With Halloween and the World Series over, Thanksgiving just four weeks away, and Daylight Savings Time rolling to its end for this year, the minds of our staff members seem to be as unsettled as the leaves outside our office doors. Call it an early holiday distraction.
After all, while we're already discussing some of our favorite holiday foods, we're also torn today even thinking about food. In case you missed it, America's food stamp program is $5 billion shorter today, thanks to the obstruction of unhappy extremists in the GOP. For a program that only costs the average American 10¢ a day, yet multiples the power of a single dollar in our economy by $1.70 - all while preventing millions of elderly, disabled, children, and nearly a million desperately poor veterans from starving - there's no logic to why Republicans continue to fight to keep food out the mouths of their fellow Americans.
Still, the extremists in the Republican Party are continuing to fight for even more cuts in the Farm & Food Bill. Thankfully, there are some like Sen. Mike Johanns who believe a deal may yet be possible. We applaud Sen. Johanns' optimism, and hope that he's right, that an honest compromise can be reached on the farm bill, as well as many of the other bills finally being officially debated in Congress.
Of course, it would help Sen. Johanns and all of the members of U.S. Senate if their counterparts in the Republican-led House would actually stay in DC and do the work that is their responsibility, as members in both chambers did earlier this week. Don't look for the House to get back to that work level any time soon, though, as they're on vacation - excuse us, "working from their districts" - for the next two weeks.
For all the progress that may have been made in Washington this week, the fact is, extremist Republicans still seem perpetually angry and dissatisfied. This week's hearing on the Affordable Care Act, with Sec. Sebelius was a perfect example of that perpetual lack of satisfaction from those on the political right.
While both the President and Sec. Sebelius took responsibility for their shortcomings in the rollout of Obamacare last month, Republicans in Congress once again refused to take any responsibility for their obstructionism that helped to cause the disasterous rollout of the ACA in the past few weeks. While private companies like Google, Oracle, and Red Hat have stepped up to help make Healthcare.gov work, Republicans have continued to work to create more obstacles for the new health insurance system.
As is often the case, Greg Sargent asked the pertinent question on Thursday: What will Republicans say - and do - if Obamacare works? If the site can be mostly repaired by the end of this month, as most knowledgable experts seem to think, and the popularity of the Affordable Care Act continues to grow, will that mollify the extremists in the GOP?
The answer, of course, is no.
For a group that constantly preaches about personal responsibility, Republican's primary representatives in Congress are either sabotaging the country they claim to love, or ducking out on their responsibilities. Don't expect that to change next year, as those same GOP leaders in the House just filed to reduce the number of workdays they are required to serve in 2014.
If you're like our staff members, you might get angry when you hear about the obstructionist, ridiculous actions like those Republicans are taking. There are literally dozens of reasons to get angry, to get frustrated, or to get fed up with the stupid things extremist Republicans do daily - and we feel all of those emotions regularly.
The good news today? There's one very good reason not to get angry.
No matter what anyone else does or says, the GOP extremists will never be satisfied. They have chosen to be filled with anger, hatred, jealousy, misogyny, and a thousand other negative traits - and they have no intention of being happy. So stop worrying about what will make them happy - and start working towards eliminating the extremists from office in 2014.
The next opportunity to remove and replace the uncompromising extremists - with either Democrats or sane, moderate Republicans - is just twelve months away.
Begin your countdown clocks toward a more functional government now.
