Don't Blame the GOP

House Speaker John Boehner has released a summary of the 14 spending bills the House of Representatives have passed to keep the government open. All but one of them has been blocked by the Democrats in the Senate and been threatened with a veto by the President.

It's awfully difficult to see how the media can continue to portray this as a Republican shutdown of the government when the Republicans are passing spending bills to keep the government open but are seeing those bills thwarted by the Democrat majority.

Here's a timeline of the bills - every one of which passed overwhelmingly in the Republican controlled House of Representatives - with a summary of what they would fund:

9/20:
1. Continuing Resolution which completely funds the government at current levels but does not fund Obamacare.
9/28:
2. Continuing Resolution (CR) which completely funds the government but delays Obamacare for one year and eliminates the tax on pacemakers and children's hearing aids.
3. Bill to insure that military would be paid in the event of a government shutdown.
9/30:
4. CR that completely funds the government and Obamacare but requires that Congress be subject to the same provisions of Obamacare to which all Americans are subject and also delays the mandate requiring individuals to purchase insurance. The delay is similar to the delay the President granted to big business.
5. Same as previous but with a proviso to form a special negotiating committee with Senate Democrats to resolve differences.
10/1:
6. Speaker Boehner appointed a committee of House negotiators to hammer out a deal with the Senate Democrats. Democrats refused to negotiate.
10/2:
7. Bill to allow the District of Columbia to continue operating.
8. Bill to open all National Parks, museums, and monuments.
9. Bill to fund the National Institute of Health and research being done on life-saving cures.
10/3:
10. Bill to pay our National Guard and Reservists.
11. Bill to fund veteran's benefits including disability claims and other programs.
10/4:
12. Bill to provide immediate funding to FEMA, the federal disaster relief agency.
13. Bill to fund the Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program (SNAP) which provides food for poor children.
10/5:
14. Bill to guarantee compensation to federal workers furloughed during the government shutdown.

To date the Democrats and the President have blocked each of these measures except #3 and they haven't yet decided what to do about the last one. In order to force the Republicans to fund Obamacare - an increasingly unpopular, expensive, and onerous arrogation of power on the part of the federal government - the self-proclaimed "party of compassion," the "people's party," has shut down the government and are vindictively punishing a lot of American citizens in order to get their way. It's ugly.

To see how ugly the administration can be and how classless and childish they are see this.