Official 2013 Budget/Debt Limit/Obamacare Crisis Thread

America disagrees with you.

POLL: Just one in four approves of Republicans’ handling of government shutdown standoff

This Poll Should Be A Gigantic Red Flag For The GOP



Six hours after the federal government shut down for the first time in 17 years, a new Quinnipiac poll delivered the first warning sign for a Republican Party that stands to take the brunt of the blame.

According to the poll, American voters oppose shutting down the federal government to block implementation of the Affordable Care Act by a significant, 72-22 margin.

 

Shutting down government, costing the economy hundreds of millions per day, to attack health insurance for all is what's responsible to Republicans. Telling.

 

to improve heathcare, a partial govt shutdown (IRS, FERC, EPA, etc) is a small price to pay

 

So texxx, would you be inclined to embrace the alternative that Rep Issa has put forth? Let everyone buy into the same healthcare that the government has for it's employees?

sounds like a good idea yes?

Top Republican Calls For Replacing Obamacare With Obamacare

 

Apparently Reid was responding to Schumer's remark to a question from Bash, not Bash's question.

texxx you silly boy, duped by yer handlers again.


During a press conference, CNN’s Dana Bash asked Reid, “if you can help one child who has cancer why wouldn’t you do it?” Reid responded by arguing that lawmakers shouldn’t “pick and choose” which parts of the government to fund and urged House Republicans to allow a vote on a “clean” 6-week continuing resolution:

CNN’s DANA BASH: But if you can help one child who has cancer why wouldn’t you do it?

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): Why put one against the other?

REID: Why would we want to do that? I have 1,100 people at Nellis Air Force base that are sitting home. They have a few problems of their own. This is — to have someone of your intelligence to suggest such a thing maybe means you’re irresponsible and reckless.

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2...ry-reid-of-not-caring-about-kids-with-cancer/

 

You keep on spewing your bull**** yet I have told you several ****ing times that plenty more is affected by the shut down. So many of my friends can not start a claim for the G.I bill to go to school now. VETERAN SERVICES IS SHUT DOWN! No new disability claims for combat wounded veterans will be processed during the shut down. If the shut down occurs long enough veterans currently enrolled in the G.I bill will not receive their housing allowance, nor will disabled veterans receive their checks. I have told you this plenty of times but you chose to ignore it. You will not respond to this post more than likely because it doesn't fit your convenient reality of yours.

 

I'm full on belly laughing, choking on my laughter on this one. :grin:

 

Yup. It is interesting to see him poop all over war veterans.

 

People need to stop being naive here. Republicans aren't afraid of Obamacare failing, they are afraid of it succeeding.

 

Lets be real . . . this shutdown does not affect anyone these politicians give a **** about

so neither side cares how long it will last

Once it starts affecting their benefactors or their benefactors are able to spin
the news [ie manipulate the people enough]
to have the people accept what ever extortion their benfactors want
then you will see the end

Rocket River

 

As usual, CSM doing actual reporting. So refreshing.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2013/1002/Incomprehension-Europe-flummoxed-by-US-government-shutdown

The bits out of Germany might catch your eye:

While a long-term shutdown would impact the global economy and thus Europe, it doesn't directly mar transatlantic policies, such as the trade agreement negotiations that are underway.

But it is the expression of a deeper problem of failed checks and balances that will impact American ties with Europe, says Josef Braml, a transatlantic expert at the German Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin. “If the superpower has no room to maneuver, it will have to shift burdens to foes and friends,” he says, which will then create a wedge.

"We already see it in security policy,” Dr. Braml says, especially the waning US commitment to NATO and its focus on Asia. “Europe and especially Germans have to think of how they take care of their own security.”

Germany... taking care of their own security. Oh now that sounds like an interesting idea, historically speaking.

Good quotes from hagel in that article too. We look so incredibly stupid to the rest of the world, and that view is almost exactly half right.

 

GOP Mega Donors Revolt Against Republican-Led Government Shutdown

It’s not just Democrats who are angry at the Tea Party-led shutdown. Republican donors are furious their party has managed to ‘grab defeat from the jaws of victory’ on Obamacare—and some are withholding funds,

 

When did they ever have victory within grasp?

 

Good question

Republicans wanted the shutdown, fought for it and now, they own it.

 

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Damning.

 

October 1, 2013


John Boehner’s Shutdown

By THE EDITORIAL BOARD


By Tuesday morning, the leadership failure of Speaker John Boehner was complete. In encouraging the impossible quest of House Republicans to dismantle health care reform, he pushed the country into a government shutdown that will now begin to take a grievous economic toll.

At any point, Mr. Boehner could have stopped it. Had he put on the floor a simple temporary spending resolution to keep the government open, without the outrageous demands to delay or defund the health reform law, it could easily have passed the House with a strong majority — including with sizable support from Republican members, many of whom are aware of how badly this collapse will damage their party.

But Mr. Boehner refused. He stood in the well of the House and repeated the tired falsehood that the Affordable Care Act was killing jobs. He came up with a series of increasingly ridiculous demands: defund the health law, delay it for a year, stop its requirement that employers pay for contraception, block the medical device tax, delay the individual mandate for a year, strip Congressional employees of their health subsidies. All were instantly rejected by the Senate. “They’ve lost their minds,” Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader, said of the House Republicans. “They keep trying to do the same thing over and over again.”

Finally, at the last minute, when there was still time to end the charade with a straightforward spending bill, Mr. Boehner made the most absurd demand of all: an immediate conference committee with the Senate. Suddenly, with less than an hour left, he wanted to set up formal negotiations?

For six months, the Senate has been demanding a conference with the House on the 2014 budget — talks that might have prevented the impasse in the first place. But the House leadership has adamantly refused, knowing it would not succeed in getting all the cuts to taxes and spending that it demands. For Mr. Boehner to call for a conference near midnight was the height of hypocrisy.

The consequences of Mr. Boehner’s failure will be immediate: 800,000 government employees thrown out of work, over a million more working without pay, offices that provide important services closed, and programs on which poor people depend — like the Women, Infants and Children nutrition system — cut off. The longer Republicans refuse to approve a rational spending measure, the more federal agencies will be affected and the greater the damage done to an economy still in recovery.

Having let down the public, Republicans will now, inevitably, scramble to save their reputation. They are desperate to make it appear as if President Obama and the Democrats are the ones being intransigent, hoping voters will think that everyone is at fault and simply blame “Washington.” Mr. Boehner even mocked the president on Monday for refusing to negotiate over health reform, as if he actually expected Mr. Obama to join in wrecking a law that will provide health coverage to millions of uninsured Americans under threat of blackmail.

On Tuesday, Republicans came up with another self-serving offer, proposing to open a few government departments whose closures are likely to produce negative news coverage, such as Veterans Affairs and the national parks. Democrats quickly made it clear that only a full reopening of government would suffice, and three of the bills died in the House. More are expected, however.

Earlier in his presidency, Mr. Obama made the catastrophic mistake — in the face of just this sort of extortion — to believe in Mr. Boehner’s willingness to be reasonable. This time, however, the cynical games of the Republicans are not going to work.

The Republicans’ reckless obsession with destroying health reform and with wounding the president has been on full display. And, as the public’s anger grows over this entirely unnecessary crisis, it should be aimed at a party and a speaker that are incapable of governing.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/02/opinion/john-boehners-shutdown.html?src=me&ref=general

 

The GOP have really ####ed themselves on this one.

 

I suppose we will see come the next election. I don't think it will be any worse than any previous government shut down. At worse they lose some seats, maybe they don't. Way too early to tell.

Let's say that was the case though. Say the GOP knew they were f'ing themselves for the next election. Wouldn't that make them look more like martyrs than bullies? If they are taking a huge political risk, wouldn't it seem that they truly believe in their cause? Otherwise, why not play the political numbers, and back down?

There are plenty of Democrats that would like to fix Obamacare, but even President Obama won't let them. I don't think we should repeal it, but we should certainly fix it. It was created with the intention that we could enforce the expansion of Medicaid on the states. We can't. That throws a huge wrench in the system.

 

No where has Obama said he was unwilling to fix problems with ACA. That's completely different than threatening to blow up the government if they don't get their way to de-fund or repeal it.