Republicans are blamed for the latest government shutdown
With the shutdown crisis finally averted (rather, pushed forward another six to 12 weeks), the GOP has slunk back into a position of being “wicked bummed” (presumably), painting themselves as wounded victor in this weird-ass battle by ultimately blaming the press — by way of the press spreading lies, obviously. Because how could it be their fault?
Karl Rove blogged (wait, Karl Rove blogs! Karl Rove sits around on his laptop flitting between Facebook and Twitter and presumably eBay and porn just like I do(n’t)! That’s insane. Think about Karl Rove on his bed with a bowl of popcorn beside him just bloggin’ about his day) that Republicans walked right into Obama’s healthcare trap, which, if you think about it, would be a good thing, because at least then they’d have health care and thus wouldn’t be forced into bankruptcy for injuring themselves by, say, walking into a trap. Quoth the Rove, nevermore:
Give Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid his due. He combined ruthless partisanship with exceptional message discipline. On Tuesday, Mr. Reid attacked House Speaker John Boehner for considering a measure that “can’t pass the Senate.” He also blames Mr. Boehner for not taking up bills the Speaker didn’t believe could pass the House. So Mr. Boehner is responsible whenever bills cannot pass either chamber, including the one Mr. Reid presides over.
So the House Republicans have tried to defund the Affordable Care Act 44 separate times, failed every single time, and now Rove is trying to cast blame on Harry Reid? Ain’t nobody got time for that. John Boehner couldn’t pass gas let alone a bipartisan bill if he tried because he’s got Tea Party influence so far up his ass. Yes, it’s almost as if the GOP actively don’t want to remind anyone that they caused the shutdown in the first place, seeing as their Very Shitty Move™ of shutting down the government for 16 days cost American taxpayers some $24 billion.
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This is, after all, about money in politics: the healthcare lobby alone (not to mention the huge insurance companies) has so much money to put into the race that politicians are afraid of speaking out against them in case their funding is removed.
It was Obama’s speech on Thursday morning that gave sane Americans hope, as Obama rightfully assigned blame to the squabbling politicians in the first place.
There are no winners here. These last few weeks have inflicted completely unnecessary damage on our economy. We don’t know yet the full scope of the damage, but every analyst out there believes it’s slowed our growth. We know that families have gone without paychecks or services they depend on. We know that potential home buyers have gotten fewer mortgages and small business loans have been put on hold. We know that consumers have cut back on spending and that half of all CEOs say that the shutdown and the threat of shutdown set back their plans to hire over the next six months.
We know that just the threat of default, of America not paying all the bills that we owe on time, increased our borrowing costs, which adds to our deficit. And of course, we know that the American people’s frustration with what goes on in this town has never been higher.
That’s not a surprise that the American people are completely fed up with Washington. At a moment when our economic recovery demands more jobs, more momentum, we’ve got yet another self-inflicted crisis that set our economy back. And for what? There was no economic rationale for all of this. Over the past four years, our economy has been growing, our businesses have been creating jobs, and our deficits have been in half. We hear some members who pushed for the shutdown say they were doing it to save the American economy. But nothing has done more to undermine our economy these past three years than the kind of tactics that create these manufactured crises.