Why Republicans should be blamed for the government shutdown

[entropy]

Some of you may be regular readers of Kevin Drum's blog - if so, you probably have already read the following. But if not:

//http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2013/09/public-blames-republicans-government-shutdown

Q: Why do we need a 6-week Continuing Resolution to keep the government running?

    A: Because Congress hasn't passed a budget for the new year, which begins October 1st.

    Q: And why is that?

    A: There's no mystery. Both the House and Senate passed budget resolutions months ago, but Paul Ryan and the rest of the GOP have refused to open talks with the Senate to negotiate a final budget number.

    Q: Why is that?

    A: They've been crystal clear about this. They wanted more leverage for their demands, and they figured the only way to get that was to threaten a government shutdown. Here's the Washington Post last May:

        Republicans face a listless summer, with little appetite for compromise but no leverage to shape an agreement. Without that leverage, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Tuesday, there is no point in opening formal budget negotiations between the House and the Senate.

        ...."The debt limit is the backstop," Ryan said before taking the stage at a debt summit organized by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation in Washington. "I'd like to go through regular order and get something done sooner rather than later. But we need to get a down payment on the debt. We need entitlement reform. We're very serious about tax reform because we think that's critical to economic growth and job creation. Those are the things we want to talk about."

This is why the public is likely to blame Republicans for a government shutdown: because Republicans have been very clear all along that they were deliberately stringing out the budget process so they could use a shutdown as leverage for their demands. At the time Ryan made the statement above, it looked like we'd hit the debt ceiling before we hit the end of the budget year, so that was the "backstop." Now it's turned out that the end of the budget year will come first, so that's become the backstop instead. Either way, though, Republicans have been quite open for months about their desire to delay negotiations until they had a government shutdown of some kind to use as a threat. Now they have it, and they're using it.

So that's that. They're the ones who said they wanted a shutdown as leverage. They can't really pretend otherwise at this point.

[LikelyToBreak]

So the Republicans are playing politics as usual.  I don't see anything new here.  Happens quite a bit here in California.  The minority party uses what little clout they have to try to get things their way.  The Democrats don't want to compromise because they have the popularity of Obama on their side.   Politics as usual.  With the poor being the only ones who will really suffer.  Congress and all of the party games makes me sick.  Neither party gives a damn about Main Street.  Just their own petty little careers and Wall Street.

[Solitary]

Why are the republicans always in denial, and it isn't a river in Egypt? "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely." They are as progressive as the Bible and Koran are, and just as counter to the good of society. Of course it is all because we have a Muslim President. :shock:  :roll:  Solitary

[The Whit]

Yeah, it's the GOP's fault the government has been spending at near trillion dollar deficits for the last 5 years.  Certainly this situation is partly the GOP's fault and they probably are using this to further their political goals, but the Democrats have some blame in running the debt to the point where this is the case.

[Solitary]

Wars cost money as the Russians found out the hard way. Why are we still in a war on drugs and terrorist? Because they are still a problem that won't go away. We also have CEO's that screw everyone in the world that has produced terrorist here and abroad. How is one man that is filibustered to death suppose to change anything when republican money talks like the Koch brothers, Churches, and the Church do? Let's not forget which party allowed CEO's to move operations and jobs over seas, and allowed them tax shelters.  No wonder a God would have destroyed most of mankind, because we are the problem and always will be. I'm happy it will all end soon for me.  :shock:  :-D  Solitary

Statistics not from republican sites or investor sites: Obama received a bounce in his job approval rating during and after the recent Democratic convention, reaching 50% for the week ending Sept. 9, but it is too early to tell if that increase will be sustained for the remainder of the month.

Bottom Line

Americans are clearly better off on several economic and mood measures now than they were in February 2009 when President Obama took office. However, the most substantial gains on these measures mainly occurred early in his administration, with trends mixed since then -- particularly the downturn on all measures in the late summer and early fall of 2011 during the debt ceiling crisis. Additionally, most of these measures were historically very low when Obama took office.

The two measures that show more straightforward gains during the Obama administration are the Job Creation Index, which has risen fairly steadily from a -5 when he took office to today's +19, and the standard of living measure, which has gone from 35% who say their standard of living is getting better to 48% today.

Obama's job approval rating, a key predictor of a president's re-election probabilities, was at 45% in August, below his term average of 49% and well below the 60%+ averages when he first took office in 2009. However, Obama's 50% job approval rating for the week of his party's just-finished convention suggests that September may be a better month for Obama than August.

[entropy]

Yeah, it's the GOP's fault the government has been spending at near trillion dollar deficits for the last 5 years.  Certainly this situation is partly the GOP's fault and they probably are using this to further their political goals, but the Democrats have some blame in running the debt to the point where this is the case.

I didn't say or imply that large deficits are only the GOP's fault. I said (actually quoted) that it is the GOP's fault that the government will shut down. The GOP didn't have to force things to a shutdown to get agreement on a budget. They could have done the traditional thing which is for the House to get together with the Senate in a joint committee to hash out a compromise. But the House GOP wanted more leverage than they would have in such joint negotiations, so they are choosing to shut the government down in hopes of getting more leverage.

As to how much deficit is too much deficit, and to the degree that it is too big - what blend of spending cuts and tax increases we should have to address it - that is a different big topic.

[josephpalazzo]

How many times did the GOP pass a bill to repeal Obamacare? 42 times.

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

-- Albert Einstein

[LikelyToBreak]

I remembered something.  We don't have the California government shutting down every other year since we passed a referendum saying that if the legislature and the governor don't agree on a budget on time, they don't get paid until they do.  Too bad we can't have national referendums, then we could pass a bill something like California's and then neither party would drag their feet on passing a budget.

[Solitary]

A terrific idea!  =D> Solitary

[entropy]

A note about the budget deficit - contrary to what a lot of people think, the budget deficit is already decreasing significantly. The budget deficit this year is $400 billion less than last year (//http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/budget/321105-deficit-reaches-750-billion-for-2013-cbo).

[josephpalazzo]

The GOP doesn't care about deficits. They never did. They want Obamacare to be repealed. (Hint: One of the biggest provisions is that it holds health care insurance companies' profits and administrative costs to 20% instead of the actual 40%)

[mykcob4]

Tea Party Tea Party Tea Party. The Ayn Rand inspired name sake Rand Paul among other Tea Party gerimander elected officials have no concept of history, no regard for the law, and no appetite for resposibility.
The Koch brothers financed and concieved the idea of a false grassroots political action group that would utilize gerimandering to make districts far rightwing, and to oust any republican that wasn't extreme right and obedient to the Koch brothers. With mouth pieces like Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and others lying 24/7 on every FOX and Newscorp outlet, the ignorant, uneducated, moronic, imbred, base of the republican party have elected Ted Cruz and many many irresponsible corrupt officials that toe....NOT the republican party line, but the extremely Fascist-Nazi-Tea party line. That line means no care for the sick and poor, it means disinfranchising the minorities, it means restrict voting rights, it means racism sexism homophobia, it means a war on women, minorities, nature, science, history, education, unions, workers, the middle class, and everything that isn't rich white theist and male in this nation.
The bullentin board material is all "Obamacare". That isn't even the name of the bill. The propaganda is all about how noone wants the Healthcare Reform Act even though it has been a law so long that it has even been tested in the highest court in the land.
This crap is just more obstructionism by the republicans. They want to circumvent the law, because THEY LOST THE ELECTION....TWICE!
They WANT the US economy to fail. They WANT people to suffer. They will blame it on Liberals and treehuggers and PBS and science and evolution, and anything they can use as a distraction.
The aim of the Tea Party is to redistribute ALL, and yes I said ALL wealth into the hands of the Koch brothers.Why would the Koch brothers care about the US economy crapping out? They don't, not at all. They have money all over the world. If the US fails defaults hits the skids, the Koch brothers will probably profit from that event.
The Koch brothers have been fighting the US Constitution since before they were born, and that is a fact. Their family is tied to the J.P. Morgan fight aganst Teddy Roosevelt. Roosevelt upheld the constitution forcing Mogan to lose millions.
The Koch brothers have no loyalty to the USA. Their Loyalty is to the Koch brothers, no matter what nation they are in or what political government is in place. They would be perfectly fine in Iran as long as they had control of all the wealth.
http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/Pet ... -anonymity
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/opini ... .html?_r=0
http://www.policymic.com/articles/12588 ... h-brothers

[entropy]

I remembered something.  We don't have the California government shutting down every other year since we passed a referendum saying that if the legislature and the governor don't agree on a budget on time, they don't get paid until they do.  Too bad we can't have national referendums, then we could pass a bill something like California's and then neither party would drag their feet on passing a budget.

While not getting paid until a budget is passed has probably had some affect, the same proposition (Prop 25 in 2010) that passed had a much more important provision - it ditched the 2/3's supermajority requirement to pass a budget. It was just nuts to let a relatively small minority of 1/3 of the legislature have so much power over the budget.

[The Whit]

All this complaint about how the GOP is the obstructionist party and how it's hypocritical because they did all this other bad shit when they had the majority.  All I hear is Democrats whining that the republitards aren't sitting by and letting them fuck up our country the way they want even though the Derps apparently sat on their hands while the R-tards did and, "that's not fair".  

I knew the partisan problem in this country was big, but jesus christ guys.  Wake the fuck up.

[entropy]

All this complaint about how the GOP is the obstructionist party and how it's hypocritical because they did all this other bad shit when they had the majority.  All I hear is Democrats whining that the republitards aren't sitting by and letting them fuck up our country the way they want even though the Derps apparently sat on their hands while the R-tards did and, "that's not fair".  

I knew the partisan problem in this country was big, but jesus christ guys.  Wake the fuck up.

So, specifically, what do you think should happen with the budget that you think wouldn't f*ck up the country?