One will allow veterans to continue receiving benefits, one will fund daily operation of national parks and museums and one will give the District of Columbia the authority to spend its own funds in the absence of congressional authorization. Democratic votes will be needed for passage, however, considering a two-thirds majority is needed for bills on the suspension calendar. White House spokesman Jay Carney also ripped the idea as “not serious.” 
 
 “If they want to open the government, they should open the government,” Carney said. Though Republican aides said the idea did not originate in the other chamber, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, floated the idea on Monday. Indeed, with most of the government closed, House Republicans are trying to do everything they can to show that they want to negotiate their way out of this mess — unlike Senate Democrats, who they say are intransigent. “We’re here to say to the Senate Democrats, come and talk to us,” Cantor said, sitting next to Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the party’s 2012 vice presidential nominee. Ending the shutdown couldn’t be more simple — stop playing games and pass the reasonable bill the Senate and the White House have already agreed to.” 
 
 Though House Democrats will likely be challenged for “no” votes against non-controversial measures that help veterans and reopen museums to the nation’s tourists, Lowey’s arguments against the strategy suggests that lawmakers will be able to frame their opposition around the House GOP’s apparent “picking and choosing.” 
 
 Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., confirmed that this new plan was, in part, political: funding the IRS and the Environmental Protection Agency, he said, were at the bottom of the GOP’s list for reopening. The suite of bills is part of a larger plan GOP leaders unveiled on Tuesday afternoon wherein Congress can ensure certain key government functions remain operational — without conceding on a full continuing resolution that doesn’t defund or delay certain provisions of the 2010 health care law. Niels Lesniewski and Steven T. Dennis contributed to this report.
– House Republicans can't get one big spending bill through the Senate, so how about lots of little spending bills? That seems to be the strategy they're settling on, reports Roll Call, and it's one floated previously by the Senate's Ted Cruz. The House plans to vote on a series of separate bills that would keep individual agencies open through mid-December. The VA and the National Park Service are likely candidates. Still, don't expect this to solve anything, because comments from Democrats suggest they won't go along. “They’re trying to [do this] a little piecemeal, to give kind of a faux way of solving problems,” says Sen. Barbara Mikulski. Politico suggests it's a move by John Boehner to try to show that Republicans are earnestly working toward a solution. President Obama, meanwhile, tried to sway public opinion himself in afternoon remarks in the Rose Garden, reports NBC News. "This Republican shutdown did not have to happen," he said. "But I want every American to understand why it did happen. They've shut down the government over an ideological crusade to deny affordable health insurance to millions of Americans."