IT'S OFFICIAL: The Government Has Shut Down, And Here's The GOP's Next Move

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

you know your question is so simple a caveman could get it

And yet you cannot. What does that say about you?

[RGinWA 816]

See my post 3 or 4 back about intelligence and elected officials for your answer.

It must be a fantastic post to explain how the Democrats allowed the Republican's to do exactly what they set out to do in 2010 and somehow it was the Democrats plan all along? Those are some slick mother f#ckers.

That's some Vulcan mind meld Jedi mind trick type $hit.

The Democrats are freaking BRILLIANT!

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

It must be a fantastic post to explain how the Democrats allowed the Republican's to do exactly what they set out to do in 2010 and somehow it was the Democrats plan all along? Those are some slick mother f#ckers.

That's some Vulcan mind meld Jedi mind trick type $hit.

The Democrats are freaking BRILLIANT!

I sense sarcasm.

[Pooky 3,838]

It must be a fantastic post to explain how the Democrats allowed the Republican's to do exactly what they set out to do in 2010 and somehow it was the Democrats plan all along? Those are some slick mother f#ckers.

That's some Vulcan mind meld Jedi mind trick type $hit.

The Democrats are freaking BRILLIANT!

More like Dumb and Dumber.

[BatmanUSA 105]

Funny, I don't remember seeing any Vulcan Jedi Knights in any of the Star Wars movies....

that's seems racist, must be Bush's fault...

[RGinWA 816]

I sense sarcasm.

Slightly...

Funny, I don't remember seeing any Vulcan Jedi Knights in any of the Star Wars movies....

that's seems racist, must be Bush's fault...

No...just the reader.

[Darnell 8,479]

Funny, I don't remember seeing any Vulcan Jedi Knights in any of the Star Wars movies....

that's seems racist, must be Bush's fault...

Well, it is a quote from a noted person.

Bonus points for you seeking out who said it

[and no, it wasn't a VJ celebrity - it was a real human, with supposed real power and a press crew]

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Only because that's the way you want to see it. It's a very simplistic view, one that's being fed to the public by the media, who are looking for a pantomime villain catchy headline.

When looked at from the outside, only the Democrats stand to gain from the current shutdown, so they did everything they needed to (which wasn't much) to make sure it occurred. For carp like the shutdown, it pays to remember that it takes two to tango.

Actually, no. The media is not even beginning to get it right. This is not a standoff between the parties. This is not a standoff between the Congress and the President. This is a standoff within the Republican party and nothing else. We're talking about a continuing resolution here. The funding of the government for a few weeks. We're not talking policy, budget or anything like that. We're talking about Congress having to pass a bill to fund the government. And guess what? There is no disagreement on the funding number. The Democrats agreed to the number the Republicans passed in the House. And yet, the Republicans can't agree with their own funding level.

They somehow mistake this as a referendum on Obamacare. That's not what's at hand. Obamacare was litigated in Congress, in the Supreme Court and at the ballot box. It prevailed each time. It's the law of the land and it is not going away. Any assumption to the contrary is simply delusional. Now it's time to move on and fund the government. Again, the funding levels have already been agreed. House just needs to bring it up for a vote. It will pass. But Boehner refuses to do that because he is fighting the terrorist faction in his own party. That's where the fight is.

Good read on what we are and aren't looking at:

Your False-Equivalence Guide to the Days Ahead

A kind of politics we have not seen for more than 150 years

Two big examples of problematic self-government are upon us. They are of course the possible partial shutdown of the federal government, following the long-running hamstringing of public functions via "the sequester"; and a possible vote not to raise the federal debt ceiling, which would create the prospect of a default on U.S. Treasury debt.

The details are complicated, but please don't lose sight of these three essential points:

• As a matter of substance, constant-shutdown, permanent-emergency governance is so destructive that no other serious country engages in or could tolerate it. The United States can afford it only because we are -- still -- so rich, with so much margin for waste and error. Details on this and other items below.*

• As a matter of politics, this is different from anything we learned about in classrooms or expected until the past few years. We're used to thinking that the most important disagreements are between the major parties, not within one party; and that disagreements over policies, goals, tactics can be addressed by negotiation or compromise.

  This time, the fight that matters is within the Republican party, and that fight is over whether compromise itself is legitimate.** Outsiders to this struggle -- the president and his administration, Democratic legislators as a group, voters or "opinion leaders" outside the generally safe districts that elected the new House majority -- have essentially no leverage over the outcome. I can't recall any situation like this in my own experience, and the only even-approximate historic parallel (with obvious differences) is the inability of Northern/free-state opinion to affect the debate within the slave-state South from the 1840s onward. Nor is there a conceivable "compromise" the Democrats could offer that would placate the other side.

• As a matter of journalism, any story that presents the disagreements as a "standoff," a "showdown," a "failure of leadership," a sign of "partisan gridlock," or any of the other usual terms for political disagreement, represents a failure of journalism*** and an inability to see or describe what is going on. For instance: the "dig in their heels" headline you see below, which is from a proprietary newsletter I read this morning, and about which I am leaving off the identifying details.

  This isn't "gridlock." It is a ferocious struggle within one party, between its traditionalists and its radical factions, with results that unfortunately can harm all the rest of us -- and, should there be a debt default, could harm the rest of the world too.

Now a few details:

* The FAA, the FDA, our research organizations, all other public programs from monitoring air quality to modernizing computer systems to staffing the military -- they're all wasting time and money now because of indiscriminate "sequester" cuts and preparations for possible shut-down. For the foreseeable future, the air traffic will keep moving and other functions will go on -- just more stupidly and wastefully. We have that much social capital still to burn.

But: As the WaPo points out, flood relief for Colorado is already being delayed because of shutdown threats. Just within the past week I've heard from people in the scientific establishment about researchers they've had to lay off because of stop-and-start funding; from people in the aviation world about safety upgrades that are being delayed; from someone working with the IRS about a postponed computer upgrade; from diplomats about delayed visa processing; and on through a long list. It's survivable, but it's stupid, and eventually we use the margin up.

** The debt-ceiling vote, of course, is not about future spending decisions. It is about whether to cover expenditures the Congress has already authorized. There is no sane reason for subjecting this to a repeated vote. And there is no precedent for serious threats not to honor federal debt -- as opposed to symbolic anti-Administration protest votes, which both parties have cast over the years. Nor for demanding the reversal of major legislation as a condition for routine government operations.

In case the point is not clear yet: there is no post-Civil War precedent for what the House GOP is doing now. It is radical, and dangerous for the economy and our process of government, and its departure from past political disagreements can't be buffed away or ignored. If someone can think of a precedent after the era of John C. Calhoun, shown above in Mathew Brady's famous portrait, let me know.

*** For examples of coverage that plainly states what is going on, here is a small sampling: Greg Sargent, Derek Thompson, John Gilmour (on why Ronald Reagan believed in compromise), Jonathan Rauch, Brian Beutler, Jonathan Chait, Andrew Sullivan (also here), Ezra Klein and Evan Soltas, Dan Froomkin. On today's Diane Rehm show News Roundup, panelists Ruth Marcus, Janet Hook, and Todd Purdum all said with a bluntness unusual for a D.C.-based talk show that we are witnessing the effects not of gridlock but of one party's internal crisis.

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

Better to Remain Silent and Be Thought a Fool than to Speak and Remove All Doubt

— ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

I like him more since I found out he was black

[Pooky 3,838]

Actually, no. The media is not even beginning to get it right. This is not a standoff between the parties. This is not a standoff between the Congress and the President. This is a standoff within the Republican party and nothing else. We're talking about a continuing resolution here. The funding of the government for a few weeks. We're not talking policy, budget or anything like that.

But we should be. The Democrat-led Senate has abrogated its responsibility to agree a budget for 5 years. Agree a budget and do away with the bi-monthly farce of the Continuing Resolution.

Mind you, that requires the Democrats in the Senate to actually agree a budget, something Dingy Harry can't seem to organize

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

But we should be.

Fine then that can be done while the government is operating at Republican passed funding levels. Mind you, the Republicans have not attached any budget demand onto the CR. They are mistakenly under the impression that this is the time to re-re-re-re-re-re--re-re-re-re...-re-litigate Obamacare. It isn't. And it is high time that they wake up to that reality.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

[Pooky 3,838]

Fine then that can be done while the government is operating at Republican passed funding levels. Mind you, the Republicans have not attached any budget demand onto the CR. They are mistakenly under the impression that this is the time to re-re-re-re-re-re--re-re-re-re...-re-litigate Obamacare. It isn't. And it is high time that they wake up to that reality.

And yet the PPACA has been amended with a vote numerous times. If it was a good law, it should stand as written.

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

And yet the PPACA has been amended with a vote numerous times. If it was a good law, it should stand as written.

The only thing I can figure is this

Trying to control health care cost with another massive bureaucracy is like trying to put out a fire with gasoline.

Maybe it will become so messed up we will finally get the massive overhaul that is needed.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

And yet the PPACA has been amended with a vote numerous times. If it was a good law, it should stand as written.

PPACA will be subject to amendments for a very long time to come. Nothing wrong with that. The terrorist faction of the GOP in the House is not interested in amending the PPACA - they want to extort what they can't achieve in the legislative, judiciary or democratic process. They hate our democratic institutions. They're jihadists. All that's missing are the bombs strapped around their bodies. Give it time, they'll get there.