Even though Congressional leaders in the House have floated the idea of passing a one-week funding bill, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid rejected the idea Wednesday. Republicans are looking for $40 billion in budget cuts while Democrats are only willing to consider $33 billion in cuts. Democrats also argue that the cuts Republicans are demanding are ideologically driven, pointing to cuts to organizations such as Planned Parenthood and National Public Radio.

If the government does shut down, about 800,000 federal government employees can expect to be furloughed. The shutdown would also stop paychecks to military members, though Sens. Robert P. Casey (D-Pa) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) are the lead sponsors of a bill that would ensure soldiers continue to be paid through Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year.

Despite all of the potential negative consequences of a government shutdown and the fact that a 1995 shutdown actually cost $1.25 billion, the Tea Party faction has been practically screaming for a shutdown of what they consider a bloated bureaucracy.

With that in mind, here is a rundown on Pennsylvania’s Congressional Delegation stands on a possible shutdown. It is difficult to find any overt support for a government shutdown, though Rep. Lou Barletta is on record saying that his constituents may support a shutdown if that’s what it takes to rein in spending. One common theme is that Republicans (and even one Democrat) blame the Democratic-controlled Senate for not passing a budget last year. In December, Talking Points Memo noted that nine Senate Republicans walked away from their support of an omnibus spending bill that had been negotiated for months.

Senator Robert Casey (D): In addition to his sponsorship of the military pay bill, Casey joined 15 other moderate Democrats in signing a letter to House Speaker John Boehner urging him to avoid a shutdown. The letter calls a shutdown “irresponsible” and notes it would distract from a focus on creating jobs and reducing the debt. It also accuses Republicans of using the possible shutdown to make a political point.

Senator Pat Toomey (R): Toomey told the Allentown Morning Call that a government shutdown is “not okay” and no way to run a government. However, he also blamed the last Congress, of which he was not a part, for its failure to pass a budget on time. Toomey made similar statements in February when Congress was considering a short-term continuing resolution.

Robert Brady (D PA-01): We could not find a definitive statement on the looming shutdown from Brady. He did vote for the latest stop-gap measure that funds the government through April 8. He also supports measures that would devote any unused portion of a member’s Representational Allowance to reducing the deficit.

Chaka Fattah (D PA-02): Fattah posted a link on Facebook and Twitter linking to a poll that shows most Americans don’t want to see a government shutdown. He also wrote a post for the Huffington Post detailing his plan to eliminate the $14.3 trillion national debt in 10 years. He called for a one percent tax on the $445 in transactions that go through the Federal Reserve.

Mike Kelly (R PA-03): Kelly voted in favor of HR 1225, the constitutionally questionable bill that would declare HR 1, the Republican-sponsored budget that would cut $61.5 billion, to be the final bill from Congress should the Senate fail to pass a budget. Kelly blames the Senate for not passing a budget last year. The liberal blogosphere also called Kelly on his claim that a shutdown would not disrupt Social Security and Medicare benefits.

Jason Altmire (D PA-04): The National Republican Congressional Committee attacked Altmire for his comments on Fox News March 31 that Democrats are to blame for not passing a budget on time last year. During a recent town hall meeting, Altmire praised a shift in thinking from spending to cutting, but warned against haphazard cuts.

Glenn “GT” Thompson (R PA-05): Thompson spoke on the House Floor April 5 and blamed the inaction of the Senate for failing to pass a budget and railed about running the government on continuing resolutions. “Even if we all agree a program is efficient and needed, we can’t spend money we don’t have,” he said. He has been clear that a government shutdown would be costly and unproductive. The Center Daily Times reported that 18 Tea Party members protested Thompson’s vote on the March temporary funding bill.

Jim Gerlach (R PA-06): Gerlach also voted for the temporary funding measure and blamed Senate Democrats for not passing a budget. He is not in favor of a shutdown, saying, “Job creators need certainty to start hiring again, not one more countdown to a federal government shutdown.”

Pat Meehan (R PA-07): Meehan held a town hall meeting in March where he argued that a government shutdown would not be beneficial when a resident challenged opponents of the Affordable Care Act to do so. Still, Meehan is in favor of the Republicans’ 2012 spending plan which would cut $6.2 trillion over 10 years but has been largely panned by the left for its cuts to Medicare and Medicaid. He has also released a statement defending his vote to defund NPR.

Michael Fitzpatrick (R PA-08): Fitzpatrick also blamed Senate Democrats for not passing a budget. “The American people and job creators should no longer be held hostage to the Senate’s inaction on the federal budget,” he wrote in a press release. His press release on the Republican budget proposal was less committal than Meehan, urging his constituents to get familiar with the plan and “and be active participants in this national discussion.”

Bill Shuster (R PA-09): A spokesperson for Shuster told the Johnstown Tribune-Democrat that the Congressman hopes to avoid a shutdown. He also posted a video talking about the dangers of increasing federal government spending.

Tom Marino (R PA-10): Marino told the Sunbury Daily Item that Republicans do not want to shut down the government and called on the Senate to pass HR 1. He also posted a message on his Facebook page supporting the proposal to pay soldiers in the event of a shutdown.

Lou Barletta (R PA-11): On March 28, Barletta announced that he would not support any more stop-gap spending measures. “Stringing together short-term continuing resolutions only extends the uncertainty among local and national job creators, and that will slow our economic recovery at home,” he wrote in the press release. He also told the Morning Call that he thinks his constituents want to see the federal government reduce spending and might support a shutdown if that’s what it takes.

Mark Critz (D PA-12): Critz called on Congress to end “the partisan bickering and finalize a responsible budget.” However, if the government would shut down, he is co-sponsoring the House bill that would deny a paycheck to members of Congress. Critz also railed against the Republicans’ spending plan, saying it hurts senior citizens while keeping in place tax cuts for the wealthy and oil company subsidies.

Allyson Schwartz (D PA-13): Schwartz agrees that the government should be making cuts in spending, but has called the proposed Republican spending cuts, “reckless.” She also says that the Republicans’ 2012 budget would not reduce costs, just shift costs to senior citizens.

Mike Doyle (D PA-14): Doyle condemned passage of HR 1, calling it destructive and counterproductive. “Frankly, it’s exactly what I’d expect to see when people who hate government are put in charge of it,” Congressman Doyle wrote in his press release. “They say government is useless and inefficient, and if they get their way, it soon will be.” He also posted a message on Twitter saying that the 2012 Republican budget proposal would “destroy Medicare as we know it.”

Charlie Dent (R PA-15): In his announcement that he voted for the last stop-gap spending measure, Dent said, “To avoid the extremely disruptive impact a shutdown would have on our economy, it was absolutely necessary the House passed an additional short-term Continuing Resolution.” Dent also told the Morning Call that he is worried about a shutdown, particularly if military paychecks are not issued. Dent called the 2012 Republican budget proposal “a serious and sobering document” and said that the Medicare and Medicaid proposals deserve thoughtful review.

Joe Pitts (R PA-16): Pitts voted against the bill in March to fund the government through April 8. He also told The Hill newspaper in March that “more and more” social conservatives are considering not voting for legislation that would defund Planned Parenthood and the Affordable Care Act. On April 1, Pitts wrote about the pressing need to cut spending.

Tim Holden (D PA-17): We could not find any definitive statements from Holden, but he did vote in favor of the latest stop-gap spending measure.

Tim Murphy (R PA-18): Murphy also explicitly blames the Senate Democrats for their failure to pass a budget, but did vote for the latest stop gap measure. In his statement he said, “The time for stalling and half-measures and one-week spending bills has long since passed. The longer we postpone the difficult decisions that have to be made, the worse off we become.” He did, however, join in urging the Senate to continue issuing paychecks to military personnel if the government does shut down.

Todd Platts (R PA-19): Platts told the Gettysburg Times “Our intent is to keep government open.” However, he also blames Senate Democrats for failing to pass a budget. He also sent out a press release in early March discussing the problem of duplicated efforts in the federal budget, noting that eliminating such duplication could save $100 billion.

“[Dent] has been a great friend to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, to businesses of all sizes,” Chamber Vice President Bill Miller told an audience of employees. “We’ve spent a lot of time, a lot of resources trying to identify those people that are supportive of free enterprise…we want to make sure they win on November 2.”

Nationally, Miller’s organization has spent more than $17 million on federal elections this cycle, more than any other non-party group. Approximately 75 percent of that money has gone to Republicans, causing Democrats to scrutinize the Chamber for not disclosing its contributors — something Miller was unapologetic about.

The congressman, for his part, took the opportunity to take a swipe at Democratic challenger John Callahan, while espousing a mostly laissez faire approach to business growth and job creation. Congress’ vote to close tax loopholes for companies operating overseas would lead to more job loss, Dent said.

“[The U.S.] already has the second highest corporate tax rate in the developed world,” Dent said. “Closing the tax loophole could kill as many as 140,000 jobs, according to some estimates

Federal spending, Dent argued, has failed to curtail unemployment and that the healthcare bill and the possibility of cap-and-trade legislation will put increased strain on businesses, discouraging investment.

But Dent voted against a bill designed to provide incentives for banks to invest in small businesses, citing the $30 billion price tag. The bill, which congress approved on a mostly party-line vote late last month, includes $12 billion in tax credits to small businesses.

“The tax provisions, by-and-large, I didn’t have any problems with,” Dent told pa2010.com. “This is the son of TARP… there’s no way to enforce that they actually lend.”

Callahan campaign manager Justin Schall issued a statement in response to the Chamber endorsement:

“The Chamber of Commerce has taken the majority of his money from corporate special interests in this election, so it’s no surprise that they’re supporting Congressman Dent. Charlie Dent voted to continue tax breaks for corporations that ship our jobs overseas and he’s taken over $2 million from these same corporate special interests. We knew that the Chamber endorsed Dent in May, the only news here is that Dent is desperate to make news”

With Dent leading 49-38 in a September poll, Callahan will need to win over some of the incumbent’s support if he is going to overtake Dent: With Towne polling at three percent, only one in ten voters were left undecided.

This might explain why, despite the VFW’s and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America’s endorsements of Dent, Callahan took a particularly adversarial stance in attempting to characterize him as unsympathetic to veterans’ issues.

“[Dent] voted against a bill that would allow widows and orphans of our troops to receive full benefits after their loved ones were killed in combat,” Callahan said. “It’s not just about going to the hospitals — it’s about supporting [veterans].”

Callahan is referring to a Dent’s nay-vote on a motion to reconsider the 2006 Defense Authorization Bill, from which House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter (R-CA) nixed a provision that would ensure widows would receive full death benefits of a fallen spouse. As it stands now, the Department of Defense deducts regular death benefits from any supplementary life insurance purchased from the military, called Survivor Benefits Plans.

“The most decorated veteran in Congress, Sam Johnson, voted the same way I did,” Dent pointed out.

But although the IAVA endorsed Dent this election cycle, the organization gave him a C- rating in 2006, citing Dent’s nay-vote on extending Tricare to Reservists and members of the National Guard.

Since Callahan first raised this line of attack in a previous debate, his campaign has mailed out campaign literature depicting an apparently wounded soldier, with criticism of Dent’s record on veteran affairs on the reverse.

That caught the attention of one the debate’s moderators.

“You say [Dent]… has turned his back on our soldiers: What do these negative portrayals add to this race?” asked Lynn Olanoff of the Express-Times.

In a statement to reporters after the debate, Callahan spokesman Jared Smith defended the attack.

“More than 61,000 widows have lost out on more than $60,000 because of Dent’s vote.  This is still effecting [sic] widows today and the IAVA’s current legislative agenda lists ‘Complete repeal of the Widow and Widower’s Tax (also known as the SBP-DIC offset)’ as a top priority.”

Clinton will headline a get out the vote rally Thursday afternoon at Northampton Community College’s Spartan Center. Less than a week before the election, Clinton will try to motivate voters to come out and support Bethlehem Mayor John Callahan (D) who is challenging three term incumbent Charlie Dent to represent the 15^th Congressional District and Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato who is running for governor against Attorney General Tom Corbett.

Traditionally campaign volunteers spend the weekend before the election phonebanking and canvassing for candidates in a last minute effort rally support for their candidates.

The Democratic Campaign Congressional Committee (DCCC) is committed to Callahan’s race. The DCCC has listed Callahan as one of its 2010 Red to Blue candidates, a list of 29 challengers receiving support for surpassing fundraising goals.

Despite recent Democratic gains in Pennsylvania and nationwide, both Callahan and Onorato have significant ground to make up by Election Day. A PPP poll released Oct. 20 shows Onorato down two points to Corbett and that the so-called “enthusiasm gap” has narrowed to five points, meaning Democrats are more likely to come out to vote.

The polling for Callahan, on the other hand, is all over the place. Muhlenberg College released a poll of likely voters Oct. 14 showing Callahan trailing Dent by 17 points. The DCCC released its own poll Oct. 11 showing the race as a statistical dead heat. As always, internal polls from parties or candidates should be taken with a grain of salt (or two).

One more has been added to the schedule, and this one is set to go down Oct. 18. It’ll be aired on the local ABC affiliate in Philadelphia, giving Republican Tom Corbett and Democrat Dan Onorato what could potentially be their biggest debate audience of the campaign.

That debate will come just two days after the candidates have their second debate, a televised one in Pittsburgh.

Meanwhile, there’s been a flurry of outside ad buys in the Senate race recently.

First, there was this latest TV spot from conservative group Crossroads GPS, those guys who just love to hit Democrat Joe Sestak on spending.

Then, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee chimed in with its latest ad, which tries to frame Republican Pat Toomey as China-friendly outsourcer of jobs.

And to top it all off, Toomey’s buddies at the Club for Growth have yet another ad of their own taking Sestak to task for stimulus spending.

There’s also a new ad in the 15th Congressional District, where Democratic challenger John Callahan is pushing back against criticism from incumbent republican Charlie Dent that he’s not the budget-balancer he claims to be.

Check it out below.

And last but not least, it appears that Republican Mike Fitzpatrick has snagged an endorsement from a local police union. We haven’t yet seen a release from the Fitzpatrick campaign, but The Inquirer reported that FOP Lodge 5 had made its decision.

As The Inky notes, that’s something of a blow for Congressman Patrick Murphy (D-8), who’s the son of a retired cop and has boasted police support before.

Christie, who headlined a fundraiser for Republican Pat Meehan last month, will be in the Lehigh Valley on Oct. 20 as part of Dent’s American Leaders Lecture Series. He’ll also do a $1,500-a-head reception for Dent, and a policy roundtable discussions that couples can attend for $5,000, with the money going to Dent’s victory fund.

Dent faces Democratic challenger John Callahan.

The race is currently No. 7 on the pa2010.com Congressional Power Rankings.

Yes, there’s yet another set of numbers we missed, this one from McClatchy Newspapers and Marist. Like every other pollster under the sun, these folks found Republicans Pat Toomey and Tom Corbett leading in the races for senate and governor, respectively.

Toomey leads Democrat Joe Sestak by nine points, 51 percent to 42 percent. And Corbett leads Democrat Dan Onorato by 12 points, 53 percent to 41 percent.

Those results are largely consistent with where the polls were a couple weeks ago, though there have been other indications that both races are getting tighter.

Meanwhile, Congressman Patrick Murphy’s (D-8) chief of staff has a new gig: running Rahm Emanuel’s campaign to be mayor of Chicago. Politico broke the news Sunday morning of Scott Fairchild’s new job. The influential and connected operative has been with Murphy since his first run for Congress in 2006. He’s going to stay with Murphy until after his Nov. 2 rematch against Republican Mike Fitzpatrick.

And Congressman Charlie Dent (R-15) has a new TV ad. It takes advantage of what appears to be a moment of wonkish confusion by Democratic challenger John Callahan during a recent debate.

Check out the ad below.

Correction: This blog post originally misstated the timing of Scott Fairchild’s departure as Patrick Murphy’s chief of staff. He is leaving after the Nov. 2 election, not before.

The radio ad, released by Callahan’s campaign Thursday, comes after Congressman Charlie Dent (R-15) used a new TV to call into question Callahan’s financial management of the Lehigh Valley city (pa2010.com has not yet fact-checked that spot). Callahan’s radio ad notes that Bethlehem is now reporting a budget surplus, and notes that the city’s elected Republican controller also pushed back against some attacks on the city’s finances.

Click here to listen to the radio ad.

The race is currently No. 7 on the pa2010.com Congressional Power Rankings.

Callahan’s campaign released the clip as part of a larger campaign video Wednesday. In it, Dent, joined by House Minority John Boehner at a recent fundraiser, jokes that “I asked [Boehner] for the Appropriations Committee and he put me on the Ethics Committee.

Laughter ensues, and Boehner interjects with a smile: “Oh, it was appropriations you wanted? You know, listen, you can’t have, you can’t have the dessert until you eat your vegetables.”

Dent didn’t deride the committee’s role or work, but Callahan’s campaign called hypocrisy, citing statements Dent made at a recent campaign debate lauding his work on the committee.

“Congressman Dent is part of the problem in Washington DC,” Callahan campaign manager Justin Schall said. “People have lost faith in their elected officials because of hypocrisy like Dent saying one thing to voters, but another when he’s hanging out by the pool with Republican Leader Boehner and his donors. Charlie has forgotten that it is his job to represent voters, not make jokes at their expense.”

Dent’s campaign quickly fired back.

“Representative Dent takes his work on the Ethics Committee very seriously and he puts a lot of time and effort into this Committee,” Dent campaign manager Shawn Millan said. “Apparently, the failing Callahan campaign can’t even grasp at straws correctly.”

See the Callahan campaign’s video below.

Dent’s 30-second spot, which started airing Monday, cites a recent audit that found the city facing a deficit.

Flashing pictures of President Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the ad closes: “Callahan: Big spending, big deficits, financial disaster. Sound familiar?”

See the ad below. It will be fact-checked later as part of pa2010.com‘s new AD WATCH feature.