About an hour ago, this notification came to my inbox via Politico:
Speaker John Boehner pitched a six-week debt limit increase to House Republicans in a closed meeting on Thursday morning. He told his Republican colleagues they can’t keep fighting on two fronts, referring to the government shutdown and looming debt ceiling deadline.
The aim is to give Congress more time to cobble together a broader package that would fund government, lift the debt ceiling and find budgetary savings.
A six week debt limit increase. The shutdown continues. More time to “negotiate”. Budget cuts.
Fuck. That. Noise.
If you read any sort of analysis about the the situation in Congress you will note that the GOP has changed its ostensible goal numerous times. First they wanted to defund Obamacare. Then delay implementation of Obamacare’s individual mandate. Then cut the deficit. Then…I don’t know what’s next. I can’t keep track of where they’re trying to set the goalposts this time.
But if you read between the lines, listen to the insiders who say that the GOP won’t vote on anything until they can win with a GOP majority, what becomes abundantly clear is that the main goal of the GOP in these negotiations is to win. To be the victors over the Democrats. They care more about being right than about doing the People’s work. AND I HATE THEM FOR IT.
Yes. I fucking hate the House Republican Conference for this ridiculous charade. I hate them for their failures to legislate. I hate them for their failure to pass a budget or appropriate funds. I hate them for the single-minded focus on repealing a law that passed three years ago and is about 2/3 implemented right now and hasn’t made the fucking sky over America fall down yet because you know why? Because it isn’t a bad law and if Americans started thinking instead of watching Fox fucking News they’d see that there is a lot in there that helps them. If they stopped believing in the liars in the GOP, the ones who are willing to default on our fucking debt rather than pass a debt limit extension on a bipartisan vote, they would understand that what is happening in the US Capitol right now isn’t leadership. It’s isn’t courage. It isn’t patriotism. It is 230 rich, white people caring more about their image than about anything to do with you or me.
They. Have. Abandoned. Us. They are not keeping us safe. They are not making us prosperous. They are not improving out health. They are fighting over how they get to look on tv. We are collateral damage in their campaign to be Big Winners in the cable news wars.
If you’re a conservative troll who’s about to leave comments telling me all the ways Democrats have failed, fuck off. This isn’t about the Democrats. The Democrats would vote to open government and raise the debt ceiling today. Right this second. It’s the GOP that is fucking this up for the rest of us. So can it with your hate for the President I proudly voted for twice, the health care law I support, and the party I’m going to donate my money to for 2014 because I want as many sorry-ass Republicans out of MY House of Representatives as possible.
You’ve abandoned the people, House GOP. May you never hold a majority again.
I am constantly amazed by the sheer terror the Tea Party and GOP have managed to instill in so many people. The are a lot of decent, but low information voters who are *exactly* the people the law was designed to help and they are cowering in fear and even crying sometimes over the implementation of the ACA. They have created a mass of misinformed, frightened people who–in many ways–are enabling these shenanigans. It doesn’t help that the Obama administration is utterly failing to explain how the law works. The need to be deploying Ol’ Billy Boy the Explainer much, much more than they have been.