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Al Jazeera America
Just days until launch of health care exchanges, many people remain confused about new optionsNEWARK, N.J. — Wale Ogundipe and Carlos Vasquez looked a little apprehensive as they walked into Hector Perez’s front yard.
Perez was leaning into the window of a black SUV, chatting with a friend. Shirtless, with tattoos splayed across his muscular arms and chest, he cut an intimidating figure on his lawn, particularly to two young, out-of-town volunteers charged with discussing health care options with strangers.
Ogundipe, 29, whose day job is in marketing, tentatively started, extending a hand and saying, "Hi, sir. My name is Wale, and this is Carlos. We're here with Enroll America, specifically the Get Covered campaign.”
Ogundipe and Vasquez, 18, explained it is a nonprofit organization and they were there to discuss a provision of the Affordable Care Act, the state-level online marketplaces that will open Oct. 1 and allow consumers to shop for coverage plans and apply for federal subsidies to help them purchase insurance until Dec. 31.
"Right now, health care in this country is changing so that some people are going to be eligible for additional benefits because of the legislation, so we're just volunteers letting people know,' Ogundipe said.
New York Times
WASHINGTON — At the climax of each of the fiscal crises that have paralyzed the nation’s capital since the Republican landslide of 2010, Senator Mitch McConnell, the wily Kentuckian who leads the Senate Republicans, has stepped in to untangle the seemingly hopeless knots threatening the economy.But as Congress trudges toward its next budget showdown, the Mr. Fix-It of Washington is looking more like its Invisible Man as he balances his leadership imperatives with his re-election ones.
“The House and the White House in the end will have to reach some kind of understanding on both these issues,” Mr. McConnell said last week as he sat in his spacious Capitol office and looked toward Sept. 30, when much of the federal government runs out of money, and mid-October, when it exhausts its borrowing authority. “I don’t intend to participate in any discussion, publicly or privately, that raises taxes or spends more than current law.”
Los Angeles Times
WASHINGTON — With one week left before a possible government shutdown, congressional debate has exposed deep divisions within the Republican Party, pitting tea-party-backed conservatives against their colleagues.Budget moves orchestrated by tea party leader Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas have encountered outright hostility from fellow Republican senators who say his strategy does not appear to have an endgame.
"I didn't go to Harvard or Princeton, but I can count," Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said last week in a not-so-veiled swipe on Twitter at Cruz, who studied at both schools. Cruz's strategy is leading the party into a "box canyon" and "will fail and weaken our position," Corker said.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is expected to begin debate this week on legislation approved by the Republican-led House that would keep the government running but do away with President Obama's Affordable Care Act.
Reuters
A trio of Tea Party-backed U.S. senators threatening to stall a bill to fund the U.S. government ran into a wall of resistance Monday from top Senate Republicans, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.In statements issued Monday evening, McConnell and the second-ranking Republican, John Cornyn of Texas, made it clear that they would not support the tactics of freshman Senators Ted Cruz, Mike Lee and Marco Rubio, which would have increased the odds of a government shutdown on Oct 1.
The move, while highlighting growing rifts among Republicans, did not eliminate the possibility of a shutdown, however. Indeed, all signs on Monday still pointed to a frantic last-minute showdown that will determine whether or not the U.S. government stays open next week as a result of Republican efforts to scuttle "Obamacare," President Barack Obama's health care law.
Heightening the tension, and the pressure on Republicans, the Pentagon issued a warning about the consequences of a shutdown, neither the first nor the last such announcement expected from federal agencies over the next few days.