 budget battle,
the matter of raising the debt ceiling was wrapped into the spending fight, and Lew reminded lawmakers that the 2011 impasse caused
significant harm to the economy. That fight was resolved just hours before Treasury could have defaulted, but nevertheless
led to a historic downgrade of the US credit rating, the first time the United States has ever lost its AAA status with
Standard & Poors.
Boehner opposition low ensures passage
HNGN 9/26 [HNGN, Headline News Global News is a credible news outlet on politics,
http://www.hngn.com/articles/13382/20130926/boehner-thinks-shutdown-avoided-house-turns-attention-toward-debt-ceiling.htm, Boehner
Thinks Shutdown Can Be Avoided, House Turns Attention Toward Debt Ceiling Fight, 9/26/13, 9/27/13, CW]

With the Senate unlikely to pass a House bill that would fund the government for the next three months only if the
Affordable Care Act is defunded House Republicans are scrambling to figure out what their next step will be in
order to avoid a government shutdown. Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, told reporters that he doesn't think
House Republicans will pass a temporary spending bill if it does not include the defunding of health care law they derisively refer to as
Obamacare, according to the Associated Press. Despite the opposition to the bill that will likely get passed in the Senate
Boehner still believes that a government shutdown will be avoided. The Senate is not expected to pass a bill until
Sunday which would give the House very little time to send an altered bill back to the upper chamber if they still are going to meet the Tuesday
deadline to avoid a shutdown, the Wall Street Journal reports. "We have no interest in seeing a government shutdown, but we've got to
address the spending problem," Boehner told the Wall Street Journal. As a back-up plan in case they are unable to defund
the Affordable Care Act House Republicans are working on a bill that would allow the debt limit to be
raised, which needs to be done by the middle of October in order for the United States to avoid going into default, on the condition that
implementation of the health care law be delayed for a year. It is unclear if tea party affiliated members of the House will accept raising the
debt limit, according to the Associated Press. "It does not cut spending significantly. It does not fix the problem," Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., said.
"We need to significantly cut federal government spending, or long-term have a balanced budget constitutional amendment." In addition to
the delay of the health care law the debt ceiling bill will also include a rider authorizing the construction of the controversial Keystone XL
pipeline. The debt ceiling bill may be a tough sell for Republicans as not a single Democrat is expected to vote for it; which means that only 17
Republicans in the House could vote against it if the bill is to pass, according to Politico. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis.,
has said that the reason Republicans have expanded the debt limit fight to include issues such as the building of the pipeline and the attack on
the health care law is because they have very little leverage currently, according to the Wall Street Journal. "The reason this debt limit fight is
different is, we don't have an election around the corner where we feel we are going to win and fix it ourselves," Ryan said. "We are stuck with
this government another three years."
Wont Pass
Wont Pass Healthcare tether makes it impossible no negotiations
Washington Post 9/26 [Washington Post, Washington Post Politics is an up to dte and credible news source on current politics,
Shutdown grows more likely as House digs in, http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/house-republicans-reject-senate-spending-bill-
explore-strategy-to-avoid-shutdown/2013/09/26/7b585a18-26b8-11e3-b75d-5b7f66349852_story.html, 9/26/13, 9/27/13, CW]

Top House Republican leaders Thursday rejected the short-term spending plan expected to be passed by
the Senate in coming days, increasing the possibility of a government shutdown next week. Asked if the
House would pass the bill unchanged once it is sent from the Senate, Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) replied: I do not
see that happening. . Using Senate rules permitting him to change the wording of a spending measure approved by the House last
week, Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) is expected to strip out language that would defund the law, change the expiration date on the
funding bill to Nov. 15, and pass the measure with a simple majority achieved entirely with Democratic votes. Once the bill returns to the
House, any move to change it would by necessity mean that the fight over funding the government would almost certainly continue at least
until the final minutes of the fiscal year late on Monday night since the Senates arcane, time-sensitive rules would make swift consideration
unlikely. Boehners tough words on the spending bill came as he and his lieutenants were still working to find a way past the immediate crisis
by shifting their attention to the next fight over raising the nations debt ceiling. The Treasury Department said Wednesday that the nation is
likely to exceed its borrowing authority on Oct. 17 meaning an even more nerve-wracking deadline is just around the corner. In response,
House Republicans were working to unveil a bill that would tie an increase in the nations borrowing
limit to a wish list of conservative priorities, including a one-year delay of the implementation of Obamacare. The
bill was intended as a way to avert the shutdown by becoming the new weapon for continuing the
assault on Obamacare, allowing Republicans to abandon the fight against the clean government funding bill that the Senate will pass.
By late Thursday afternoon, however, Boehner had convened his leadership team in the speakers office to try to hash out the next strategic
steps amid signs of trouble in rounding up enough votes to pass the new GOP debt ceiling bill. It was not clear Boehner will be able to get the
support from conservatives needed to pass that bill before the deadline for the continuing resolution. GOP leaders began outlining their debt
ceiling proposal at the weekly closed-door meeting with rank-and-file Republicans. But speaking Thursday at Prince Georges Community
College in Largo, Md., Obama warned that he will not accept delays to the health-care programs taxes,
mandates and benefits in return for raising the debt ceiling next month. He said Republicans have just spun
themselves up over this issue. The closer weve gotten to this date, the more irresponsible people opposed to this law have become,
Obama said, referring to the Oct. 1 start of enrollment in the programs new health-insurance plans. The Affordable Care Act is here to stay,
Obama said, stressing that he would not negotiate delays or other changes to the law as part of budget talks or the debt-ceiling process.