Shutdown At Midnight
Senate to reject House hostage demand to delay ObamaCare. National Journal: "The Senate is scheduled to come back today at 2:00 p.m. At that point, as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has indicated, the Senate will reject the continuing resolution to fund the government passed by the House ... House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.,suggested on Sunday that if/when the Senate kills the House's Sunday CR, House Republicans will attempt to pass a new continuing resolution that still contains 'fundamental changes' to Obamacare. Those changes could include an individual mandate delay, a medical device tax repeal, or a measure (known as the Vitter amendment) that ends health care subsidies for members of Congress, their staffs, and members of the executive branch ... That conservative pressure could prevent something like a clean CR ... unless [GOP leaders] decide to break the so-called Hastert Rule—an informal edict that says that only a bill that has the support of a majority of the majority will be considered in the House."
W. Post reports GOP unlikely to push ending employer health care contributions to federal officeholders and staff: "...many rank-and-file Republicans — especially those who are not wealthy, are not married to working spouses with insurance or are caring for sick children — are opposed to this option. Senior GOP lawmakers and aides in several House leadership offices said the House is not likely to pursue it."
Republican strategy outgrowth of internal civil war. Bloomberg: "Several Republican strategists have privately expressed outrage in recent weeks at the lengths to which some of their own party’s activists are willing to go to stoke shutdown fervor, complaining that they are spending more time and money targeting their party colleagues while giving Democrats a pass. The Republicans requested anonymity because they didn’t want to publicly disparage party allies."
Some House Republicans suggest they will eventually cave. HuffPost: "'I’m prepared to vote for a clean resolution tomorrow,' [Rep. Charlie Dent said] Sunday ... 'It’s time to govern. I don’t intend to support a fool’s errand.' Rep. Tom Cole [said,] '[Boehner] didn't mention it, but I'm sure he could if he wanted to,' ... 'We're pretty much out of options at this point,'' said Rep. Devin Nunes, 'They're all giddy about it. You know who benefits the most here from a shutdown? The Democrats benefit and they know that.' ... Even those insisting they would support nothing less than a one-year delay of Obamacare conceded there were enough votes to pass a clean continuing resolution in the final hours."
House conservatives "spoiling for a fight" reports Politico: "...many conservatives say they need a shock to the political system to have a chance of extracting something from Obama. This isn’t a government shutdown, they say, but rather a slowdown. They are betting the American public won’t turn on House Republicans like they did in 1996 ... a group of conservative House Republicans, perhaps 20 to 30 strong, are automatically against anything that Boehner supports..."
More ObamaCare options coming. NYT: "The Obama administration plans on Monday to announce scores of new health insurance options to be offered to consumers around the country by the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association and the United States Office of Personnel Management, the agency that arranges health benefits for federal employees, according to administration officials. The options are part of a multistate insurance program that Congress authorized in 2010 to increase options for consumers shopping in the online insurance markets scheduled to open on Tuesday. Congress conceived multistate plans as an alternative to a pure government-run insurance program — the 'public option' championed by liberal Democrats and opposed by Republicans in 2009-10."
Garment Trade On-Shoring
Garment trade returning to US. NYT: "The American textile and apparel industries, like manufacturing as a whole, are experiencing a nascent turnaround as apparel and textile companies demand higher quality, more reliable scheduling and fewer safety problems than they encounter overseas. Accidents like the factory collapse in Bangladesh earlier this year, which killed more than 1,000 workers, have reinforced the push for domestic production. But because the industries were decimated over the last two decades — 77 percent of the American work force has been lost since 1990 as companies moved jobs abroad — manufacturers are now scrambling to find workers to fill the specialized jobs that have not been taken over by machines."
"Buy American" push from shoemakers. Politico: "New Balance is leading a charge to force the military to buy U.S.-made running shoes for recruits, meeting with members of Congress and the Obama administration to press its case. The company sees a $50 million opportunity in a population for which running is mandatory — and a cause that might be difficult for any flag-waving politician to oppose. The military sees a regulatory headache."
Warren Ascendent
Some wealthy Dem donors "unnerved" by rise of Elizabeth Warren. NYT: "...in seizing on issues animating her party’s base — the influence of big banks, soaring student loan debt and the widening gulf between the wealthy and the working class — Ms. Warren is challenging the centrist economic approach that has been the de facto Democratic policy since President Bill Clinton and his fellow moderates took control of the party two decades ago ... Ms. Warren’s Senate colleagues have yet to embrace her economic agenda: her bill to reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act provisions and her idea of tying student loan interest rates to the Federal Reserve’s discount rate have not advanced. But Democratic senators are eager to tap her fund-raising power."
Warren pushes student loan reform. HuffPost: "College graduates struggling to repay their student loans should have an easier time getting their debt eliminated if they go into bankruptcy, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said ... She also called for the reversal of reforms enacted in the past three decades that have made discharging education debt practically impossible, except in extreme circumstances. She declined to offer a specific proposal to address the issue when asked by The Huffington Post, but suggested there were steps Congress could take."
