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Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

No more lipstick for the teaparty extortion pig

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Yesterday in a speech to the Business Roundtable, President Obama clearly labeled the teaparty Republicans as extortionists. And in doing so, he challenged their grasp of history and the foolishness of their insistence on holding the debt ceiling hostage to their ideology.

Despite pleas from the Chamber of Commerce and Republicans who are not 100% bat-guano crazy (not quite “reasonable” or “sensible” but somewhat left of “stark raving mad” on the crazy continuum), the House gave in to the demands of the Kamikaze Wing of the Republican Party, aka Ted Cruz.

Here is the nugget (from the transcript):

And I’ve heard people say, well, in the past, there have been negotiations around raising the debt ceiling.  It’s always a tough vote because the average person thinks raising the debt ceiling must mean that we’re running up our debt, so people don’t like to vote on it, and, typically, there’s some gamesmanship in terms of making the President’s party shoulder the burden of raising the — taking the vote.  And then there’s some political campaign later that smacks them around for saying, Joe Smith voted to raise the debt ceiling by $2 trillion.  And it sounds terrible and it’s a fun talking point for politics, but it always gets done.

And if there is a budget package that includes the debt ceiling vote, it’s not the debt ceiling that is driving the negotiations; it’s just it’s stuck into the budget negotiations, because if you’re going to take a bunch of tough votes anyway, you might as well go ahead and stick that in there.

You have never seen in the history of the United States the debt ceiling or the threat of not raising the debt ceiling being used to extort a President or a governing party, and trying to force issues that have nothing to do with the budget and have nothing to do with the debt.

Extortionists called out for attempted extortion. Thanks, President Obama.

The president seemed hesitant to use that kind of language in his first term, perhaps thinking that there was still hope that he could find sane people in the Republican Party. That ship has sailed and, if anything, they are crazier now because crazy is jockeying for position to be King of the Crazies in 2016.

Besides pointing out the extortion, he puts a lie to the latest Republican fact-challenged statement that the “debt ceiling has often been part of negotiations”. No. Never. Hadn’t happened until the Republicans took over the House in 2011 after a low-turnout mid-term election and parlayed that into some tightly gerrymandered congressional districts that gave them the House again in 2013 despite having lost the popular vote.

It is not surprising that they cite history that never happened in order to create a hostage that no other political party has ever taken. Because next year they will pretend that they were never against Obamacare when it turns out that people like saving money and not going into debt to take care of a sick loved one.

History will not look kindly upon these Republicans. And, if we work hard at Get Out The Vote in 2014, they will more quickly become history.

(Crossposted from Views from North Central Blogistan)


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/ 56 Comments

56 comments

  2. DeniseVelez

    POTUS called it like it is.

    They are shakedown grifters like organized crime figures demanding protection money – they are organizing a crime against us, the people.

    Too bad we can’t bust them under RICO 😉

    So like you said – our only recourse is to GOTV for the midterms.

  3. Diana in NoVa

    Let’s hope he sticks to that position.  How can anyone be as irresponsible as these Republicats? (Translation:  Republicans = Fat Cats). It simply boggles the brain!

  4. bfitzinAR

    to teach the reachable Americans that raising the debt ceiling doesn’t raise the debt, it allows the President to deal with the debt Congress created.

  6. JanF

    The GOP Is Threatening Murder-Suicide With New Shutdown Warnings

    House Republicans’ willingness to lay waste to the country to satisfy their fringiest faction will ultimately guarantee the GOP irrelevancy as a national party, unless they change their ways. In the meantime, they seem determined to take us all down with them.

    ~snip~

    Last year, Norm Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute and Thomas Mann of Brookings wrote a book about this dysfunction known as the new Republican Party. It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism makes a compelling case that the problems in Washington are not the result of “both sides”-the oft-preferred media frame-but of a GOP that has become all but unrecognizable to most Americans.

    Ornstein and Mann, both widely respected as straight shooters, describe themselves as moderates and have had long careers working with both parties. In an interview this week, they expressed exasperation with the GOP’s behavior in the debt-limit and budget negotiations. Ornstein lamented that the title of the book today would be It’s Even Worse Than It Was.

    Thomas Mann added:

    “You have to accept the legitimacy of the other side,” said Mann. Today’s GOP, which exists to oppose all things Obama, does not.

  7. JanF

    White House Threatens Veto For Defund Obamacare Bill

    As expected, the Obama administration said Thursday that the president would veto a House government spending bill that would defund the Affordable Care Act.

    “The Administration strongly opposes House passage of H.J. Res. 59, making continuing appropriations for fiscal year 2014 and for other purposes, because it advances a narrow ideological agenda that threatens our economy and the interests of the middle class,” the administration said in an official policy statement.

    And Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), also in the running for King of the Crazies in 2016, issues this release:

    “President Obama and his allies in Congress should abandon their threats of shutting down the government and instead work with Republicans to pass this proposal that would keep government open while preventing taxpayer dollars from being used to inflict ObamaCare’s damage on people’s jobs, incomes, current health plans and doctor relationships.”

    So the Republicans are threatening government shutdown if Obamacare, a law passed by both houses of Congress and signed by the president … and vetted by the Supreme Court, is not repealed. And that is President Obama shutting down the government by refusing to give in to the demands of the hostage takers.

    :::passes pretzel logic award from Boehner to Rubio … tips over:::

  8. JanF

    World War O

    The arrival of Obamacare is worse than an invasion of giant zombies swinging nuclear-tipped crocodiles! Yet it lives! If only we lived in a country where citizens had the power to turn things around by voting lawmakers out of office. Like Uruguay or Latvia.

    Seriously, people, why do you think the Republicans have gone so completely lunatic when it comes to this issue? Why do they behave as if, once the health law begins to roll out, it will be cemented in place like an amendment to the Constitution?

    ~snip~

    Senator Ted Cruz of Texas has been leading the push to shut down the government unless Congress repeals Obamacare. But have you ever heard him vow that if Congress doesn’t repeal Obamacare there will be … elections and then a new Congress that will repeal Obamacare?

    Actually, Ted Cruz has an answer for this. Once the law goes into effect, he told the Web site The Daily Caller, the public will be overwhelmed by its sugary sweetness – “hooked on the subsidies.” It’s the duty of Congress to take it back before people can taste it …

    In a separate blockquote so I can savor it:

    So, the message is clear. The new health care law is going to be terrible, wreaking havoc on American families, ruining their lives. And they are going to love it so much they will never have the self-control necessary to give it up.

    Exactly!!! And what would be worse than putting a lie to the Reagan mantra that “”Government is not the solution to our problem government IS the problem” … Republican heads would asplode!!!

  10. creamer

    GOP house passes totally unacceptable budget.

    GOP senate block budget process from going to conference.

    Blames the executive branch for not passing a budget.

    Threatens to shut down the government over Obamacare while GOP governor’s quietly accept federal dollars to implement it.

    Blames Obama for not negotiating,(remember Boner and the Grand Bargain)

    Call’s the President an illegal alien Kenyan terrorist, then complains that he hasn’t invited them out for cocktails.

    And by the way, the national media is totally complicit in not presenting this in any coherent fashion to the public at large.

  11. princesspat

    This is the Most Outrageous, Immoral Attack on Obamacare Yet

    As reported by Yahoo’s Chris Moody, Generation Opportunity, “a Virginia-based group that is part of a coalition of right-leaning organizations with financial ties to billionaire businessmen and political activists Charles and David Koch, will launch a six-figure campaign aimed at convincing young people to “opt-out” of the Obamacare exchanges.”

    The first event is a college tour, scheduled for the end of month, where the group will try to counter-program against pro-health reform activists. To kick-off the tour, Generation Opportunity has released a few ads, with a straightforward message: If you sign up for Obamacare, the government will molest you with a medical instrument. Watch:

    The video doesn’t have an old embed code, so here’s the link

    http://youtu.be/R7cRsfW0Jv8

    I can’t say it any better…..

    If there’s anything else to say about this effort to keep young people out of the health insurance exchanges, it’s that-when you consider the potential consequences-it’s shameful, and bordering on immoral.

  12. JanF

    Obama Needs to Stand His Ground

    Obama is by nature a reasonable and flexible man, but this time he must not yield. Even if you leave aside what delaying or defunding Obamacare would mean for his legacy — erasing his most significant domestic accomplishment — it would be irresponsible for him to bow to the GOP zealots’ demands.

    The practical impact of acquiescing would be huge. Individuals who have been uninsured are anticipating access to adequate care. State governments, insurance companies and health care providers have spent vast amounts of time and money preparing for the law to take effect. To suddenly say “never mind” would be unbelievably reckless.

    The political implication of compromising with blackmailers would be an unthinkable surrender of presidential authority.

  13. JanF

    BREAKING NEWS

    Friday, September 20, 2013 11:35 AM EDT

    House Passes Spending Bill, Setting Up Showdown With Senate

    House Republicans pushed through a stopgap spending bill Friday that would strip all funding for President Obama’s health care law, setting up another bitter fiscal showdown just 10 days before much of the federal government is set to run out of money.

    The 230-to-189 vote set in motion a fiscal confrontation whose outcome is anything but clear. Two Democrats voted for the measure, and one Republican voted against it. With no resolution, large swathes of the government could shut down Oct. 1, and the nation’s first default on federal debt could follow weeks later.

    Even as the House muscled through its spending bill, House Republican leaders met behind closed doors with their rank and file on Friday to lay out the next step in the budget battle: a bill that would raise the government’s statutory borrowing limit, delay implementation of the health care law for a year, and push a grab-bag of Republican initiatives like binding instructions to overhaul the tax code and mandatory construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline.

    READ MORE

    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09…

    Looks like House Majority Leader Cantor was able to get his guys in line.

    Next up: the Senate. This is why winning the presidency in 2012 was so vital. If the House pressures Senate “red-state” Democrats into voting to defund, we have the veto pen.

    And I call out “blue-state” Republicans to think long and hard about having a vote to shut down the government on your resume. It may make you popular in your caucus but we will remember … we will remember.

  14. creamer

    run for office. One of the worst things is that anyone can run for office. We are suffering from a part of our electorate that neither has the capacity or inclination to understand government. They were manipulated by right wing think tanks into voting for a view of government that has never worked in a functioning democracy. They built a movement based on government being a bad thing. The result shouldn’t surprise them.

  15. princesspat

    Editorial: Chaos among House Republicans

    The behavior of the Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives is simply bizarre. An institution with the power and authority to manage government finances and scrutinize the budget instead chooses to play dangerous fiscal games.

    Friday’s vote to continue the lazy sequestration funding bill if the U.S. Senate and President Obama agree to shut down the Affordable Care Act was just weird.

    ~snip~

    Last March Congress adopted across-the-board spending cuts with no priorities or rankings. Every budget trimmed the same amount regardless of the role or function performed. That was a compromise to avoid another disaster. The pattern repeats itself.

    This approach is a fraud, and it is cowardly and lazy. Let the GOP articulate a coherent list of budget priorities and hold the hearings to expose what needs to be done. Members of the Congress should perform the role the U.S. Constitution empowers them to do – and that they were elected – to carry out.

    Can the government be a better steward of taxpayer dollars? Always. Do the work to make it happen, or step aside. Elect genuinely fiscally conservative Republicans to do the work.

    What the country is witnessing is shameful. The economic dangers that lurk ahead are real and potentially devastating.

    It seems truth is finally being spoken in more of the mainstream press.

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