Previous Related Posts:
Tea Party Terrorists Take America Hostage - Saturday 9/28/13
Tea Party Terrorists Take America Hostage ~ Sunday 9/29/13
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Like it or not, it passed. The president signed it. The Supreme Court upheld it. So you don't get to pick a bill you don't like and link it to the entire financial well being of the United States.' Well the response is, 'I didn't come here to govern.' Well what did you come here for? What did you come here for? To burn it to the ground?
~
Paul Stebbins in the Washington Post
At this point, it has become obvious that history will look back on the four-year war on Obamacare as one of the saddest, most bizarre, and most dishonestly embarrassing episodes of our time.
~
Kurt Eichenwald in Vanity Fair
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) leaves the floor of the House in the wee hours of Sunday morning, having taken action that will probably shut down the government, and releases a statement saying, “It’s time for President Obama to rise above stubborn partisanship.”
Which is like an arsonist telling others not to play with matches.
. . . We live in a time when outright buffoonery passes for statesmanship. We live in a time when a 21-hour non-filibuster filibuster by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) leads not to general hilarity but serious consideration of how it will help Cruz run for president in 2016.
Nor can the tragicomedy even be questioned. When a reporter asked Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) on Saturday what he would do if his efforts to defund Obamacare should fail, Issa stuck his nose into the reporter’s face and shrilled, “How dare you presume a failure? How dare you? How dare you? How dare you?”
How dare us. Our leaders must not be questioned! They are beyond question. And, in some cases, beyond hope.
~
Roger Simon on Politico
I disagree with the strategy of linking Obamacare with the continuing functioning of government-a strategy that cannot possibly work.
~
Senator Susan Collins, R-Maine, in a statement released by The Hill
We're pretty much out of options at this point. They're all giddy about it. You know who benefits the most here from a shutdown? The Democrats benefit and they know that.
~
Rep. Devin Nunes R-California
Transcript, Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer, Sunday 9/29
SCHIEFFER: Well, Senator, . . . how can you hold the entire federal government hostage just because you want to postpone his signature achievement? He is not going to do that. The Senate is not going to do that. You know that and you know even if they did that the president would veto it, I mean, isn't this just an exercise to accomplish nothing?
SENATOR RAND PAUL, R-Kentucky: Well, I guess, Bob, what I don't know, he already by executive fiat has delayed the employer mandate, which is a key component of that, we think that is going outside the Constitution and the president is not allowed to write legislation. So all we are asking is, if he thinks it's so messed up that he's going to delay a big part of ObamaCare on his own, and it looks like maybe he is going to do some special favors for the unions, why don't we actually bring it to Congress and try to figure out how to meet somewhere in the middle? But see, he is saying 100 percent of ObamaCare or the highway. The president is the one saying I will shut down government if you don't give me everything I want on ObamaCare. That to me is the president being intransigent and being unwilling to compromise.
SCHIEFFER: But the law has already been passed, Senator, let me just ask you this question. I am old enough to remember when Barry Goldwater ran for president in 1964, and he said I would rather be right than president. And you know, he got his wish. He lost in a landslide. Aren't you and the other Tea Party leaders leading the Republican Party to the same fate?
PAUL: Well, see, the thing is is that once things are passed doesn't mean they are set in stone and no future Congress will look at them. For example, when Reagan came in, the rates had been 70 percent on the top bracket for 40 years, but he didn't say, oh, that's the law so we can't readdress it, ObamaCare was passed. But the public has a great deal of misgivings, I have a lot of misgivings, I am worried that there won't be many choices left, that you are going to destroy the individual market.
~~~~~~~~~
SCHIEFFER: Well, we are back with two key members of the House budget committee, Tennessee Republican Marsha Blackburn, Maryland Democrat Chris Van Hollen.
. . . Let me just ask you this. You heard us talking about this delay. What if there was a shorter delay? What if you didn't delay it for a year? What if the president said how about three months?
BLACKBURN: Wouldn't it be great if the president would come and negotiate with us? Wouldn't it? These are the type of things that we have invited him to come and meet with us, and negotiate with us. We would love to have the president sit down and say, OK, there are some problems with Obamacare, and we have continued to bring forward ideas for healthcare reform, but we have been met with this attitude of no negotiation, I don't want to sit down. I don't want to talk about this. It is my way or the highway, but we continue to put ideas there, just hike last night.
. . . VAN HOLLEN: Bob, Marsha wrote in an op-ed piece to her constituents the best way to defund Obamacare was to delay it and she is right about that. This is a way to prevent millions of Americans from signing up on October 1st to get more affordable care. What you are seeing play out here is the end of what Senator Richard Burr, a Republican of North Carolina, say was the dumbest idea he'd ever heard of which is this idea you are going to shut down the government if you can't prevent millions of Americans from getting affordable care. Senator McCain called it irrational. And yet what you see in the House is Speaker Boehner has essentially handed the gavel over to Senator Cruz, it is like Speaker Cruz these days. And you have the far right Tea Party wing of the caucus driving this government shutdown if they can't get their way....
From CNN Via ThinkProgress
CNN Host Ashleigh Banfield:“So you are both paid $174,000 a year, and that is the salary. Would you be prepared to add some rider or amendment on to a continuing resolution that would take you out of the essential services category and stop payment on your paychecks in order to get a continuing resolution through, and yes or no?
Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-TN: We are waiting to see what they send back, and I hope that as you were running the countdown clock that you are I have two grandsons, and their share of the national debt is now over $53,000 each.
Banfield: No no no. I’m sorry. I asked a specific question, and there are a lot of the government workers going to stop receiving their paychecks, and a there are a lot of the military service members who are serving overseas who might be stopped being paid and veterans whose benefits. Would you —
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-CA: Let me answer that. Members of Congress should not be treated any differently than any other federal employee.
Banfield: Is that a yes?
Rohrabacher: Whatever happens to the to us when it comes to what we get in benefits and whether it is retirement or health care and whatever happens to the average federal employee should happen us, and that rule should not be changed.
