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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: i-node who wrote (743229)	10/2/2013 11:17:25 AM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1577019

I can't tell you how much I love what your pols have done............the country finally is waking up to the fact of how badly messed up the GOP is. You all have done a brilliant job of looking like horses' asses. Kudos! Breaking the 'blame both sides' mold By Steve Benen - Wed Oct 2, 2013 10:31 AM EDT Associated Press There's perhaps no great arbiter of the Beltway conventional wisdom -- in all its frustrating, exasperating glory -- than the aggressively centrist Washington Post editorial board. It therefore did not come as a surprise over the weekend when the Post blamed " both sides" for the government shutdown -- Republicans for making ridiculous demands and Democrats for not leading more. Today, the paper's editorial board apparently changed its mind. [By] minimal standards, this Congress is failing. More specifically, the Republican leaders of the House of Representatives are failing. They should fulfill their basic duties to the American people or make way for legislators who will. We don't come to that view as rabid partisans. On many of the issues stalemating Washington, we find plenty of blame to go around. We've criticized President Obama's reluctance to pursue entitlement reform. The last time the country reached the debt ceiling, we urged both sides to compromise on revenue and spending in the interest of long-term fiscal soundness. This time, fiscal responsibility isn't even a topic. Instead, Republicans have shut much of the government in what they had to know was a doomed effort to derail the Affordable Care Act.... Speaker John Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Budget Committee chairman and former vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan and their colleagues may be in a difficult political position. Honestly, we don't much care. They need to reopen the government and let it pay its bills. Jay Rosen called it a " remarkable editorial," *paraphrasing the Post's editors: "We'd like to blame both sides. We tried. We've blamed both sides before. But in this case..."* Outside the Beltway, this may seem like inside baseball, but it's worth appreciating the fact that it's editorials like these that end up reflecting and shaping the conventional wisdom. Republicans will be more inclined to keep their shutdown going if they perceive the political winds at their backs. In other words, if GOP leaders believe they're "winning" some amorphous public-relations game, they'll keep playing it. But it's editorials like these that suggest they are clearly losing. Part of the problem for Republicans is that no one can understand or even identify their rationale. Roll Call's Steven Dennis had a good tweet on this earlier: This is no small detail. House Republicans are arguing this week that they couldn't possibly approve a stopgap spending bill that leaves the Affordable Care Act intact. But here's the key detail: they've already approved plenty of stopgap spending bills that leave the Affordable Care Act intact -- including one earlier this year -- without any fuss. Democrats aren't asking Republicans to do anything different, or accept a compromise, or even to make some painful concession. They're asking Republicans to keep the lights on by doing what they've already done. Even the laziest, most ardent "blame both sides" proponents are finding it difficult to see how to spread responsibility around evenly. And for congressional Republicans, that's very bad news, indeed.

To: i-node who wrote (743229)	10/2/2013 12:47:15 PM
From: bentway	Respond to of 1577019

Poor, bitter Dave. Obamacare is the law of the land, and people who've been denied coverage or just have none are desperately trying to SIGN UP! In a year, the insane clown posse Republicans will not be trying to DENY people coverage, they'll be trying to TAKE the coverage from the millions of new Americans that have it! Good luck with THAT!

To: i-node who wrote (743229)	10/2/2013 12:49:42 PM
From: bentway	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1577019

Vulnerable Republicans: End the shutdown By ALEX ISENSTADT \| 10/1/13 12:38 PM EDT Updated: 10/1/13 7:16 PM EDT Some House Republicans facing perilous paths to reelection in 2014 are beginning to budge on the government shutdown, calling for the party to compromise and move on from its fight over defunding Obamacare. “Republicans fought the good fight. The fight continues but is not advanced by a government shutdown that damages our economy and harms our military,” Virginia Rep. Scott Rigell said in a statement. “The time has come to pass a clean CR to reopen the government.” And Pennsylvania Rep. Pat Meehan said: “I came to Washington to fix government, not shut it down. At this point, I believe it’s time for the House to vote for a clean, short-term funding bill to bring the Senate to the table and negotiate a responsible compromise.” ( PHOTOS: D.C. closes up shop) New Jersey Rep. Jon Runyan said: “Enough is enough. Put a clean (continuing resolution) on the floor and let’s gets on with the business we were sent to do.” Lawmakers such as Rigell, Meehan, and Runyan who represent moderate districts likely have the most to lose if the American public sours on the House GOP’s role in the shutdown. Rigell’s military-heavy district encompassing the Hampton Roads area was narrowly carried by President Barack Obama in 2012. Mitt Romney won Meehan’s suburban Philadelphia district by a slight margin. Obama carried Runyan’s south central New Jersey district by four percentage points. Rigell, Meehan, and Runyan join two other Republicans from moderate districts – New York Rep. Peter King and Pennsylvania Rep. Charlie Dent – who have been outspoken in trying to convince the House GOP to abandon its fight. New Jersey Rep. Frank LoBiondo, who represents an Atlantic City-area seat that Obama won by eight percentage points, has indicated that he’s unhappy with the House GOP’s course of action. The 10-term congressman was quoted in the Philadelphia Inquirer as saying: “At a certain point, if the strategy is not going to get us a result or a conclusion, I’m not going to go along with it…I want to see a result. The bigger fight’s coming on the debt limit.” Another endangered Republican, Illinois Rep. Rodney Davis, stopped short of calling on his party to throw in the towel but stressed that he wanted to reach an agreement. ( Also on POLITICO: GOP braces for shutdown fallout) “Like most of those I represent, I remain opposed to Obamacare, but a government shutdown is absolutely unacceptable,” Davis, a freshman incumbent who represents a district that is nearly evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, said in a Tuesday morning statement. Davis — like the other endangered Republicans now expressing their desire to vote on a clean CR — previously voted in favor of budget resolutions that would defund the health care law. A host of vulnerable GOP incumbents have come under fire from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which on Tuesday launched an automated call campaign blasting them and 60 other Republicans over the shutdown. “While you were sleeping, Congressman Rodney Davis shut down the government. You heard that right. But even worse – Congressman Davis is still getting paid – and he’s just not listening to our frustration,” said the call targeting Davis. “All because of his demand to take away your benefits and protect insurance company profits.” On Tuesday afternoon, the DCCC sent out a press release deriding Davis as a member of the “Too Little, Too Late Caucus.” Read more: politico.com