Well, they went and did it. The group of "patriots" who very explicitly detests all parts of government except the military succeeded in their mission in shutting it down. And then, of course, they celebrated it while simultaneously blaming it on the Democrats. What a mess. Let me try to sort through it and explain why, for the good of the country, the Tea Party needs to die.
Dude, It's In the Constitution
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| The people that hate government shut it down? I am shocked! |
How did we get here? Well, it has to do with the banality of government financing and the inability of Congress to do one of its most basic jobs - pass a budget. That hasn't happened for years, but the federal government is able to keep operating on a temporary basis by passing continuing resolutions (CR) that have to be reauthorized every so often. The federal fiscal year starts on October 1, and the current CR before Congress would have authorized the government to keep operating through November 15. But the Tea Party in the House refused to pass it unless it defunded the Affordable Care Act (ACA, or Obamacare), whose insurance exchanges opened up for business on October 1. The Democratic Senate, of course, refused to pass a CR that defunded the ACA (which the House repeatedly sent them), or delayed its implementation in any way. Both chambers stood firm, and so without a CR in place, nonessential federal services stopped when the clock struck October 1, and 800,000 federal employees were indefinitely furloughed.
The House GOP immediately and consistently accused President Obama and the Senate of refusing to compromise. While it's true they aren't going to compromise on the ACA, here's a fact that's going woefully underreported in the mainstream media:
the CR that was before both chambers was already a significant Democratic compromise. It funded the government at sequester levels, far below what both the President's budget and Senate's ideal contained. Remember the sequester? Yeah, that's still around, and still having its effect felt - and the Democrats were willing to keep living with it in order to keep the government running. That's not a compromise? Moreover, why should the Dems compromise on the ACA, the most important legislative achievement of Obama's tenure?
Let's clear something up about the ACA. It is not a liberal's wet dream of a socialist utopia, nor was it passed in secret in the middle of the night without proper discourse. It was the result of 14 months of negotiations with the final result disappointing many progressives who wanted something resembling a single-payer system (essentially, Medicare for everyone). The roots of the ACA were drafted by the conservative Heritage Foundation as an alternative to "HillaryCare" in the '90s. It was supported by Newt Gingrich and first put into action by a Republican governor who just happened to be the party's presidential nominee last year. It was a conservative health care plan until Barack Hussein Obama came out in support - then it became the surest sign of the Marxist Apocalypse and "one of the most insidious laws ever developed by man" (
Rep. Todd Rokita of Indiana). Nonetheless, it passed the Democratic-controlled Congress and has been upheld by the Supreme Court with conservative Chief Justice John Roberts voting in favor. The American voters indirectly weighed in by handily reelecting Obama last year; after all, Romney made it clear he would repeal the ACA. So, Obama has a clear and constitutional mandate to implement perhaps the biggest accomplishment of his presidency, and it's going into effect right now.
And what do Republicans offer in exchange for giving up the ACA or at least delaying it?
They would agree to fund the government at sequester levels for six whole weeks. Why in God's green earth would Obama and the Democrats take that deal? They would face yet another budget crisis in November and Republicans would demand yet more concessions to keep the government running. That is not how you govern a functioning country, lurching from one fiscal crisis to another. Moreover, if they agreed to delay ACA implementation for a year (so the Reps can use it in the 2014 election), do you honestly think the GOP would be totally fine with letting it go ahead next year? Of course not. The whole cycle would begin again.
Speaking more broadly, such actions threaten to set a dangerous precedent for how our country is governed. Shutdowns have happened before but they were over general budgetary issues. Here, we have a minority party that controls one chamber of Congress (through gerrymandering - they lost the House popular vote by a million votes) that has succeeded in shutting down the government because of a constitutionally validated law that they don't like. That is not how our system was designed to function. There is a constitutional method for repealing or changing laws you oppose. You know the constitution, right? That old document conservatives claim to love so much? That method is called
winning elections. If the GOP were so sure the ACA is going to destroy America, the politically smart thing to do would be to let it go into effect. Then when people hate it, they ride those sentiments to huge victories in the 2014 and 2016 elections. In 2017 President Ted Cruz could repeal the ACA five times over if he wanted. Instead they chase the impossible dream of repealing it under a Democratic Senate and President and have no problem dragging the rest of the country down their fever dream with them. It is reckless, irresponsible, and proves that the Tea Party has no place in governance.
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| John Boehner (R-Incompetent) |
The saddest part of this whole debacle is that the shutdown
could be over in five minutes if not for the actions (or inaction) of one man –
House Speaker John Boehner. There are
enough votes on record (all Democrats and enough moderate Republicans) to pass
a “clean” CR at any time. However,
Boehner generally refuses to bring any votes to the floor of the House that
don’t have the support of a majority of his caucus. In essence, the Tea Party is holding
Boehner’s job hostage. If he allows the
vote, he will either be primaried by a Tea Partier in the next election or be
deposed as Speaker. Consequently,
Boehner comes off as one of the worse, most ineffectual Speakers in American
history and the Tea Party is revealed as the bunch of vindictive, anti-government
nihilists they are.
The Great Memorial Farce
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| The WWII Memorial in happier days |
The hypocrisy and sheer mendacity of the Tea Party
congregation really came into light early this week as the shutdown took
effect.
While simultaneously declaring
the shutdown no big deal (Fox News rebranded it a “slimdown”), they also
proceeded to blame Obama for shutting down things that are highly visible,
within easy reach, and that they happen to like.
This was no more evident than at the World
War II Memorial on the Mall in DC.
When
groups of WWII vets from Mississippi and Iowa arrived as part of a planned trip
and found the memorial closed due to the shutdown, some of the Tea Party’s
brightest stars leapt into action.
Now,
I can buy that Steve King of Iowa was there, for obvious reasons.
But the fact that Michelle Bachmann of
Minnesota claims to have been walking nearby purely by chance and came over to
see what was going on is laughably incredulous.
Louis Gohmert of Texas just happened to be there too!
What a coincidence!
The Representatives moved the barricades,
allowing the vets in, and proceeded to get great photo ops and make
high-falutin’ speeches about how Obama and the Democrats were so evil for
depriving the vets access to their memorial.
They do not care that their votes are what caused the shutdown.
Hypocrisy is nothing next to a chance to wrap
themselves in the flag and pretend they care about veterans.
But I’m no veteran, so let’s hear from a real
one, Iraq war vet Representative
Tammy Duckworth:
“These same veterans that they’re pretending to help today at the WWII
memorial, you know, they’re going to have access to their disability
pensions is going to be limited after Oct. 15. There’s going to be cuts
in prosthetic research for veterans. The National Cemetery
Administration is not going to be able to lay our heroes to rest at the
same rate that they were,” Duckworth said. “And Michele Bachmann who was
there today at the World War II Memorial actually said, ‘The shutdown
is exactly what we wanted. We got what we wanted.’ A good day for the
tea party is when government is having a bad day.”
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| Rep. Tammy Duckworth |
Well said. I am so
tired of Republicans getting to claim they’re great patriots by pulling stunts
like this, and their base voters and the media eating it up. It is baloney. Their actions prove sadly otherwise. I wonder if King, Bachmann, and Gohmert cared
to explain why all of them gleefully voted to kick 140,000 veterans off of food
stamps last week? No? Or that the shutdown is seriously impacting
the VA and other services relied on by our veterans? Probably not.
No, they saw an opportunity to stroll on down to the WWII memorial and
slam that evil socialist Obama for being so un-American and mean to our
veterans. To which I would ask, which
President’s actions have led to more American military casualties, Obama or his
predecessor? (Shh! You’re bringing up
something that happened before 2009!
That’s not allowed!) Oh,
sorry. Is it too much to ask, if you
care so much about people being impacted by the shutdown, to pay attention to
other groups, such as patients at the National Institutes of Health or children
and families served by the WIC program?
Obviously it is. Because they
really do not care.
Texas Rep. Randy Neugebauer kept up the "class act" today by
chewing out a Park Service Ranger for daring to do her job at the memorial,
where vets are still being let in.
“The
Park Service should be ashamed of themselves,” he said to her, to which she
bravely replied ‘I’m not ashamed,” and people in the crowd thankfully stood up
for her, one noting “This woman is doing her job, just like me.”
It reveals the fundamental disrespect the Tea
Party has for government and all of its employees.
They are the enemy and do not deserve respect
– it’s not like this ranger was there at the personal behest of Lord
Obama.
99% of the civil service is
nonpartisan and are ordinary people just doing their jobs.
They deserve better.
But guess what?
Some Republicans are even unsure whether
those furloughed employees should receive back pay when the shutdown ends, even
though they always have in past shutdowns.
They say this with no trace of irony or sympathy as they themselves
continue to receive their salaries.
They
are despicable.
Moderate
Republicans: This Is On You
It would be amusing if not so tragic and consequential – a
fair number of self-identified “common sense” Republicans coming out of the
woodwork this week, finally realizing just how crazy the Tea Party faction
is.
Like
this one, who makes some good
points beyond being misinformed about the ACA.
The funny part is that they are basically saying what liberals have been
saying for years.
As I blogged about a
while back concerning the
Southern Strategy, the GOP has been courting the
votes of the far right fringe for decades and has gleefully used it to win
elections – but then in large part ignored its agenda.
No more.
The fringe has grown to become the mainstream and has taken over the
party.
This is not the party of
Eisenhower, Colin Powell, or Bob Dole.
It is the party of Steve King, Ted Cruz, and Rush Limbaugh.
Lots of analogies to employ here, but it’s
October so let’s go with horror: Frankenstein’s monster is loose and is
wreaking havoc in DC (not to mention many state capitals).
If “common sense” Republicans – the few that are left – want
to be taken seriously when they insist on separating themselves from the Tea
Party, the onus is on them to slay the monster they have created and set loose
upon the country. The rest of us
certainly can’t do it. You must deprive
them of power. Denounce them
publicly. Remove their committee
positions in Congress. Cut off their
funding. Challenge them in primary
elections. Kick them out of your party
for good. You claim to be the party of
personal responsibility. Well, it’s time
to put up or shut up. If you refuse, you
will prove just how dependent you are on the support of the Tea Party, and you
will be just as responsible for whatever messes they leave in their wake.
