Posted on 10/04/2013 6:59:01 AM PDT by Kaslin
Shutting down the government in an effort to use a budget fight to get rid of Obamacare is not the strategy I would have recommended for the GOP. And while Republicans can be blamed for starting the shutdown, it's increasingly apparent that President Obama and the Democrats deserve the lion's share of blame for not only prolonging it, but for making it as painful as possible.
Obama has always had a bit of a vindictive streak when it comes to politics. I think it stems from his Manichaean view of America. There are the reasonable people -- who agree with him. And there are the bitter clingers who disagree for irrational or extremist ideological reasons.
In his various statements over the last week, he's insisted that opponents of Obamacare are "ideologues" on an "ideological crusade." Meanwhile, he cast himself as just a reasonable guy interested in solving America's problems. I have no issue with him calling Republican opponents "ideologues" -- they are -- but since when is Obama not an ideologue?
The argument about Obamacare is objectively and irrefutably ideological on both sides -- state-provided health care has been an ideological brass ring for the left for well over a century. But much of the press takes its cues from Democrats and sees this fight -- and most other political fights -- as a contest pitting the forces of moderation, decency and rationality against the ranks of the ideologically brainwashed.
What's unusual is the way Obama sees the government as a tool for his ideological agenda. During the fight over the sequester, Obama ordered the government to make the 2 percent budget cut as painful and scary as possible.
"It's going to be very painful for the flying public," Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood warned Americans.
"The FAA's all-hands furloughs managed to convert a less than 4 percent FAA budget cut into a 10 percent air-traffic control cut that would delay 40 percent of flights," The Wall Street Journal noted at the time.
The Department of Homeland Security announced it might not be able to protect the nation's borders, and in an effort to prove the point summarily released a couple thousand immigrant detainees, many of them with criminal records.
Obama, the avowed problem solver, set out to create problems for the American people, just to prove how great government is and how crazy Republicans were for wanting to cut spending -- much of the money borrowed from China -- a little. But don't you dare call him an ideologue!
Now, with the government shutdown and the looming fight over the debt ceiling, Obama's doubling down this ideologically perverse strategy.
The National Park Service, which has somehow become the unofficial goon squad of American liberalism, reversed course and let American World War II vets visit the WWII memorial in Washington, D.C. This is obviously good news. (I was waiting to see if Steven Spielberg would come out with a new Obama-friendly director's cut of "Saving Private Ryan" in which the old guy at the end is dragged off in cuffs before he can reach Tom Hanks' grave.)
Still, it cost the government more money to try to keep WWII vets out of an open-air memorial than it would have to just leave it be. In Virginia, the NPS ordered the Claude Moore Colonial Farm to shut down, even though it's privately funded.
Far worse, Obama told CNBC's John Harwood that Wall Street should be far more panicky about Republican efforts to use the debt ceiling to win concessions from the White House. I don't blame Obama for being annoyed with Republicans for trying to use the debt ceiling the exact same way he did when he was a senator. But normally the president doesn't try to talk down the economy just to win a political point.
Whenever the Bush administration issued terror warnings, Democrats insinuated that it was all a cynical political stunt. But this week, the White House sent out National Intelligence Director James Clapper to whip up fears that national security would be imperiled by a shutdown less than 48 hours old.
When Republicans vote to fund essential or popular parts of the government, the response from Democrats is, in effect, "How dare they?" Nancy Pelosi calls the tactic "releasing one hostage at a time" -- as if negotiators normally refuse to have hostages released unless it's all at once.
In the 17 previous government shutdowns since 1977, presidents have worked to avoid them or lessen their impact. Obama has made no such effort out of an ideological yearning to punish his enemies, regardless of the collateral damage.
You don't have to curse, swear, or spew venom to point out that a man holding high office is a catamite, or a sometime escort for plutocratic men who enjoyed manly company .....
Mark Halperin (Hillary fan, sometime Clinton Admin staffer and son of traitor/Clintonite Morton Halperin, later chief political editor of TIME) bragged about it last summer to Charlie Rose, on PBS's GOP convention coverage.
After Clint Eastwood gave his great "empty chair" speech, Halperin was clearly stung, and blurted out that nobody in America would ever see that speech, his Media fellow-soldiers had already made sure, by tight scheduling of their exiguous convention coverage (only PBS carried the speech) that the most effective convention messages put together by the RNC would be "filtered out, edited and rewritten and reinterpreted into incomprehensibility" by the Media before it ever reached the People.
He said this on-air, without a bit of hesitation or remorse, and obviously confident that he would be universally "covered" and protected for having been bold to say so, so far out of bounds of any description of media fairness. He admitted right out in the open that he and the rest of Media were out to screw the Republicans any way they could, but mostly by destroying their message and seeing to it, like a faithless and enemy postal service, that the message was never delivered.
If the shutdown ends very badly for the Repubs, then do people like Peter King, Karl Rove, and other more moderate repubs are owed apologies?
No. I don’t like this whole fight. I no fan of Mcain or Rove but to start apologizing would make us weak. I guess why people flame me here is I been optimistic. Obama’s poll numbers down. Record mistrust of government. We have good shot at picking up senate. Old bag Hillary entirely beatable. Obamcare already disaster. Why get in way with shutdown? You think if employment numbers were good they wouldn’t have released them.? If not for shutdown bad employment numbers and collapse of Obamcare websites would be front pages. Now it’s all about the shutdown .
Jennifer Rubin at the WaPo, writes that the new Fox News Poll shows Repubs like Boehner, McConnell, Tea Party, Ted Cruz, and GOP brand have taken hits in polling. The poll alos shows that while Tea Partiers love Cruz’s filibuster, others think it was just a stunt.
Rubin also thinks by having a bad outcome of the shut down, it will put the “adults” in charge of the GOP. The field is friendly for Senate pickups, but the GOP screw it up in 2014. For example, by having Ted Cruz and the Heritage Action PAC supporting primary challenges to McConnell, Cornyn, and Graham, it could pull away resources from Senate races in WV, AR, and SD. If judging by history, the GOP likes to find ways to throw away Senate seats.
Well said!
My command of the English language fails me when I consider Ophonybama. I somehow resort to gutter language when contemplating how much I absolutely hate Ophonybama and his LIEberal posse.
So, I restrain myself, and rely on FReepers such as you to politely disrespect the scumbag sonofabitch!
Nice reply.
Point 1: The MSM has been and will be pushing their refried agenda while cutting the legs of Republicans. This is clear.
Point 2: Allowing Obamacare to be implemented is to chose to never being able to fight again. This is existential. The reality here is Obamacare will assure democrat victories as far as the eye can see. (Republicans want to take away your healthcare, etc., etc.) See point 1. And amnesty by a democrat majority will assure a Democrat president for our lifetime.
Point 3: So, choosing battles carefully is the key, if you choose to fight at all. The only trump card that the Republicans have is the majority in the House which has the Constitutional, almighty purse strings. They have played this trump card, so the game is on. But it is now in overtime.
Point 4: The MSM can block the message, as you stated, but the "rules" are different when the game is in overtime. The MSM thinks they can play the same game with the same rules, now. IOW, the cracks in the mal-messaging are already showing. Obama and Reid have made noticeable gaffes. I spotted a Boehner video on the Bing home page-"this isn't some damn game".
I do not know how this will end. But the republicans have the means to bring this battle to a crescendo on a national level-as it should be.
The goal will be Obamacare being de-funded for a year, if the Republicans play it right.
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