UCmeNdc
UCmeNdc's JournalWhy Boehner doesn’t just ditch the hard right
The thing that makes Boehner interesting is he’s very aware of his limited hand. Boehner doesn’t live in an imaginary world where he thinks he’s Tip O’Neill and he can bring people into his office and corral them into a certain vote. So he treads carefully, maybe too carefully. But he knows a clean CR has never been an option for him.
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What we're seeing is the collapse of institutional Republican power. It’s not so much about Boehner. It’s things like the end of earmarks. They move away from Tom DeLay and they think they're improving the House, but now they have nothing to offer their members. The outside groups don't always move votes directly but they create an atmosphere of fear among the members.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/10/01/why-boehner-doesnt-just-ditch-the-right/
‘Elect Republicans and they will burn the place down’
Rachel Maddow blasts GOP intransigence: ‘Elect Republicans and they will burn the place down’
MSNBC host Rachel Maddow outlined the Republican path toward grinding the government to a halt on Monday night, pointing out that on multiple occasions over the past few years, GOP lawmakers and candidates swore they would do just that.
“There is nothing about the last few weeks of political back-and-forth that explains why this is happening. There’s nothing about health reform, specifically, that explains why this is happening.
“What is happening tonight is happening tonight because this is what Republicans want to do,” Maddow said pointedly. “This is what they promised to do. This tactic — ‘Let’s Roll!’ — is an end in and of itself, and that is why there’s no talking them out of it. Elect Republicans and they will burn the place down.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/09/30/rachel-maddow-blasts-gop-intransigence-elect-republicans-and-they-will-burn-the-place-down/
“The Williamsburg Accord”
In January, demoralized House Republicans retreated to Williamsburg, Virginia, to plot out their legislative strategy for President Obama’s second term. Conservatives were angry that their leaders had been unable to stop the expiration of the Bush tax cuts on high incomes, and sought assurances from their leaders that no further compromises would be forthcoming.
The agreement that followed, which Republicans called “The Williamsburg Accord,” received obsessive coverage in the conservative media but scant attention in the mainstream press. (The phrase “Williamsburg Accord” has appeared once in the Washington Post and not at all in the New York Times.)
But the decision House Republicans made in January has set the party on the course it has followed since. If you want to grasp why Republicans are careening toward a potential federal government shutdown, and possibly toward provoking a sovereign debt crisis after that, you need to understand that this is the inevitable product of a conscious party strategy.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/09/house-gops-legislative-strike.html
Don’t fall prey to ‘both sides-ism’: Republicans are to blame for government shutdown
Indeed, the debate happening in Washington right now is not even between Democrats and Republicans. It’s not even about the deficit, or the budget, or government spending priorities. Rather, it is one strictly occurring between Republicans who are trying to find some magic bullet to destroy “Obamacare” – the country’s fiscal health be damned.
In the House of Representatives, bills that would allow the government to continue to operate were amended with provisions defunding or delaying Obamacare. This is, for Democrats, a nonstarter. The reason is obvious: the Affordable Care Act is the president’s signature achievement and he is not going to sign a bill that undoes or even delays it.
Nor should he. Obamacare is the law of the land. It was passed by Congress, signed by the president, upheld by the US supreme court, and it is already going into effect. There is no reason for President Obama to be cowed by such legislative extortion.
Yet, rather than accept the reality of Obamacare, Republicans are using the prospect of a government shutdown and/or a default on the nation’s debt to try to stop it.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/09/30/dont-fall-prey-to-both-sides-ism-republicans-are-to-blame-for-government-shutdown/
The GOP knows Obamacare will help the middle class.
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