The government continues to be closed for business and both political parties continue to jockey for an advantage with the public.
to add to the drama news outlets reported a woman with a one year old child attempting to break past White House security and after a high speed chase being shot and killed.
No other information was immediately available, but the general conversation, although not substantiated , was dissatisfaction with the government involving the shutdown.
When Newt Gingrich shut down the government in 1994 during the Clinton years, the move over time impacted the Republicans political influence negatively on a national scale. Gingrich was a rising star like Ted Cruz and his attempt to have his way by breaking through the boundaries of common sense cause his star as a legislator to burn out prematurely.
Some television pundits are also comparing Cruz to Senator Joe McCarthy in addition to Newt Gingrich.
In 1995 Newt Gingrich led a wave of Republican lawmakers boldly seeking to privatize social security and set defined fiscal limits re-branding the Republican Party under his leadership.His 'Contract with America' resonated with many moderates and conservatives and he looked like he was on his way to greatness.
It was his bitterness toward then President Bill Clinton for not negotiating with him that resulted in his decision to shutdown the government in 1995.
The Republicans did not immediately feel the impact of the nation’s bitterness regarding his shutdown. The best analogy is that it was like throwing a stone in the water and then watching the ripple effects of that action. It was not immediate, but it was inevitable.
Fast forward to the here and now and factions of the Republican Party are attempting the same thing with Senator Ted Cruz emerging as the ‘Newt Gingrich’ of 2013.
The Democrats are united in their messaging for the first time in ages and are taking advantage of the colossal errors that the Republicans have made backing themselves in a corner.
Both parties are guilty of playing politics. The lives of the 800,000 people who have been furloughed are nothing to play with given our fragile economic recovery. The Republicans are not ineffective in policy discussions having managed to reduce the budget originally presented by the Democrats to levels proposed by Paul Ryan.
Still, a Quinnipiac Poll showed that 72% of those surveyed felt the government should not be shut down because of Obamacare.
Another poll showed that a majority of the public felt it was the Republicans who were at fault by a 44 to 35% margin. The rest felt it was the fault of both parties. Right now, the Affordable Healthcare Act is receiving a large dose of attention from comedians.
On ‘Saturday Night Live’ actor Aaron Paul made an appearance in his Jesse Pinkman persona (Breaking Bad) and offered his reason for supporting Obamacare: Jay Pharoah portraying Barack Obama in the sketch is doing his best to explain the embattled Affordable Care Act. To support his argument, Obama introduced a series of testimonials from "regular" Americans, including an appearance by "Jesse from New Mexico. Ted Cruz (Taran Killam) also stopped by doing a Green Eggs and Ham interpretation.
Pinkman (Paul) took the podium and explained how his friend (presumably Walter White) needed affordable healthcare so he wouldn’t have become a drug dealer and a murderer.
Jimmy Kimmel had interviewers take to the streets asking regular people what plan they preferred “Obamacare or the Affordable Care Act?” After finding out that the plans were one and the same the look on the face of the interviewees was priceless and illuminated the White House’s real problem rolling out the plan.
The controversy over the shutdown is far from over, but with hurricanes approaching the south and the chance of almost one million people missing several paychecks on the horizon the Tea Party may have a hard time spinning the shut down as a positive for the Republican Party in the weeks to come.
The Democrats thus far, have successfully brushed back criticism for not negotiating or passing specific Continuing Resolutions (CR's) repeating that they will not negotiate with a "Gun to our Heads" or in a piecemeal fashion.
The government shutdown has already proven to be a negative for America and can only get worse..
