General News Republicans unbelievably vote to shut down the government

House Republicans today passed a bill that defunds what they divisively call "Obamacare" that has absolutely no chance of passing the Senate, and even if it did, would be instantly vetoed by President Obama.

This means that when the Senate budget that will have been stripped of any "defund" language comes up for a vote in the Senate, it will be filibustered by the usual culprits, Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Mars) and Rand Paul (R-KY). (For those of you who don't know, a filibuster is a stalling tactic to stop a bill from advancing in the Senate by talking nonstop. It takes 60 votes to break a filibuster, Democrats only have 54.)

So this means that exactly 10 days from now, the United States government will shut down-no mail, no Social Security/Disability checks, if you're in DC, forget about going to the Smithsonian during that time, and lets hope police departments will still be running. About 5 years ago, Republicans shut down the government over a budget fight and the only thing that was still running was gas station inspectors and 911 operators.

The second to last time this happened was in November 1995, when 800,000 government workers were furloughed for 5 days, and then again from mid-December of '95 into the start of 1996 that lasted three full weeks, 21 days. Thank you, Newt Gingrich.

The other bad thing to watch out for is if Republicans will again hold up raising the debt ceiling. You can thank the GOP for the nation's credit rating being downgraded in August of 2011, but that's another story. If the US hits its debt ceiling, it defaults on its debt causing a massive worldwide financial collapse. And Tea Party Republicans are cheering for a default.

So in short, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and 274 other Republicans are basically putting a gun to the economy's head and saying, "You will agree to make health care/insurance unavailable and unaffordable for 30 million Americans or the economy takes it."

Now do you see why you shouldn't have checked "R" all the way down the ballot in 2010?

 

The part about the shutdown 5 years ago, I meant to say here in Michigan. Republicans also shut down the government in Minnesota in 2011 during their two-year stint in control of the legislature. Democratic Governor Mark Dayton vetoed a budget that included huge cuts to schools and such to balance the budget. The government ceased operations on July 1, 2011, and didn't reopen until July 20, when the two sides made a watered-down "compromise" in which Republicans got everything they wanted but one-the school cuts, and Democrats got nothing they wanted.

This was one of many reasons that in 2012, Democrats won 11 seats in the Minnesota House of Representatives and 9 seats in the Senate, giving control back to the good guys. Minnesota voters realized their mistake from 2010 and corrected it.

The only reason the House is still Republican is because it's gerrymandered, or has its districts drawn so that Republicans will probably never lose control of it again, or at least until 2020. In 2012, Democratic House candidates received more than a full million more votes than did Republican candidates-and the GOP still runs the House.

The mistake of 2010 will still be hurting this country for decades to come, just like the effects of 1994 are still felt today.

 

Jackie Speier is my new hero:

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@Ticklish Fish:

House GOP launches shutdown battle by voting to defund Obamacare - CNN.com

Another thing that pisses me off is that the hypocrisy of the GOP on health care knows no bounds. The current law creates the health insurance exchanges, which is basically like the Orbitz of health insurance. If you go on Orbitz, you can take a look at every available flight on every airline for a trip you want to take and pick the cheapest or best option for you, in a one-stop shop.

That's the idea behind the exchanges. You can have every available plan and every premium quote at your fingertips, which creates direct competition. Direct competition brings prices down, which is a basic economic principle, which is also a free-market principle.

Republicans then run around saying they'll repeal Obamacare and replace it with free-market principles! :bang: