Official 2014 Budget/Debt Limit/Obamacare Crisis Thread

We have entered an extended period of hobbling from crisis to crisis. This same BS will be spewed non-stop across the media. Forget true governance and legislating the things that matter like better public education, tackling student loans, ensuring another financial crisis won't happen, rebuilding an advanced infrastructure, investing in real R&D, etc.

 

Well at least we'll have another democratic senator for 2014.

Congratulations Mr. Booker!

 

edit.

 

LOL @ this thread's existence. Or... cry out loud, actually.

 

So anyone have any insight on the new budget committee that we finally have after 19 requests from democrats over the past 18 months?

 

I hope it has a lot of republican and democratic women who are not named Michelle.

 

It was the pink jackets right?

 

The only Michelle in Congress is Michelle Lujan Grisham who's a democrat from New Mexico. I'm surprised you have such a vendetta against her.

Michele Bachmann on the other hand is a superb representative from my now adopted state. (She's also totally reviled here now and would probably get destroyed in 2014 if she ran again)

 

Uh, Bachmann is still in Congress, as your own post denotes. But whatever.

Sorry if joke fell flat.

My (obvious) point is that women in Congress made great strides to create the bipartisan efforts we've witnessed today, and may they keep showing the way.

Bachmann is not really a woman. I have no idea what type of life form she is.

 

I wouldn't count on that. The 6th is the most conservative district in the state and has gotten even more conservative in the last redistricting. MN is usually thought of as liberal Mondale land but Wingnutia is very strong here.

Also if you are living in MN now we should catch a Rockets game this season. If I had known you were here you could've joined me as one of the 5 people rooting for the Stros at Target Field.

 

She wouldn't win there this time around, I guarantee it. The Iowa scandal plus the overall spew coming from her campaign staffers (along with this latest government shutdown) would have done her in.

Her district became more conservative but those were new voters to her. They have no loyalty towards her and she always comes close to losing in spite of having the most conservative district in Minnesota. I imagine if Louie Gohmert were thrown into an even more conservative district but with new voters, he'd actually do worse than he is now. Unfamiliar voters tend to actually examine the candidates they are voting for and when they do that, they discover how they actually vote and talk.

Graves came inches from beating her in 2012 and all of the polling done before she dropped out had her losing by a decent margin and that was before the government shutdown and the indictments in the Iowa scandal. Democratic groups were already running ads in St Cloud before she dropped out. She was lucky to win in 2012 and I'm sure she'd be toast in 2014. (Of course Jim Graves would then got demolished in 2016 but he'd have the fun distinction of being a Congressman)

Also as Conservative as some Minnesotans are they split tickets way more often than equally conservative voters in the South. Its largely why Colin Peterson wins his seat by big margins year after year despite having a district that is nearly as conservative as Bachmann's. It's strangely why Wisconsin outperforms Minnesota in Democratic turnout at the Presidential level and yet Wisconsin is entirely run by Republicans while Minnesota is entirely run by Democrats. Republicans just flat out split tickets more often in the state. The are DFL reps from the most die hard Republican areas of the state.

And yes we should definitely catch a Rockets game when they come to town. I was at every Astros game in Target Field this year so I suppose the count of astros fans is up to 6.

 

I'm all for reallocation of spending, but it seems any increase of a program, even if a larger amount it taken away from another (I.e. net less spending).isnt really up for grabs. I doubly wish something in defense could be reduced. That is a hard line on the right.

 

Not saying Bachmann would be easily re-elected but as far as US Reps go all of her elections have been contested. In any sane district Tinklenberg would've beat her like a drum in 2008. If Bachmann had stayed in the race Graves probably would've stayed in the race and his negatives are also pretty high. It would've been a very dirty and ugly campaign but one that Bachmann has shown she can win and even against a rich candidate like Graves she can more than match him with fundraising.

As far as the ticket splitting goes I wouldn't look at Colin Petersen as a good example. That guy is about as conservative as you can get and still be called a Democrat. Ideologically he is to the right of even many Republicans. A better example would be Tim Walz who has been able to hang in a very conservative district. On the other side though there is Erik Paulsen who although a Republican his district has gone Democrat both at the presidential and Senate level. The vote splitting plays out on both sides but as far as the state house and governor there is a slight enough edge to the DFL

Let's plan on the Rockets game. I know there are a few other Clutchfans in MN. Bobrek lives here also but good luck getting him to leave Lakeville for the Twin Cities.

 

Folx beginning to dig in and spin already

Rocket River

 

Dems already going into victim mode.

 

In this epic partisan political climate who could have predicted such a major victory by the Democrats?

Amazing.