As Washington, D.C. inches closer to yet another dysfunctional deadline-related drama (this one over whether to fund Obamacare via a two-month spending resolution), political pundits are rushing to tell us “what it all means.”
The nuts and bolts of the situation are simple: At the behest of its fiscal conservatives the GOP-controlled House has passed a two-month budget which funds everything in the big, bloated federal government except Obamacare, while the U.S. Senate has passed a two-month budget which funds everything including Obamacare. Unless one chamber blinks – the government will partially shut down at midnight next Monday.
Which as we pointed out in this post may not be such a bad thing …
But in the seat of the “Evil Empire” – where your money and liberty go to die – nothing is simple. Someone has to be fitted for a black hat, and according to the far left’s cheerleader-in-chief – political “reporter” Chris Cillizza of The Washington Post – that someone is the fiscally conservative “Republican.”
Citing a “quite complex” ideological algorithm of votes cast by both chambers, Cillizza concludes that “Republicans in Congress continued to grow more ideological over the first eight months of 2013 while Democrats’ partisanship stayed relatively steady.”
He later notes that over the last few years “Republicans’ polarization numbers have moved up further — and faster — than Democrats.”
We call B.S. on that …
After betraying their principles on taxes and spending during the Bush years (and getting voted out of office because of it), “Republicans” in Washington, D.C. have been caving left and right in critical debates to Democrats – most notably the 2011 debt deal and the 2012 “fiscal cliff deal.”
Seriously … in what universe is this chronic appeasement indicative of “polarization?”
Also, Cillizza neglects to mention that Obamacare – the monstrosity at the heart of this latest debate – is the most polarizing piece of legislation ever rammed through the U.S. Congress.
Don’t believe us? Take a look …
Chart: JP Morgan via Zero Hedge
Yeah …
Most importantly, Cillizza fails to recognize these “polarizers” on the right are the only ones in Washington with so much as a shred of concern for those ultimately responsible for subsidizing the ongoing unsustainability of D.C.’s “bipartisanshit” – which of course is you, your children, your children’s children, etc.
The big spending “non-polarizers” – a list which includes “Republicans” like Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker John Boehner and the last two GOP presidential nominees – want to keep printing and spending money we don’t have on government we don’t need.
And for what: The approval of pundits like Cillizza?
Sheesh …
If the choice is standing firm in defense of your kids’ and grandkids’ futures or getting a pat on the back from a far left hack like Cillizza, count us as polarizers. And damn proud of it.
7 comments
“The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the US Government cannot pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies. Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that, “the buck stops here.” Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.” ~ Senator Barack H. Obama, March 2006
“The problem is, is that the way Bush has done it over the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt from $5 trillion for the first 42 presidents — #43 added $4 trillion by his lonesome, so that we now have over $9 trillion of debt that we are going to have to pay back — $30,000 for every man, woman and child. That’s irresponsible. It’s unpatriotic.” – Barack Obama, July 3, 2008
Times, how they do change.
Washington’s “dysfunction” and “gridlock” are reasons to celebrate.
Washington’s “progress” and “functionality” are what screw us over.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/27/opinion/my-state-needs-obamacare-now.html?_r=0
Almost one in six Kentuckians are without health insurance. SC’s rate is about one in five. Their governor realizes the need for health care reform, ours does not.
Give the ACA 10 years and we’ll see who’s better off, a southern state that accepted both the Medicaid expansion and state-run exchange, or a state that refused to do either. Whose health care costs will be lower? Will Kynect have a higher approval rating than the federally-run exchanges? Whose economy will have the larger improvement?
I agree with Governor Breshear’s sentiment. It is law. Get over it and get out of the way.
Laws can be changed, that’s the beauty of the Constitution! The problem is that Politicians only care about re election by any means and not the will of the People.
Forty years ago, Steve Beshear was a progressive member of the Kentucky House of Representatives. He was later elected Attorney General, then got more votes running for LtGov in 1983 than any other statewide candidate.
He took some bad advice from national Democratic advisers when running for Governor in 1987, and finished way down the primary list. After more than 20 years lost in the wilderness of a major Lexington law firm, he ran for and won the Governor’s office in 2007.
It is nice seeing him getting back to his roots.
It’s representative government. Just read the comments on this site on a daily basis to see the dysfunction D.C. so accurately reflects.
There is no ‘left’,so…