Conflicting reports on Obamacare, shutdown fight

Washington – The national media is sending mixed signals about Congressional actions leading to a dramatic showdown on Tuesday, October 1, over funding the government and implementing Obamacare.

Meanwhile, the Treasury Department announced that if no rise in the national debt ceiling is authorized, the government will run out of cash on Oct. 17.

According to the Associated Press, House Republicans will on Tuesday unveil a new bill for preventing a government shutdown that would also delay implementing the rest of President Barack Obama's health care law for one year.

Republican Rep. Devin Nunes of California said the new bill also would repeal a new tax on medical devices in the Affordable Care Act. Republicans will try to pass a bill that would get paychecks to members of the military on time if a shutdown occurs, said Rep. Nunes.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is on record saying the Senate will not pass any bill keeping the government open past Monday that would alter the health care law.

The “New York Times” quoted Sen. Reid, saying the two votes signal “the first step toward wresting control from the extremists. This is it. Time is gone. Here’s a president who less than a year ago won election by five million votes. Obamacare has been the law for four years. Why don’t they get a life and talk about something else?”

According to the “Times,” The Senate stopgap spending legislation to keep the federal government open without The Affordable Patient Protection Act of 2010 sounds like a done deal. Times writers said Speaker John A. Boehner is now under pressure to find “a way out of an impasse that had the government on a steady course to a shutdown at midnight Monday.”

Senators voted 54-44 to cut off debate on House legislation that would fund the government only if the new health law is eliminated, terming that “a bipartisan rebuke to Republican hard-liners.”

“The 79-to-19 vote included the top Republican leadership and easily exceeded the 60-vote threshold to break a filibuster. It was followed by a 54-44 vote to take out the health law provision before passage.