Tuesday, October 15, 2013

The righteous hates falsehood, but the wicked brings shame and disgrace. (Proverbs 13:5)

We'll discover over the course of the next few days (or possibly hours) whether the GOP hates the Affordable Care Act more than they love the United States of America.

Over the last two weeks, the Republicans have continued with their basic tactic of lying about every facet of the debt standoff, at every phase of the fight. They continue to try and claim that this is "Obama's shutdown," despite the fact that they've been planning the shutdown for months.
Although the law's opponents say that shutting down the government was not their objective, the activists anticipated that a shutdown could occur — and worked with members of the Tea Party caucus in Congress who were excited about drawing a red line against a law they despise.

A defunding "tool kit" created in early September included talking points for the question, "What happens when you shut down the government and you are blamed for it?" The suggested answer was the one House Republicans give today: "We are simply calling to fund the entire government except for the Affordable Care Act/Obamacare."
And to get to this point, Boehner even admitted that he had made a deal over the budget, which he then simply broke. Because he's a lying bag of douche.



And the lies go on: they can't even tell the truth about the basic issue here. The Congressional GOP is not allowing a raise to the debt ceiling. Let's ignore the fact that every other president in history has gotten debt ceiling increases without a fight. (And most especially, let's not point out the one single difference between the current president and every other president throughout history. What's the one thing that's different? Is he more liberal than any other president? Even Jimmy Carter? Although you're coming close to the real answer at that point - Jimmy Carter was from Georgia, and the population of Georgia is over 30% black, second highest in the nation.)

And let's ignore the fact that the debt ceiling was raised seven times under Bush, and eighteen times under Reagan. We're ignoring that. What we're looking at is the basic fact of what the debt ceiling is.

The "debt ceiling" is the ability of the Treasury to sell bonds to pay the government's bills. (That's shorthand. Here's a slightly more detailed explanation.) That doesn't mean we're on a spending spree, or wandering through Sears making impulse buys - this is the money to pay the bills that America already owes.

And that's the ugly secret that the Republicans don't want to mention. Aside from the continuing bills - you know, pensions, power and pencils - we need this money to pay off the budget. The budget that was passed by both the Democratically-controlled Senate, and by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

Our friends the Republicans have packed the budget with billions of dollars of unnecessary spending. Like a defense budget loaded with spending that the Pentagon didn't even want. Like the billions spent annually in oil company subsidies.

But the problem runs deeper than that. There is a small minority of the GOP who don't see the government going into default to be a problem. They believe, in fact, that we should "repudiate" all government debt - simply tell the world that we don't believe in it, and aren't going to pay it. They believe that destroying the US economy, triggering a catastrophic recession, and throwing world financial markets into meltdown, is a small price to pay to meet their goals.

Do you want to know why the president can't negotiate with the GOP? Because you can only conduct actual negotiations when you can trust the other side to live up to their side of the agreement. That's why there's the phrase "you can't negotiate with terrorists." Even if they get the helicopter and the money, you can't trust them not to kill the hostages.

Or in this case, destroy the economy.

_______________

Update (10/16/2013): It may not be related, but since it's obvious that the GOP has been planning this government shutdown for months, isn't it interesting that Teabagger Congressman Joe Barton started cashing out of the stock market back in August? Maybe some of them DID understand what the term "global economic disaster" means. And just didn't care.

14 comments:

  1. It shouldn't amaze me, but around here you'll be shunned for suggesting the possibility that the Republicans bear any sort of blame for any of this. People would't think were educated can't grasp that the President can't just nullify laws, that congress can't forbid members to speak or reserve the power to introduce legislation to the House leader.

    They can't grasp that Switzerland isn't a communist country nor likely ever to be, that it isn't broke and that it has a very similar system.

    They're worse than bratty kids that can't get their way, they're seditious, anti-American terrorists and should be sent to Guantanamo NOW

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sort of similar to around my area. Suggest democrats may bear some responsibilty, any at all, and suddenly you sprout another head.

    Time for morning coffee.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What part of the responsibility belongs to the democrats?

      Delete
  3. Congress didn't get a 10% approval rating without deserving some of it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Indeed that is so. I gave up when Gohmert, Cruz, Bachmann, Trump, Perry, Boner (oops, Boehner) took control. Then there the media loons like Beck, Hannity, need I go on?

    ReplyDelete
  5. It is impossible to have a conversation with people who insist on holding a gun to their heads while threatening to shoot you.

    That's my image of the current lunatics in the GOP.

    And, no, there's no "they both do it" in this particular stand-off.



    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Shaw, it is not "they both do it too."

      Goverance is a shared responsibilty, it requires compromise resulting in a "win win" senario.It means, at least IMNHO recognizing that the American people expect leaders to find solutions to issues that affect the nation. Hard work but it can be done.

      In this SPECIFIC instance I still maintain given the issues which even democrats (the reasonable ones) recognize exist with ACA implementation both sides bear responsibilty.

      Beyond that the GOP have proven themselves to be the bigger a'holes.

      Frankly at this point I have decided we are simply witnessing a bunch of school kids fighting over who gets the red or blue lollipops.

      There is the silent underground. Should be interesting. Time for dinner, a movie, and sanity.

      Delete
    2. Well, RatNat, can you name any program that was rolled out without any problems? Hell, every Microsoft release is used as beta testing, and they're the gold standard of computing. Why are a couple of glitches such a huge problem?

      And let's stack that up against the fact that Obama was reelected by overwhelming majorities on the promise of making it work. He retooled the whole program to make it palatable to the Republicans who voted for it. The Affordable Care Act was passed into law, upheld by the Supreme Court, and the GOP still held 41 unsuccessful votes to overturn it. And so, when they couldn't get their way through the process, they decided to hold the entire world economy hostage.

      No, they aren't just assholes - this is criminal neglect of their jobs. They need to be taken out of office and flogged in the streets. Every penny they own should be taken from them, every thing they own should be sold, and the money used to pay back the government for the millions being wasted in this stupid shutdown.

      Governance is, indeed, a shared responsibility. But part of the RESPONSIBILITY involves taking the blame when you're being an ass, and accepting when you've lost.

      There is no "win-win," you ass. The Teabaggers won't accept anything but total dominance. They don't want the negro to get anything. As long as they are involved, one side HAS TO LOSE. That's all they will accept. And I present you the 2013 government shutdown as evidence.

      Delete
    3. He retooled the whole program to make it palatable to the Republicans who voted for it.

      Believe it or not, Nameless, I'm pretty sure the final bill did not receive one single republican vote. Senate or House. It is amusing watching RN distance himself from republicans. Sure as fuck quacks like one.

      Delete
    4. Play nicely, humanoids. Must the cephalopod turn inky. Let us act like neighbors now.

      Delete
    5. You're almost correct, Flyer. The retooling didn't make it particularly palatable to the partisans. But you're forgetting Joseph Cao.

      Delete
  6. "There is no "win-win," you ass. The Teabaggers won't accept anything but total dominance"

    @ NC - Nor will progressive ideologues (or any others) you ass.

    I'd add something else. But I'll leave that to you.

    Have a great fucking day.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sorry, RatNat. Reasonable people (and I like to include myself in that group) accept compromise. Sadly, those currently in charge of the GOP do not compromise.

      But the aftermath of this debacle might just change that. We'll see how things settle out.

      Delete
  7. "It is amusing watching RN distance himself from republicans. Sure as fuck quacks like one."

    @FJ - Right. Delusional are you.

    Enjoy your day.

    ReplyDelete

We welcome civil discourse from all people but express no obligation to allow contributors and readers to be trolled. Any comment that sinks to the level of bigotry, defamation, personal insults, off-topic rants, and profanity will be deleted without notice.