House Speaker John Boehner joined a bunch of other House Republicans at a brief news conference Friday morning on the government shut down. It was broadcast live. He stated that this “is no damn game.” Tough talk aside, the bottom line is Republicans are not willing to re-open the government unless they de-fund, dismantle, or delay Obamacare.
Boehner and other Republicans who spoke confused reporters and the public on what their goal is. In prepared remarks each Republican member of leadership said their goal was to force President Obama and Senate Democrats to sit sown with them and make changes to bring “fairness” to Obamacare. Their calls for fairness were mixed in with affirmations that their end goal is to repeal the law. Republicans have voted 44 times to repeal or de-fund Obamacare. This “fairness” argument is a brand new phenomenon.
Republican Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia read a laundry list of bills they are pushing through to open a few programs that would make them look good and embarrass Democrats. So far Republicans have put forth proposals to fund about 5 programs and they plan to do another 11 in the next week. There are thousands of programs in the federal government each providing services and employing workers.
The government has been shut down 4 days now and Republicans have passed bills to open 5 programs. At this rate it would take Republicans 4 years to re-open the entire government using the tactics they are employing. They could open the entire government in half an hour if they just allowed a vote on the bill the Senate sent over to the House. Their insincerity is without precedent.
Representative Cathy McMorris Rogers of Washington said that Republicans were just trying to do something about the huge national debt and deficits. That prompted a reporter to ask what the Republican objective is--Obamacare or the deficit? Boehner gave a short diatribe about the debt and $700 billion dollar deficits and the news conference was concluded at that point.
The CBO projects the deficit will actually be closer to $500 billion, but what’s a couple hundred billion among friends? It was $1 trillion dollars when Obama took the oath of office.
The shutdown occurred because Republicans refused to pass the budget to fund the government for the next year. They are refusing to do so unless they get to gut Obamacare. Until today, Republicans have said nothing about the size of the budget, the level of spending, or any issue related to the Continuing Resolution. Their rhetoric and proposed “compromises” have all dealt with Obamacare.
Republicans do not talk about the budget because Democrats and the President already caved in to the low funding level proposed by Republicans. Democrats moved 100% to the Republican position of $986 billion. Obama proposed $1.2 trillion. They can’t take yes for an answer. Once they got that concession, they added new conditions and blast Democrats for not “compromising.”
Boehner began his short news conference saying this is “no damn game.” It is not about winning, he shouted. Yet Senators Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell were caught on an open microphone saying “We need to just keep saying we are compromising. We are winning this.”
If Eric Cantor and his fellow Republicans cared a hoot about the government, the country, the 800,000 laid off employees, or any one else, they would do what every other Congress in history has done and pass a budget to re-open the entire government. If they want to repeal, delay, dismantle, de-fund, or make it a capital offense to purchase insurance on an exchange, they should introduce a bill, pass it, over-ride the president’s veto, and celebrate their victory with their single malt scotch and expensive champagne. If they don't have the votes, then sit down and shut the freak up!
Meanwhile polls show 80% of Americans are opposed to the government shut down. So who is not listening to the American people? Methinks it is the Republican Party.
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