As we roll to the end of the first week of experiencing the 2013 Federal Government shutdown - courtesy of the arrogance and ignorance of a few clueless extremist Republicans in Congress - we thought it would be a good time to reexamine what "essential" really means.
We know that yesterday, Capitol Hill police and members of the Secret Service were absolutely essential.
On Thursday, 34-year old dental hygienist Miriam Carey attempted to use her car as a weapon, in Washington, DC. She crashed both the White House and the grounds outside the Capitol, in an escape attempt that ended in her death. Ms. Carey had her one year old daughter in the car with her - and at the time we're writing this, no reason is known for her actions.
Many of the brave members of the Capitol Hill police and the other security forces who sprang into action Thursday all had one thing in common - they're not considered "essential" personnel under the shutdown. Many of the men and women who instantly jumped into action were essentially doing their jobs for free, since no one knows when they'll actually get paid.
While those men and women were rushing towards chaos, not knowing what they were facing, people like Senators Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul were talking about "winning" the government shutdown in front of TV cameras they thought were off. Congressman Darrell Issa was barreling around Capitol Hill at that point, pushing some of those same security people about. All three of these members of Congress were happily picking up their paychecks, since according to the rules, they're all "essential."
Frankly, we think those in Congress need to get a dictionary and look up what the word "essential" really means. While they're there, Republicans especially might want to learn the definition of what "compromise" is, too.
There are a great many things our staff members consider "essential." Our families, friends, and pets top those lists, along with fresh food and clean water. Safe places to live and work are also essential - though for Americans along the Gulf Coast today, that safety could be seriously threatened. Americans across the nation at the beginning of this year's flu season are also in danger, though we doubt workers at the CDC will get called back to work, like some of the workers at FEMA.
Whenever a crisis occurs, most people think about those they care about most. We've never encountered anyone who can't tell us why they'd do almost anything for those people they consider essential.
Yet, as the America some members of Congress claim to love continues hurtling headlong towards this completely preventable, man-made debt ceiling crisis, many Republicans seem to have no real idea why they've shut down the government. Speaker Boenher and the Republican "leadership" in Congress also don't seem to truly grasp the seriousness of what defaulting on our nation's debt would mean.
What we do know is that while those clueless members of Congress are still getting paid, some of those Capitol Hill police and other security officers - people who were willing to potentially lay their lives on the line to protect people we consider essential - won't be getting a paycheck today.
Maybe "essential" just has a different meaning to those of us who have less to lose in life.
Friday, October 4, 2013
Thursday, October 3, 2013
None So Blind...
As America enters day three of the government shutdown, with exactly two weeks to go until the much more dangerous debt ceiling default, there are plenty of reasons for pessimism - and we've likely said, heard, or read most of them in the past three days.
The facts on the shutdown remain stubbornly the same. Congressional Democrats and President Obama are still waiting for a "clean" continuing resolution to get passed by the GOP-led House. A relatively small group of right-wing extremists in the House continue to hold Speaker John Boehner as an ideological hostage, refusing to let him put a clear CR up for whole House vote - mostly because they know it would pass without their small number of votes.
For now, we think Brian Beutler and Jamelle Bouie have it right - that GOP moderates should stop the whining of their more extreme party members, reopen the government, and take their lumps for throwing in with the insane fools of the tea bag right. At least they'd be able to get affordable health care for their lumps, thanks to the opening of the health insurance marketplaces at healthcare.gov.
For all the preaching against Obamacare from those on the right, the real truth already appears to be that Americans are loving the opportunity to get decent health insurance that isn't robbing them blind.
In the first day of the health insurance exchanges being open, the Health and Human Services Department counted 4.7 million visits to Obamacare websites across the nation. As Sarah Kliff of the Washington Post's Wonkblog pointed out, the biggest problems for the rollout of the Affordable Care Act aren't glitches, but overwhelming web traffic, as millions of Americans for the first time ever check to see if they can get a better deal on their health insurance.
Reports like those from Ms. Kliff or Sy Mukherjee continue to relate stories of people who will save thousands of dollars annually on their health insurance costs, thanks to Obamacare. Even as the right-wing media harps on about glitches, as Jonathan Cohn makes clear in The New Republic, those glitches matter far less than you think.
What matters, actually, is what we and so many others have pointed out recently - that the GOP is willing to stake its very existence in a losing battle to stop Obamacare, because they're terrified people will like it. As Henry Blodget outlines in his piece at Business Insider, Republicans have a whole grab bag of reasons to fear the success of Obamacare.
The biggest single reason that we believe Republicans continue to inveigh against Obamacare, even as the incredibly important debt ceiling looms, and the federal government remains shut down, is that they fear most Americans will realize the truth.
Once Americans realize they can always get affordable health insurance without being tied down to a specific job, employers everywhere will no longer be able to control their workers via the prospect of taking away that coverage. Americans will love that they're free to be employed where they want, how they want - and they'll still have affordable health insurance, regardless of how their bosses act.
In other words, Americans will be more free - and Republicans will be revealed as the political party that kept affordable care away from Americans for most of the last century.
No wonder Republicans are afraid Americans will like Obamacare so much.
The facts on the shutdown remain stubbornly the same. Congressional Democrats and President Obama are still waiting for a "clean" continuing resolution to get passed by the GOP-led House. A relatively small group of right-wing extremists in the House continue to hold Speaker John Boehner as an ideological hostage, refusing to let him put a clear CR up for whole House vote - mostly because they know it would pass without their small number of votes.
For now, we think Brian Beutler and Jamelle Bouie have it right - that GOP moderates should stop the whining of their more extreme party members, reopen the government, and take their lumps for throwing in with the insane fools of the tea bag right. At least they'd be able to get affordable health care for their lumps, thanks to the opening of the health insurance marketplaces at healthcare.gov.
For all the preaching against Obamacare from those on the right, the real truth already appears to be that Americans are loving the opportunity to get decent health insurance that isn't robbing them blind.
In the first day of the health insurance exchanges being open, the Health and Human Services Department counted 4.7 million visits to Obamacare websites across the nation. As Sarah Kliff of the Washington Post's Wonkblog pointed out, the biggest problems for the rollout of the Affordable Care Act aren't glitches, but overwhelming web traffic, as millions of Americans for the first time ever check to see if they can get a better deal on their health insurance.
Reports like those from Ms. Kliff or Sy Mukherjee continue to relate stories of people who will save thousands of dollars annually on their health insurance costs, thanks to Obamacare. Even as the right-wing media harps on about glitches, as Jonathan Cohn makes clear in The New Republic, those glitches matter far less than you think.
What matters, actually, is what we and so many others have pointed out recently - that the GOP is willing to stake its very existence in a losing battle to stop Obamacare, because they're terrified people will like it. As Henry Blodget outlines in his piece at Business Insider, Republicans have a whole grab bag of reasons to fear the success of Obamacare.
The biggest single reason that we believe Republicans continue to inveigh against Obamacare, even as the incredibly important debt ceiling looms, and the federal government remains shut down, is that they fear most Americans will realize the truth.
Once Americans realize they can always get affordable health insurance without being tied down to a specific job, employers everywhere will no longer be able to control their workers via the prospect of taking away that coverage. Americans will love that they're free to be employed where they want, how they want - and they'll still have affordable health insurance, regardless of how their bosses act.
In other words, Americans will be more free - and Republicans will be revealed as the political party that kept affordable care away from Americans for most of the last century.
No wonder Republicans are afraid Americans will like Obamacare so much.
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
Pulling The Trigger
When discussing any conflict, it's always best to make sure everyone understands the facts. When it comes to the federal government shutdown, it was already obvious Tuesday morning that not everyone in the media either knew the facts, or was willing to acknowledge them.
The facts are as clear this morning as they were yesterday, and as clear as they were Monday night at midnight when a small group of extremist, far-right House Republicans forced the government of the United States to shut down.
As President Obama restated again yesterday afternoon, there will be no extortion of Democrats or the President to get House Republicans to do their jobs. In an interview with Greg Sargent on Tuesday, Rep. Chris Van Hollen confirmed that position: No Obamacare extortion. Period, full stop.
Multiple polls have already shown, Americans should ignore the daily spin wars, as they overwhelmingly agree with Democrats, and heavily blame Republicans for the shutdown. The hostage strategy being used by the extremist tea party wing of the GOP should be rejected strongly.
In short, by letting the teabaggers direct the GOP, Republicans have effectively put a gun to their own party's head and pulled the trigger - and the effects are already as brutal as we'd expected they would be.
It's not just that kids who have cancer are right now being denied access to clinical trials at the National Institutes of Health - which, like the rest of the government, is closed thanks to the House Republicans. It's that things like the World War II Memorial are also closed to veterans - who on Tuesday decided they weren't going to be denied by the group of spoiled brats within the Republican Party. So the veterans made one last charge on Tuesday, storming the closed memorial in order to pay their respects to their now-gone brothers-in-arms.
Actions like that, while somewhat stirring, shouldn't have to happen in America today.
It's not as though there isn't a large enough contingent of BOTH Democrats and Republicans in the House that would vote for the clean spending bill that Speaker Boehner couldn't get it passed right now. There are, as Jennifer Bendery confirmed Tuesday afternoon.
The problem, as Ezra Klein and Robert Costa made clear, is that Speaker Boehner is a selfish coward - and he's not the only one like that in the Republican Party. While a caucus of about 30-40 tea party Republicans appears to be terrorizing their colleagues in the House, the greater majority of the Republican caucus is also acting like gutless cowards, as Jonathan Bernstein pointed out yesterday.
We understand that many Republicans are whining to their own media outlets that they're frustrated too, with the way the teabag right has hijacked their own party and forced them into this stupid defunding fight that the GOP will never win.
Our response to those spineless Republican moderates is to suck it up, and stand up to the tea party bullies, who've already pulled the trigger on your own party.
As Esquire's Charlie Pierce noted on Tuesday, the Democrats have finally brought guns to a gunfight, for once. If the sane moderate Republicans ever want their political party back, now would be the time to stand with the Democrats for what's right.
The facts are as clear this morning as they were yesterday, and as clear as they were Monday night at midnight when a small group of extremist, far-right House Republicans forced the government of the United States to shut down.
As President Obama restated again yesterday afternoon, there will be no extortion of Democrats or the President to get House Republicans to do their jobs. In an interview with Greg Sargent on Tuesday, Rep. Chris Van Hollen confirmed that position: No Obamacare extortion. Period, full stop.
Multiple polls have already shown, Americans should ignore the daily spin wars, as they overwhelmingly agree with Democrats, and heavily blame Republicans for the shutdown. The hostage strategy being used by the extremist tea party wing of the GOP should be rejected strongly.
In short, by letting the teabaggers direct the GOP, Republicans have effectively put a gun to their own party's head and pulled the trigger - and the effects are already as brutal as we'd expected they would be.
It's not just that kids who have cancer are right now being denied access to clinical trials at the National Institutes of Health - which, like the rest of the government, is closed thanks to the House Republicans. It's that things like the World War II Memorial are also closed to veterans - who on Tuesday decided they weren't going to be denied by the group of spoiled brats within the Republican Party. So the veterans made one last charge on Tuesday, storming the closed memorial in order to pay their respects to their now-gone brothers-in-arms.
Actions like that, while somewhat stirring, shouldn't have to happen in America today.
It's not as though there isn't a large enough contingent of BOTH Democrats and Republicans in the House that would vote for the clean spending bill that Speaker Boehner couldn't get it passed right now. There are, as Jennifer Bendery confirmed Tuesday afternoon.
The problem, as Ezra Klein and Robert Costa made clear, is that Speaker Boehner is a selfish coward - and he's not the only one like that in the Republican Party. While a caucus of about 30-40 tea party Republicans appears to be terrorizing their colleagues in the House, the greater majority of the Republican caucus is also acting like gutless cowards, as Jonathan Bernstein pointed out yesterday.
We understand that many Republicans are whining to their own media outlets that they're frustrated too, with the way the teabag right has hijacked their own party and forced them into this stupid defunding fight that the GOP will never win.
Our response to those spineless Republican moderates is to suck it up, and stand up to the tea party bullies, who've already pulled the trigger on your own party.
As Esquire's Charlie Pierce noted on Tuesday, the Democrats have finally brought guns to a gunfight, for once. If the sane moderate Republicans ever want their political party back, now would be the time to stand with the Democrats for what's right.
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