John Yarmuth on CSPAN's Washington Journal

While John Yarmuth took a barrage of questions for 20 minutes on live national television about the budget, we must also remember that Ben Chandler sent out a fundraising email yesterday saying that killing Medicare is bad. So there's that.

Government shut-down blame game – some facts

Obviously the first and most important point to be made about the possibility of the government shutting down this week is the fact that had Democrats, who held a majority in both the House and Senate last year, done their basic job of passing a budget, this wouldn’t be an impending problem.

Now, unsurprisingly, it has devolved into a political battle pitting the Republicans on the side of cutting spending as their constituency insists upon (and voted for) against Democrats who, failing to do their job last year, now are dragging their feet in the Senate (the House passed a continuing resolution to fund government 46 days ago) and making veto threats from the White House.

Funny, how politics works, isn’t it?  Those who didn’t do their job last year or provide any leadership on the subject are now actively working against passage of a stop-gap funding measure and prepared to blame those who are attempting to fix the problem for any government shutdown which might occur....

John Boehner, GOP May Not Be Hearing Tea Party Pals

The Tea Party roared Thursday. Or, it tried to, but it wasn't clear how well its demands were heard on Capitol Hill.

A couple hundred anti-tax activists braved a chilly drizzle outside the Senate in an unimpressive scene that was a far cry from the throngs that overflowed the Capitol grounds in past rallies.

The top demand was for GOP leaders to stick to their blueprint of cutting $61 billion from the rest of this year's budget.

Kathy Dirr, of Liberty Township, Ohio, in Majority Leader John Boehner's district, put it bluntly.

"I say to the Republican leadership, take off your lace panties, stop being noodle backs, take a strong, bold, unwavering stand," she told the rally, to great approval.

Mark Meckler, a Tea Party Patriot leader, told the Associated Press Boehner and others would face primaries if they fail.

But Boehner suggested to reporters he was willing to settle for "spending cuts that we can get an agreement to." Democrats are offering a compromise $33 billion in cuts.

Government Shutdown Could Slow Tax Refunds, Crimp Use Of Largest Federal Anti-Poverty Program

The government shut down for a long strike for many poor families of America, and to provide program access limited or significant delays in the federal government against poverty Income Tax Credit.
In the past year, 26 million families more than $ 59 billion U.S. dollars from the discount, according to the Ministry of Treasury. While the vast majority of the beneficiaries may be affected by the closure of government possible, which comes a little earlier for a week of the deadline this returns the tax April 18 the size of individual large recipients discount many families still affected by a problem with payments to alleviate poverty. May be such a pain an important federal effort to combat poverty during the economic downturn, the worst economic casting since the Great Depression.
Details of a possible shut down - including the potential duration and effects - is still not clear. Even if Congress can not reach an agreement on government operations continue to do so, some specific programs and functions of "core" and allowed to continue running.
But it remains to see exactly which programs will be considered basic, and some of the activities undertaken by the Internal Revenue Service may not be. And rejected the IRS and the Treasury Department to comment on this report, but political observers say that while it is very difficult for the government's closure will stop collecting taxes, and other core functions of the IRS - including the provision of billions in tax refunds may be affected - --.
"... Our expectations are the taxes will be processed as if it does not close," said Christina Martin Firvida, director of economic security for government relations of the Association. "We're unclear whether there will be a significant delay in the payment, including reimbursements to include discount."
For many people their money from tax rebate program is an important element of their annual income, and sometimes as much as 30 percent of funding to their households.The discount rate average of about $ 2.250, but some families receiving as much as $ 5,666, depending on the circumstances. Benefits are scaled to the number of children in the family and annual household income. Individuals $ 13.460 or less, receive $ 467 of the opponent, while families with three children, and $ 5,666 benefit if they receive less than $ 48.362. For families at the lower end of the economic spectrum, and the opponent is required to pay their bills.
Fortunately, most poor families file their payments early in the season relatively taxes, in the hope that the government controls the speed. But many families are still waiting until mid-April tax filing deadline, and about a quarter of American families to qualify for the discount does not really apply, as Adam Perry, an organizer of the builders of the area of ​​capital assets' discount capital assistance program. These people are often ignorant of the tax file in much later in the season, because they do not realize that they are eligible for benefits to combat poverty in the coming months.