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Confederate Tea Party Storms the Washington Barricades
GOP Sinks to Historic Lows in Polls
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Epic Rant about Ted Cruz On Morning Joe 10-15-2013
Mika Brzezinski: Later this morning Senator Mitch McConnell will present a bipartisan plan to fellow Republicans that could end the shutdown and extend the nation's borrowing limit for at least a couple of months.
Joe Scarborough: Yay! (laughter)
Mika: Haven't we heard this before? . . . The Senate could vote on the bill as soon as tomorrow, however the deal does not include any language to dismantle Obamacare, nor would it include a repeal of the medical device tax - two sticking points for the Tea Party Caucus.
Mika: Senator Ted Cruz says he is still unsure whether or not he'd block a vote on the bill - come on.
Joe: Lots of Luck, Pal. You go ahead and do that.
Mika: It's unbelievable.
Joe: Just try it, Buddy. Go ahead ... (laughter) Go ahead, Big Shot. You put the full faith and credit of the United States of America on your shoulders. Have fun with that. Good luck. Do it. Do it. I dare you. I'm daring you right now. Go ahead and do it, Hot Shot.
Or are you gonna just sit in the back? And when people are responsible and actually give a damn about this country, and give a damn about the full faith and credit of the United States, and actually care about the people who are working day in and day out hoping to keep their job. You're going to keep posing and hurt those people? I don't really get it -
It's kinda like - it's great for you, I know. I know it's really great for you politically, but it's just like the Veteran's Memorial that you used as a political backdrop. It's a great backdrop until the next day, the Vets who actually organized the rally came out and were really upset that you had used their rally for your own political points.
So you guys go ahead. Just go ahead. Just keep using America as your political backdrop. And hurt all the people you want to hurt. Hurt, by the way, small government conservatives. Republicans. Working class Americans that actually used to support our party, but are now wondering what in the world - keep doing it. And I hope it really helps you out because it's sure not helping the conservative movement. It's not helping the Republican Party, and it's not helping this country, but go ahead, go ahead.
. . . This isn't about conservatism. This is about tactics. What makes me so angry is some Republicans are going to have to step up and they see that 24% conservative approval rating and they know it's going to go lower. They know the Senate's now in jeopardy. They know that the White House could be in jeopardy down the road. ...Independents who broke for Romney last time have even moved away from him (Cruz).
. . . So now a few Republicans are going to save the full faith and credit of the nation either on the day of the Default or a few weeks later, and a few guys are going to sit in the back and throw potshots at them because they know they have to do it. And they don't have the guts to stand up and say 'You know, we're the ones who screwed this up. We're the ones who screwed up the Republican Party's ability to do well during this time.'
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. . . we’re watching now, what might be called the Koch Brothers’ “Samson Option,” pulling down the temple to destroy their enemies even if doing so is also destructive to them and their fortunes.
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Robert Parry on TruthOut
We face a mutated GOP. Ted Cruz is the leader of the dominant faction in this amalgam of what I call totalitarian Christians (their interpretation of the Bible supersedes the US Constitution), racist white Southerners (whose DNA contains the slavery gene), Ayn Rand dystopian ideologues...and plutocrats.
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Shockwave on Daily Kos
. . . you know at every stage, my prayer to God is that His will be done. As it will be.
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Senator Ted Cruz, R-TX, Tea Party architect of the Government Shutdown
What planet are you living on here?!
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Reporter Chuck Todd on MSNBC's Morning Joe speaking of Senator Ted Cruz
We are now five days away from a very dangerous moment.
The closer we get to the deadline the greater the impact will be for the developing world.
Inaction could result in interest rates rising, confidence falling and growth slowing.
If this (U.S. Default) comes to pass it could be a disastrous event for the developing world and that will in turn greatly hurt the developed economies as well.
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World Bank President Jim Yong Kim via BBC News
There's an expectation that has to change and that sometimes takes attempting to do things that won't work. It's a tough vote, but the fact is all of us have to realize the reality of the situation, and that is that two months have been blown on the wrong subject.
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Senator Bob Corker, R-Tennessee
They had the gun to our head because of Obamacare. They gave up on that, so why is the gun to our head still? Now it's like we have the gun to our head and we have to figure out why.
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Bill Maher, Friday, 10/11/13
We'd better wake up. Defunding Obamacare is not achievable. So let's not delude our supporters by telling them that it is under the present circumstances, because elections have consequences.
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Senator John McCain on Fox News
. . . there are some tactics that go too far, alienating even voters who are ideologically or politically sympathetic to the GOP. And, unfortunately for Republicans, one of those tactics was extortion. Going into the shutdown, more people opposed Obamacare than supported it. But the idea of shutting down the government or threatening a debt default to undo Obamacare was massively unpopular.
. . . The polls trickle in and they are horrific. The pragmatic wing of the party is completely demoralized. It lashes out more violently than before. The national media both encourages and adds to their derision of conservatives. Suddenly every Republican in town is shopping his own terms of surrender. The biggest challenge for Democrats isn’t getting their way. It’s that there are so many offers, it’s hard to know which one to take. Politico labeled the spectacle a “buyer’s market” for Barack Obama, massively understating the point. It is a buyer’s market in the sense that the day after the Super Bowl is a buyer’s market for pork rinds.
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Noam Scheiber on New Republic
We gave the Democrats one incredibly early Christmas gift. I’m not going to fault Ted (Cruz). He believes what he was doing was going to be helpful. But at the end of the day, you look and you ask, ‘Are we any close to defunding Obamacare are ridding ourselves of it than we were?’ The answer is no.
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Conservative Radio Host Mike Huckabee, possible 2016 GOP Primary contender against Cruz
So you have this neighbor who has been making your life hell. First he tied you up with a spurious lawsuit; you’re both suffering from huge legal bills. Then he threatened bodily harm to your family. Now, however, he says he’s willing to compromise: He’ll call off the lawsuit, which is to his advantage as well as yours. But in return you must give him your car. Oh, and he’ll stop threatening your family — but only for a week, after which the threats will resume.
Not much of an offer, is it? But here’s the kicker: Your neighbor’s relatives, who have been egging him on, are furious that he didn’t also demand that you kill your dog.
And now you understand the current state of budget negotiations.
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Economist Paul Krugman in NYT
Representative Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, on Young Turks via Raw Story
The Young Turks caught up with the Texas Republican on Friday at the Values Voter Summit and asked him if he would vote on any deal to raise the debt ceiling.
“It just depends on what it is,” he replied. “The word ‘deal’ concerns me… if it’s good for America.”
“Would you allow us to default on our debt?” a reporter from The Young Turks wondered.
“No, that would be an impeachable offense by the president,” Gohmert declared.
