House Republicans who have been unable to produce a budget for all 13 appropriations bills, not the White House, should be held responsible if the federal government ends fiscal 1998 on the brink of a shutdown, a key House Democrat charged Wednesday.
Republicans "do not know how to get closure" on key bills, House Appropriations ranking member David Obey, D-Wis., said, responding to GOP charges that the White House is planning a shutdown strategy.
"I can't figure out if they have been spending too much time in Roswell [N.M] or watching the X-Files," Obey said. "The difference between them and me is I'm a science fiction fan, but I don't think it's real."
He went on to warn that when the House returns on Sept. 9, it will have only 14 days of legislative business before the start of fiscal 1999.
House Republicans continued to insist Wednesday that Democrats have a shutdown strategy, with House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, saying President Clinton came to Capitol Hill reportedly to rally his party "around a desperate political strategy."
He added, "The American people will see through this ploy, just as they saw through the Democrats' past attempts to use demagoguery to return to the days of big government."
Republicans have charged the White House will attempt to force Congress to break the spending caps by refusing to agree to appropriations bills that do not increase spending on favorite programs.
"It's not in our interest to shut the government down," House Appropriations Chairman Bob Livingston, R-La., said. He said House GOP leaders will be "in constant contact with the White House. If they're playing it straight, they'll give us some signals about what the traffic will bear." Asked about veto threats, Livingston said, "We've heard that before."
Obey scoffed at the notion of a shutdown strategy, saying that "each and every time [Republicans] made things easier for the moment" by producing conservative bills that had no bipartisan support.
Obey Wednesday began circulating a statement outlining his theory of why appropriators are facing a potential crisis.
Obey said House GOP leaders called for only 104 days of legislative business, with Republican leaders giving several more away.
In addition, House and Senate Republicans have been unable to produce a budget resolution, while at the same time, Republican leaders directed their appropriators to write partisan appropriations bills, he said.
"The largest and most controversial of these bills, Labor-HHS ... has yet to come to the floor and reports indicate that the leadership has thus far been unable to twist enough arms to gain the unity ... to gain passage of this bill," Obey wrote.
Obey charged that the House Rules Committee has aggravated the situation by making the bills even more partisan.
"The country does indeed appear to be headed in a direction that could result in another fiscal train wreck," Obey wrote. "The origins of that train wreck are all too obvious to anyone who has followed [the] actions of the House Republican Conference over the past several months."
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