“Republicans” clearly didn’t learn anything from Jesus Christ … or their standard bearer, Abraham Lincoln. And American taxpayers are about to pay the price for that ignorance.
“Every city or house divided against itself will not stand,” Christ told the Pharisees, according to the Gospel of Matthew. That statement was famously paraphrased centuries later by the future American President – the first to be elected as a “Republican.”
“A house divided against itself cannot stand,” Lincoln said on June 16, 1858 at the Illinois State Capitol, addressing the issue of slavery.
Well the Republican Party is a “House Divided” – one that is most assuredly not standing.
How bad have things gotten? Terrible. For starters, the GOP has already caved on every major sticking point that led to the current “government shutdown” – which of course isn’t really (or even remotely) a “shutdown.”
They are now ready to fully fund Obamacare as part of a spending amendment … any spending agreement … while at the same time giving the law’s namesake, U.S. President Barack Obama, a no-strings-attached six-week increase in the federal debt ceiling (even though no one seems to know how much that’s going to cost).
The white flag is up … although the Democrats are refusing to accept this unconditional surrender.
Instead, they are insisting on the repeal of future cuts associated with the last debt deal – in which the federal government blew through $2.4 trillion in new borrowing authority (in just seventeen months) in exchange for what was supposed to be $2.1 trillion in cuts over a ten-year period.
How much spending has actually been cut since this deal was reached in August 2011? Only $42 billion.
Think about those numbers for a moment … then think of the massive tax hikes when went into effect at the beginning of this year.
Of course the specific financials of these grand D.C. bargains never factor into the mainstream media’s narrative. That’s because no one in Washington – or the MSM – cares about the price tag of all this unsustainable government growth. Meanwhile there’s no pushback against the liberal narrative (i.e. kids and grandparents will die if government doesn’t continue to borrow trillions of dollars it doesn’t have) because half of the Republican Party buys into that Beltway bureaucratic B.S. in the first place.
And so we keep winding up in situations where the entire executive branch of government, more than two thirds of the legislative branch and virtually the entire mainstream media apparatus is hellbent not just on spending the country into oblivion … but on demonizing the few dozen lawmakers who actually do care about the American Republic’s ability to sustain itself into the future.
Seriously … it’s like starting a fight with two hands (and one leg) tied behind your back. Or starting a game of chess against a fully-armed opponent with only a king and two pawns.
The hope this time was that the GOP would unite against a wildly unpopular socialized medicine law – but those hopes were dashed before the “shutdown” even began when more than half of the GOP Senate Caucus caved to Obama.
Houses divided (including the U.S. House) don’t stand … they get flattened. Which is exactly what’s happening to the Republican Party right now.
46 comments
Load up the carts and take’em all to the blade
“Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.” – H. L. Mencken
“Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats.”- H. L. Mencken
Thus the American experiment ends at the hands of a heartless Nero who would cut the chemo from the cancer ridden children, and laugh smugly at the WWII vets
as they are turned away from their own memorial.
This is rich. Republicans start a shutdown to demand concessions on the ACA, and not only will they fail, they never put any real emphasis on the budget and end up letting the Dems try to rid cuts!
Boehner, Cruz, and Lee, the real Three Stooges.
There are plenty of stooges in DC from the White House on down.
#CommunismFailsAgain.
The truly sad thing is that you are against the Republicans trying to reign in spending Smirks.
The sad thing is you don’t seem to understand politics. The Republican buddies in banking and wall street are NOT going to let the R’s sit by an default on the debt. Rhetoric aside it ain’t going to happen. So now the Dem pimp hand is strong and the R’s have nobody but themselves to blame. You may still see Cruz and a few others grandstanding, but in the end the house will vote to raise the debt limit.
And when they do, Reid and Boehner are done and so is DC until after the 2014 elections. Real pickle. Will be very interesting to see what plays out. I think the crony corporate capitalism is done.
The Republicans aren’t trying to “reign in spending.” Don’t give me that shit. You know it is a lie.
The entire shutdown was over the ACA, which isn’t about spending, it is about policy and the fact that they have labeled it Obamacare and do not want something they themselves plastered a Democratic president’s name all over to actually succeed.
When it comes to the sequester, Republicans hated it just as well, they just hated different parts of it compared to the Democrats. When it comes to the farm bill, they want to slash food stamps, but keep big, big farm subsidies for themselves. When it comes to green energy subsidies, they languish about Solyndra but don’t muster a single peep about the BILLIONS we dish out to oil companies year after year.
Let us not also forget how hard they fought to keep tax cuts for the rich. How hard they fight to remove the medical device tax, a tax on a multi-billion dollar industry, knowing that without replacement, it will cause a funding hole in the ACA. Let us not forget that all of these “spending cuts” they ask for in budgets like Paul Ryan’s ultimately translate into more tax cuts for the wealthy. And, of course, let us not forget that the cuts that the Republicans championed in the early 2000’s never saw an increase in revenue whatsoever.
The GOP has never been the party of the balanced budget. They serve their masters, much like the Democrats serve theirs, but they work more feverishly to impoverish Americans and destroy the middle class.
“…but they work more feverishly to impoverish Americans and destroy the middle class..
And yet under President Obama, the middle class and the poor are getting killed while the rich get richer (even richer than under (it’s all) Bush(‘s fault)) http://www.investors.com/default.htm
The middle class and poor are better off than they would have been had McCain or Romney been in the White House. Nonetheless, the gap between rich and middle class continues to widen, as Republicans have successfully prevented material change to the “trickle down economics – focus on the rich and everyone will prosper” agenda they have largely been successful in enacting. The last element of that agenda being the repeal of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
The Republicans have been slowly implementing their agenda since Reagan. In lock step with the implementation of that agenda, you have seen the middle class decline as the wealthy have taken a higher and higher percentage of the nation’s wealth.
Keep telling yourself that Jan, it’ll make you feel better even though it isn’t true. Under Romney, the folks in Massahoweveryouspellit had their job picture improve every year of his administration from 6% unemployment at the mid point of his first year to 4.6% by the end of his term. You should have loved Romney, gays got married, guns got further restricted, taxes went up, health care went into effect…
Frankly Romney was by far only the “lesser of two weevils”. McCain was never an option – nor should have he ever been one.
Oh, I will keep telling myself that and everyone else as well, because its true. Romney was a candidate of the wind. He would have done whatever the far right of the Republican party told him would make him “severely conservative”.
President Romney would have been a disaster for the average American.
I don’t really believe Republican work to destroy the middle class. That would require they care what happens to the middle class. They have an agenda, they are working to enact that agenda and the fact that agenda injures the middle class is just collateral damage. They do not answer to the middle class.
Its like saying Republican are out to hurt old people, poor people and sick people. They aren’t, they just don’t care what happens to those people, as long as they get what they want.
Bill, Smirks doesn’t mind going off a hyperbolic rant every once in a while. That’s hyperbolic, meaning full of hyperbole not hyperbolic as in a smooth curve lying in a plane.
You left out Cantor and Ryan…looks like there might be more than 3 Stooges in the once GOP.
“Dems Now Demanding Spending Hikes”…My question, who’s going to pay for it?
My guess is that anything Snarks, CNSYD or SCBlues might pay in will be rebated 10 fold by sorros or hufpo.
The citizenry of These United States of America. Those living in the USSA will be the recipients.
You’ve been a GD cheerleader for the merry band of fools known as the Tea Party. Good enough for you.
Suck it up loser. You asked for it and I ain’t going to let you change the subject.
By the way, where are your buddies, Cruz and Lee? Hell, even the 3 Stooges, Duncan, Gowdy, and Mulvaney are coming to attention led by the diminutive, mental midget, DeMint.
sweepin – we are kindred spirits – could not have said it better myself – except that I usually refer to DeMint by his proper name – Jim DimWit.
But your 3 Stooges characterization is definitely right on!!
Hunker down Reps. Don’t give a damn inch.
I suppose Americans are belatedly
realizing that the “fundamental transformation” promised by candidate Barack Hussein Obama is code for “total destruction” of America…as we once knew it…
“…once knew it.” Correct.
Lindsey Gramnesty and Stockholm McCain are the biggest gifts to the DNC…I wonder if those two are being blackmailed…it is the Chicago Way, you know…
Um, no. They don’t need to be blackmailed. Best two players on Obuttheads team. These two have been playing for the Demlicans for a very long time.
I hope the Republican Party of McCain collapses…he and Lindsey are not much different than Obama…I am happy to support a Term Limit Party or a Constitutional Party…The Republican party stands for just one thing…defeat at the hands of a mercilessly unified Democrat party with virtually unlimited control of TV news media and financially supported by the wealthiest Americans…against such an industrial complex of interwoven agendas the hard working, middle class, tax- paying American (who is too busy paying his bills to organize) stands no chance…
It is no accident that Wall Street and Hollywood donated substantially more to the Democrats than the Repubs during the last two presidential elections.. Similarly, it is no accident that the last 6 years have seen the mega -rich getting richer, while the poor and middle class are getting poorer… Thanks, Dems!
“. . . Democrat party with virtually unlimited control of TV news media and financially supported by the wealthiest Americans . . .”
LMFAO!! Ever heard of Fox “News” or the Koch Brothers????
Fox news can’t even get the WH Press Secretary to acknowledge them..how infantile! Fox News is small potatoes compared with the petulant rain of DNC talking points regurgitated nitely on CNN/ABC/NBC/CBS/MSNBC and any typical prime time tv show or Hollywood movie…SNL at times seems written by Axelrod himself…The Koch Bros are tiddlywinks compared to the billions the filthy rich Hollywood moguls and Wall. Street barons…dish out to the DNC… Google enjoys its sweet tax breaks as a result…and George Soros is still enjoying the “financial crisis…”
Such complete BS, between Faux News, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glen Beck and Bill O’Riley, Drudge, and sites like this the American public is bombarded with the far right drivel that has led us to this sorry state.
“Far Right Drivel”???? WTF? From LIBERALS. What. You do know your right from your left from a CONSERVATIVE don’t you?
Yes, and the Kochs were (are) in favor of the great GOP cave.
So the Koch Industries spokeman says.
But, the Koch money flowing through their various front groups to support and sponsor the Shutdown Republicans started this and it surely paid for Cruz and Palin to be on the Mall yesterday.
They know how bad their political misjudgment has made them look to their business peers and they expect their flunkies like you – I’m sure there is at least one of you in every state, just like there is a “… Policy Council’ in every state – to make them look better to those peers by seeming to attack them now that their evil plans have exploded.
I’ll shake the hand and thank anyone that can get a politician out in front of an angry mob that will HELP THE MOB!! THANK YOU MR. AND MR. KOCH
From Sinclair Lewis’ 1935 novel ‘It Can’t Happen Here’:
“But he saw too that in America the struggle was befogged by the fact that the worst Fascists were they who disowned the word ‘Fascism’ and preached enslavement to Capitalism under the style of Constitutional and Traditional Native American Liberty.”
Please. you’ve read enough of my posts to know I’m not denying squat. I’ve got no love for the demlicans or the republicrats. Hope off the Obutthead express and join the rest of the fracking world, Nit Rat. :( XP
The mainstream media is not “right” or “left,” it is a complicit, corporate-leaning media. Fox News IS the MSM, they just go to bat for a different set of corporations that pay them big money. (For instance, the oil and coal companies that pay them good money for advertising.) In the end, all of the MSM outlets want a huge, loyal audience and fat wallets for the people who pay for advertisements.
That’s not to say that there is legitimate points to be made regarding what influence Murdoch or Ailes has on the political bias of Fox News, or the Koch Brothers, or George Soros, or Warren Buffett, etc., but the MSM itself is akin to most politicians in D.C. They want to sell their souls for more money. This country has always had extremely rich people trying to essentially buy their way to controlling things, but unfortunately this time it appears there aren’t enough decent human beings to stand up against it.
Real journalism is pretty much dead, excluding the trace amounts you can find online.
You bought stock in Alcoa didn’t you Smirks. I see your ploy. You sly dog.
McPain qoute re Republicrats poor numbers. “We’re down to counting blood relatives and paid staffers.”
Blood relatives has always been wishful pie in the sky thinking for Mr. McPain.
This week should be interesting. The house isn’t up for grabs for a year. The Booker/Lonegan thing really isn’t going to make a difference this year either. So here’s the most likely scenario I think will play out.
1. the Senate passes a budget that in no way will ever be passed by the house conservatives so the Republitards pass it with “bipartisan” support. Read the Repuklicrats cave. Then:
2. The house conservatives hang the other Obonehead out to dry. The house conservatives take over leadership and nothing moves budget wise until after the 2014 elections.
3. The #SHUTDOWN is delayed for 1 year during which time every single bill becomes a fight over OshitforbrainsCare and the budget.
4. The Recall Reid picks up steam because he can’t seem to get anything done except to #SHUT’ERDOWN. (Please note the first is a petition on MoveOn.org. More popularly known as the commie satellite office of Mr. Sorros).
http://pac.petitions.moveon.org/sign/recall-senator-harry
https://www.facebook.com/RecallReid
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/recall-senator-harry-reid-for-deriliction-of-duty/
97,000,000 hits on google
https://www.google.com/webhp?complete=0#complete=0&q=recall+senator+reid+petition
Man, I hope Alice left a drop or two in that bottle on the table :)
….and Cruz keeps smiling because he gets money and attention….his only agenda.
Nothing should pass either house unless a budget is passed first, even if it is a Democrat budget. Let them be on the hook for spending, as it is now there is no accountability for either party for spending. A BUDGET first and foremost, then the other garbage.
Hell no. I sincerely hope we never go back to that annual budget crapola. This is exactly how it was meant to be per the constitution. One Line Item, One Bill, One Vote. They’re supposed to be fighting like cats and dogs. Fighting keeps them out of our wallets. “BiPartisanship” is code word for “Easy Money” and #MoMoney
How few years ago was it that we heard Turdblossom (Dub’s pet name for him) brag of the imminent “permanent Republican majority?”
Classic “halo” pic. Where did you get that, communist news network?