Living With Their Rhetoric
by Steve
President Obama had a good week in foreign policy, yet is seeing the expected insanity from the House GOP as the country hurtles towards a shutdown and default. With the Senate likely to take the latest meaningless House stopgap continuing resolution and send it right back to the same malignant cabal that sent it to them, we are headed towards several weeks of economic and social calamity caused purely by a group of treasonous and racist secessionists bent on nullifying the last presidential election.
It's well past time for the president to stop talking about "Congress" and start pointedly talking about the "House Republicans" because the lies and hypocrisy are coming from them specifically.
“The American people don’t want a government shutdown, and they don’t want Obamacare,” House Republican leaders said in a statement. “We will do our job and send this bill over, and then it’s up to the Senate to pass it and stop a government shutdown.”
Actually, the polls show that Americans don’t want the House to shut down the government over a defunding of Obamacare, but the facts have never gotten in the way of John Boehner, Eric Cantor, or Kevin McCarthy.
A solid majority of Americans oppose defunding the new health care law if it means shutting down the government and defaulting on debt.
The CNBC All-America Economic Survey of 800 people across the country conducted by Hart-McInturff, finds that, in general, Americans oppose defunding Obamacare by a plurality of 44 percent to 38 percent.
Opposition to defunding increases sharply when the issue of shutting down the government and defaulting is included. In that case, Americans oppose defunding 59 percent to 19 percent, with 18 percent of respondents unsure. The final 4 percent is a group of people who want to defund Obamacare, but become unsure when asked if they still hold that view if it means shutting down the government.
Nor should rank-and-file GOP hardliners be exempt from our contempt.
“The federal government has shut down 17 times before, sometimes when the Democrats were in control, sometimes with divided government,” said Representative Virginia Foxx, Republican of North Carolina. “What are we doing on our side of the aisle? We’re fighting for the American people.”
You’ll all remember Virginia Foxx from her embarrassing behavior in the House chamber over the last several years. This paragon of what passes for leadership in the House GOP demands a government shutdown to stop Obamacare, yet her state of North Carolina is much more dependent upon government employment and GDP caused by government spending than most other states. So fine, Ginny, let’s have President Obama shut off the federal money to your state and we’ll see how long you are in office.
“If Harry Reid and the Senate Democrats would stop being so stubborn then no, of course the government won’t get shut down,” said Representative Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas.
That’s the same Arkansas that also benefits disproportionately from government employment and government spending, so I presume Mr. Cotton that President Obama has your approval to not only shut down the federal government in your state, but to also redirect federal spending away from Arkansas?
If there were any political justice, the administration would start pointing out the consequences of Tea Party rhetoric, district-by-district. I don't expect Obama to do this, as the president should never sully himself with the sewage of his opponents. But that doesn't mean Joe Biden and congressional Democratic leaders should give these Tea Party creeps a pass. Someone needs to start pointing out to home-state media that if these Tea Party luminaries really support a government shutdown so much, then they should be prepared for the administration to take them up on their rhetoric - with their districts going first.