Wednesday, October 16, 2013

G.O.P. SHUTDOWN DAY 16

► At Politico — House to vote first on Senate plan — The House will vote first on an emerging Senate proposal to open government and lift the debt ceiling, a move that would expedite bipartisan legislation developed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. If the House passes the bill first and sends it to the upper chamber, it would eliminate some burdensome procedural hurdles in the Senate.

► At Huffington Post — Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler calls on GOP colleagues to end shutdown: It’s time to ‘face reality’ — Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.) broke ranks from many fellow Republicans Tuesday evening, calling on her party to give up hope of blocking Obamacare in the budget fight. “Nothing positive will be achieved by prolonging this shutdown any longer, or crossing the debt limit threshold,” Herrera Beutler said in a statement. “It’s time for my colleagues to face reality.” (More coverage in the Longview Daily News and The Olympian.)

EDITOR’S NOTE — Among Washington’s Republican delegation, Herrera Beutler joins Rep. Dave Reichert who has said he would vote for a “clean” continuing resolution, with no strings attached, to end the shutdown. But Reps. “Shutdown Cathy” McMorris Rodgers and Doc Hastings continue to stand by the strategy of manufacturing this crisis to extort concessions on Obamacare or Social Security/Medicare cuts, a crisis that now threatens to plunge our economy into another recession. Protests and vigils are happening outside Doc’s and Shutdown Cathy’s offices urging them to take a stand against this Tea Party insanity.

► In the Atlantic — If we hit debt ceiling, default unlikely but recession certain — President Obama, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, and most Republicans agree that a debt default, not paying interest on federal debt, would be a calamity far worse than the Lehman crisis.

► In today’s NY Times — Debt default deadline clear, implications are not — Ask officials at the White House to pinpoint the debt ceiling deadline and they will give you a fairly precise answer: Thursday. But ask them when a failure to increase the debt ceiling will start to hurt — when the bills will start going unpaid and America’s creditors will start calling in their debts — and just about everyone in President Obama’s administration will quickly clam up.

► In today’s Tri-City Herald — Hanford furloughs, layoffs might start Monday — The Hanford Atomic Metal Trades Council expects its 2,300 Hanford workers to be off work starting Monday if the federal shutdown continues.

► In today’s (Everett) Herald — Shutdown threatens Washington aerospace jobs — Aviation Technical Services might have to lay off 80 newly hired workers in Moses Lake because the FAA cannot process routine paperwork.

► In today’s Seattle Times — What a mess we’ve made in the USA (by Danny Westneat) — Economists estimate the last debt showdown, in 2011, cut $150 billion off the economy due to mass hesitancy like this. This one has cost us a half-point off economic growth already. A debt default, even a short-term one, could cost 2.5 million jobs. And for what? That’s the aggravation at the heart of all this. What’s the point?

First it was supposed to be to cancel Obamacare. Then it morphed into the general war over the size of government. Both are legitimate issues, but at least previously, who won policy fights like these was decided by elections. By the people. Not by whoever threatens to inflict the most financial pain on the people. But that’s the new school GOP hardball. Give us what we want or we’ll shoot the country. I covered Congress when it was considered radical politics to impeach a president for lying about sex with an intern. Seems kind of quaint now, doesn’t it?

LOCAL

► In today’s News Tribune — Grocers, unions talk again Wednesday; union members take strike vote in Thurston, Mason counties — Unions representing more than 20,000 grocery workers around Puget Sound meet again Wednesday in talks with major grocers aimed at heading off a strike. Another 1,000 grocery workers could join that throng after voting Tuesday whether to allow union leaders authority to call a strike if talks collapse.  Those workers are employed in major grocery chains in Thurston and Mason counties. The results of that vote are expected to be announced Wednesday morning. The 20,000 union grocer workers in Pierce, King, Kitsap and Snohomish counties last month voted 98 percent in favor of giving union leaders authority to call a strike.  Those workers are employed by Safeway, Albertsons, QFC and Fred Meyer stores.

► In today’s Kitsap Sun — Kitsap Transit, union agree on new bus driver contract –Kitsap Transit’s board approved new bus driver contracts and a lease with the city for more conference space Tuesday.

► In the (Aberdeen) Daily World — Transit the main ballot issue for many Harborites — When voters go to the polls this fall to choose city council members and vote on fire levies and such, they will also be voting on whether Jaime Jamtaas will have a ride to the grocery store or be able to visit his family.

STATE GOVERNMENT

► In today’s News Tribune — Inslee says Columbia bridge not part of transportation deal — Gov. Jay Inslee says he still wants to call a special session of the Legislature to pass a transportation revenue package this November, but a new Interstate 5 bridge across the Columbia River won’t be part of the deal.

► In today’s News Tribune — State forecaster: Tax revenues still top forecast but shutdown hitting consumer confidence — The latest revenue collections report for state government shows Washington continued to take in more money over the past month than even in the most recent quarterly forecast had predicted in September.

► In today’s Spokesman-Review — Washington Medicaid increases dental coverage — A quarter-million adults in Washington will gain dental coverage over the next two years as the state expands its Medicaid rolls under the Affordable Care Act and re-establishes programs dropped in budget cutbacks.

► In today’s Seattle Times — Lax oversight helped embezzler steal, state Democratic records show — The embezzlement of up to $330,000 in campaign donations by former Democratic political operative Michael King was abetted by a lax system of controls that allowed his deceit to go undetected for many months, newly released records show.

NATIONAL

► At Forbes — Fast-food’s dirty secret: Workers are starving — We all love a cheap burger, don’t we? Well, it turns out more than half the workers handing you that burger can’t afford to buy one. A new study from the National Employment Law Center, University of California-Berkeley and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign looks at the financial lives of fast-food workers. And the picture isn’t pretty.

► At AFL-CIO Now — Why taxpayers subsidize fast-food companies to the tune of $7 billion a year — Fast-food workers receive money from numerous federal programs — receiving benefits at twice the overall rate of the workforce — and the $7 billion total doesn’t include state and local programs.

ALSO TODAY at The Stand — Low fast-food wages cost Washington state’s taxpayers

The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 10 a.m.