Friday, September 20, 2013

Rethugs Act To Shut Down Government

By a partisan vote of 230 - 189, House Rethuglicans leaders bowed to the extremist base of their party and sent a short-term FY 2014 Continuing Resolution to the Senate that would de-fund the Affordable Care Act, and hold a Government shutdown hostage.  The CR has no chance of passage in the Senate (not to mention getting signed by the President), not only because of the poison pill for "Obamacare," but also because it attempts to make the sequester cuts passed last year permanent.

Many cooler Rethuglican heads (and you know you're in LaLa Land when John McCain and Turdblossom Rove are "cooler heads") are warning of a political debacle for the Rethuglican Party in the 2014 elections if their actions shut down the Government.  They also have to worry about their party's extremists forcing a crisis over the debt ceiling, something that would severely disrupt the U.S. and global economies.  If this only resulted in the quick demise of the Rethugs and their teabagger base, we'd applaud, but their recklessness will adversely affect millions and millions of people.

BONUS Here's Paul Krugman on how it has come to this:
"...this story is all about the G.O.P. First came the southern strategy, in which the Republican elite cynically exploited racial backlash to promote economic goals, mainly low taxes for rich people and deregulation. Over time, this gradually morphed into what we might call the crazy strategy, in which the elite turned to exploiting the paranoia that has always been a factor in American politics — Hillary killed Vince Foster! Obama was born in Kenya! Death panels! — to promote the same goals.
"But now we’re in a third stage, where the elite has lost control of the Frankenstein-like monster it created.
"So now we get to witness the hilarious spectacle of Karl Rove in The Wall Street Journal, pleading with Republicans to recognize the reality that Obamacare can’t be defunded. Why hilarious? Because Mr. Rove and his colleagues have spent decades trying to ensure that the Republican base lives in an alternate reality defined by Rush Limbaugh and Fox News. Can we say 'hoist with their own petard'?"

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