Yesterday some Republicans saw the handwriting on the wall, or at least in the polls, and realized that the shutdown/debt ceiling grandstanding is hurting them a lot more than it is hurting the Dems. So many are backing off the “kill Obamacare” fight.
So what now? Brian Beutler thinks they’re about to make things even worse for themselves
Republican leaders want to phase out the fight by changing the terms and terrain. And their new targets are — wait for it — Medicare and Social Security. See this Op-Ed by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., in which he mentions Obamacare precisely zero times, and argues instead that Congress’ central focus should be cutting much more popular, durable programs. He even names a couple of specific Medicare adjustments Democrats might support, but only in a plan that includes new tax revenues. Guess how many times the word “revenues†appears in the piece.
This is not the battle you want to pick if your electoral imperatives require you to pander to white voters. Maybe in the days ahead, once the government is reopened and the risk of immediate default has passed, Republicans will walk away from the past month’s events and pretend they never happened. The Obamacare defunders chastened. The establishment just grateful to have the latest embarrassment behind them.
Jeez,
They have even less of a case now than when Simpleton met Bowel-movement, and a commission was formed!
The nation’s debt is now half of what it was when President Obama was first sworn into office – partly due to the Stimulus, partly due to the tax raise, and also partly due to the Sequester – and, now the shutdown.
SS is an easy fix – eliminate the cap, and you could actually INCREASE today’s and tomorrow’s payments.
And PPACA is starting to lower Medicare costs.
So, if you want to go after “Earned Benefits,” Republicans, all I can say is, “Please proceed, GOP. Please, proceed…”
What, we aren’t supposed to remember last Monday, when ObamaCare was the end of civilization as we know it and must be resisted at all costs?
It’s so great watching these people back themselves into a corner. “Please proceed”, indeed.
“The nation’s debt is now half of what it was when President Obama was first sworn into office – partly due to the Stimulus, partly due to the tax raise, and also partly due to the Sequester – and, now the shutdown”
Not quite, the deficit is projected downward but the nations federal debt is up almost 60% under President Obama. Much of it can be traced to the recession and spending on wars but it is still technically on his watch. The path we are on is defiantly unsustainable, we are only taking in around 2.7 trillion in taxes yet we are spending 3.5 trillion. We need to increase revenues and cut spending (including defense), that’s the only viable long term solution. The problem is the baggers want to inflict all the pain on social programs and they want it all enacted now.
Eddie Munster emerges from his undisclosed location! Still a bit wobbly, I see, from the beat-down he received in the V.P. debate a year ago.
Oh well, Eddie, that’s OK. We all understand that, for you, “Thinking iz harrrd!” Say no more.
No, I mean it. Say. No. More.
uncledad,
Thanks for the correction.
Nothing that another small tax increase wouldn’t take care of. And some smart cuts to our military budget.
uncledad, no, I think spending has been cut quite enough at this point. In fact, pretty much across the board (including defense spending) spending has been cut too much. What we need now is revenue increases.
And, I would say our path is quite sustainable, IF you keep in mind that as the economy gets better, we get an option to start paying off some of the debt.
-me
Going into “White vs White”, Jack Whelan’s Understanding the Angst of the Right:
Paulie is just a watery bag of shit! Now he’s trying to pan himself off as the voice of reason. He needs to grow a pair..really! Maybe he should go back and check how he voted to initiate the Obamacare shakedown. Be a man Paulie. Your weaseling antics might pull the wool over the eyes of some of the yokels in Janesville, but it’s not playing very well with intellectually mature audiences in the rest of the country. Give it up, Paulie. You’re not even fit to be a scout master.
“What we need now is revenue increases”
I agree but if you think that we can get that without spending cuts than you are just as delusional as the baggers.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/10/veterans-shutdown_n_4078968.html
Great punch line! 🙂
This is like giving a desk-jockey a chainsaw with a big-ass bar; he
S gonna hurt himself of break something.
Those kayakers I commented about earlier this week have made it through the everglades to flamingo, which is at the end of the everglades and the beginning of the Florida keys. You can track them at go team bravery.com, the next challenge.
erinyes.. Are you Rick the surveyor?
This just in..
Breaking News: Obama Rejects Republican Proposal for Short-Term Debt Limit Plan
Homie don’t play dat game! 🙂
thanks Moonbat – extremely interesting article
Swami; kinda. There was a survey team on site, and since I was wearing a dayglow green shirt, they assumed I was a surveyor. I am that rick, happy to have been helpful for their cause.
Music to my ears/Make my morning: Establishment GOPers Assail Tea Party on Shutdown: