Day one of punishment to Americans for voting against the minority and attempting to make health care more affordable and accessible for all. This government shutdown is brought to you by the republicans who refuse to accept the election results and the legislative process of passing laws because they do not agree with the law. The facts are simple and objective. Republicans in the House of Clowns refuse to accept that Obama Care has been enacted into law through the Constitutional process, and are trying to force changes to the law by the illegitimate method of not funding the federal government, causing an unnecessary shutdown that will impact and hurt millions all across the country.
And they are hoping that we are too stupid to realize what they are doing. They are hoping that with the help of the Fox Propaganda Channel and other right wing mouth pieces in the media, that repetition of their lies will confuse the majority of Americans enough to blame all of Congress and the President for this manufactured and unnecessary crisis. They were also hoping that President Obama and Senator Harry Reid would once again cave into their hostage taking methods of governing by the minority, and “compromise.”
Thankfully, President Obama and Senator Reid have finally agreed to stand up to these assholes and refuse to pay any more ransom.
The republicans’ methods are undermining what is supposed to be a democratic process in this country, where the majority is supposed to rule. Not able to win the last presidential election, where there was a crystal clear choice of keeping Obama and the Affordable Care Act, or exchanging him for Mitt Romney and his agenda of repealing Obama Care “on day one,” voters chose to give the president a second term. They also chose not to let the Senate be taken over by the right wing idiots that the gerrymandered House of Representatives has been infected with. So the House of Clowns has decided that shutting down the government is going to be the new way they enact changes to laws they don’t like.
We have already seen the government nearly crippled by the minority of republicans in the Senate abusing the fillibuster an unprecedented number of times to prevent the majority from ruling. I’ve been extremely critical of Senator Reid many times for not getting rid of the fillibuster all together. Finally, Mr. Reid appears to realize that he is not dealing with reasonable people across the partisan aisle. He is dealing with a minority of right wing zealots who’s disdain for the basic concept of democracy is now painfully on display. He and Mr. Obama both seem to have finally come to the conclusion that negotiating under blackmail is not negotiation, it is not compromise.
It was a mistake in the past to negotiate under these circumstances during the 2011 manufactured crisis of raising the debt ceiling. It only emboldened the hostage takers. Now their bluff has to be called, and sadly, it was not a bluff. The republicans are willing to disrupt the business of the country out of spite, because they want to deny millions of Americans affordable health care so that they can go back to the old way of the real “death panels” which are the health insurance companies denying coverage to sick people so that they can enrich themselves with huge profits. That system bought us the most expensive health care delivery system in the developed world, but not the best health care results.
The debt ceiling is again scheduled for a vote in the next few weeks. Prior to Obama being president, this was a routine vote that always passed. It is not a vote to authorize new spending, it is a vote to authorize the government to write the checks for the bills it has already incurred. Republican hostage takers tried to use this as a ‘negotiating’ tactic in 2011 when the economy was more vulnerable than it is now, by threatening to cut off federal unemployment benefits to millions of Americans at Christmas time, among other ridiculous demands. I thought the president’s compromise at the time was a mistake, but his administration felt at the time that they couldn’t afford to have the hostage harmed, as they put it. But here we are now, with the same low life, shithead Tea Baggers shutting down the government and threatening the global economy in the coming weeks by attempting to hold the debt ceiling hostage as well.
I applaud President Obama and the democrats for standing up to these bullies and saying enough is enough, we will not negotiate with a gun to the American public’s head anymore.
The president just made an eloquent and forceful speech explaining what is going on, and who is to blame. He should keep up the public pressure so that the republicans’ lies, smoke and mirrors don’t succeed in confusing the citizenry about what their real agenda is. They want to deny millions of previously uninsured Americans from enrolling in a heath insurance program that is now available on the state exchanges, thanks to the Affordable Care Act. They want to allow the health insurance companies to continue to let sick and poor people die so that their profits remain high. They do not care about the welfare of the majority of the public, they could not care less. They worship the Almighty Dollar, and even have former preachers like Mike Huckabee defending the values of the health insurers denying sick children and their parents coverage. The House of Clowns and the republican party truly is a den of thieves and greedy liars, posing as patriotic Christians with strong family values. Nothing could be further from the truth.