Republican Shutdown and Debt Default Apocalypse Open Thread, Day 6.
House Republican Ted Yoho (FL), a member of the treasonous Tea Party that is driving this Republican Shutdown and Debt Default, said this yesterday about the affects of a debt default.
“I think, personally, it would bring stability to the world markets.”
Morons. These traitors are literally morons.
And for the record, the world’s markets disagree violently with that assessment from the Teabagger.
Anyone who remembers the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. little more than five years ago knows what a global financial disaster is. A U.S. government default, just weeks away if Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling as it now threatens to do, will be an economic calamity like none the world has ever seen.
Failure by the world’s largest borrower to pay its debt — unprecedented in modern history — will devastate stock markets from Brazil to Zurich, halt a $5 trillion lending mechanism for investors who rely on Treasuries, blow up borrowing costs for billions of people and companies, ravage the dollar and throw the U.S. and world economies into a recession that probably would become a depression. Among the dozens of money managers, economists, bankers, traders and former government officials interviewed for this story, few view a U.S. default as anything but a financial apocalypse.
If this happens, if these traitor Republicans do this, public hangings, firing squads and guillotines will make a comeback.
Meanwhile, Speaker Boehner said he did not have the votes to open the government. That was, of course, a lie. The following Republicans are already on record saying they will vote for a clean CR:
Rep. Pat Meehan (R-Pa.): “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.” [Press Release, 10/1/13]
Rep. Scott Rigell (R-Va.): “Time for a clean [continuing resolution].” [Official Twitter, 10/1/13]
Rep. Jon Runyan (R-N.J.): “Enough is enough. Put a clean [continuing resolution] on the floor and let’s get on with the business we were sent to do.” [Burlington County Times, 10/1/13]
Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.): A Fitzpatrick aide tells the Philadelphia Inquirer the congressman would support a clean funding bill if it came up for a vote. [Philadelphia Inquirer, 10/1/13]
Rep. Lou Barletta (R-Pa.): Barletta said he would “absolutely” vote for a clean bill in order to avert a shut down of the government. [Bethlehem Morning Call, 10/1/13]
Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.): King thinks House Republicans would prefer to avoid a shutdown and said he will only vote for a clean continuing resolution to fund the government, according to the National Review Online. [NRO, 9/30/13]
Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.): The California Republican told The Huffington Post he would ultimately support a clean continuing resolution. [Tweet by The Huffington Post’s Sabrina Siddiqui, 9/30/13]
Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.): “I’m prepared to vote for a clean [continuing resolution].” [The Huffington Post, 9/29/13]
Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.): A Wolf aide told The Hill that he agrees with fellow Virginia Rep. Scott Rigell (R) that it’s time for a clean continuing resolution. [The Hill, 10/1/13]
Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.): A Grimm aide told The Huffington Post that the congressman supports a clean continuing resolution. [10/1/13].
Rep. Erik Paulsen (R-Minn.): A local news anchor in Minnesota tweeted that Paulsen told him he would vote for a clean resolution if given the chance. [Blake McCoy Tweet, 10/1/13]
Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.): A constituent of Wittman’s sent The Huffington Post an email she got from the congressman indicating he would vote for a clean funding bill but hasn’t had “an opportunity to do so at this point.” [10/1/13]
Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-N.J.): LoBiondo told The Press of Atlantic City he’ll support “whatever gets a successful conclusion” to the shutdown and a clean funding bill “is one of those options.” [The Press of Atlantic City, 10/1/13]
Rep. Randy Forbes (R-Va.): Forbes told The Virginian-Pilot that he supports the six-week clean funding bill that passed in the Senate. [The Virginian-Pilot, 10/2/13]
Rep. Jim Gerlach (R-Pa.): The congressman issued a statement saying he would “vote in favor of a so-called clean budget bill.” [Office of Rep. Jim Gerlach, 10/2/13].
Rep. Leonard Lance (R-N.J.): Lance’s chief of staff confirmed to The Huffington Post that he told a constituent on Wednesday that Lance has voted for clean government funding bills in the past “and would not oppose doing so again should one be brought to the floor.” [10/2/13]
Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho): Simpson told a Roll Call reporter Tuesday night, “I’d vote for a clean CR because I don’t think this is a strategy that works.” [Daniel Newhauser Tweet, 10/1/13]
Rep. Bill Young (R-Fla.): Young told Tampa Bay Times reporter Alex Leary that he’s ready to vote for a clean funding bill. “The politics should be over,” he said. “It’s time to legislate.” [Alex Leary Tweet, 10/2/13]
Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.): The congressman told Miami Herald reporter Marc Caputo that he would vote for a clean funding bill, provided it has the same funding levels contained in the Senate-passed bill. [The Miami Herald, 10/2/13]
Rep. Richard Hanna (R-N.Y.): “I would take a clean (continuing resolution).” [Observer-Dispatch, 10/2/13]
Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.): A Davis constituent tells The Huffington Post that a Davis aide told him Wednesday, “Congressman Davis is prepared to vote ‘yes’ on a clean CR.” Asked for comment, Davis spokesman Andrew Flach told HuffPost that Davis isn’t “going to speculate” on what bills may come up in the House and “will continue to vote for proposals brought to the floor that will fund the federal government.” [10/2/2013]
Rep. Tim Griffin (R-Ark.): Asked on Twitter if he would support a clean funding bill if it came up for a vote, Griffin tweeted, “sure. Ive already said i would support.” [Official Twitter, 10/2/13].
The one good thing about this coming apocalypse is that the GOP will lose the House. Public Policy Polling conducted surveys in 24 individual House districts held by Republicans that are considered most competitive right now. The Democrats need to win 17 of these seats and hold all of their own to gain the majority. Right now, the Dems will win 17 of the 24 races, and are tied in two others. So if the election were held today, the Dems would be back in the majority.
E.J. Dionne on what is hopefully the tea party’s last stand:
If the nation is lucky, this October will mark the beginning of the end of the tea party.
The movement is suffering from extreme miscalculation and a foolish misreading of its opponents’ intentions. This, in turn, has created a moment of enlightenment, an opening to see things that were once missed.
Many Republicans, of course, saw the disaster coming in advance of the shutdown. But they were terrified to take on a movement that is fortified by money, energy and the backing of a bloviating brigade of talk-show hosts. The assumption was that the tea party had become invincible inside the GOP.
Paul Krugman on how the GOP planned this shutdown and debt default for 9 months:
Early this year, it turns out, some of the usual suspects — the Koch brothers, the political arm of the Heritage Foundation and others — plotted strategy in the wake of Republican electoral defeat. Did they talk about rethinking ideas that voters had soundly rejected? No, they talked extortion, insisting that the threat of a shutdown would induce President Obama to abandon health reform.
This was crazy talk. After all, health reform is Mr. Obama’s signature domestic achievement. You’d have to be completely clueless to believe that he could be bullied into giving up his entire legacy by a defeated, unpopular G.O.P. — as opposed to responding, as he has, by making resistance to blackmail an issue of principle. But the possibility that their strategy might backfire doesn’t seem to have occurred to the would-be extortionists.
House Republican Ted Yoho (FL) is no doubt stupid, but he is also isolated in an intellectual ghetto. I’m sure he gets his news from Fox (which is probably on in his office 24/7). He listens to Hannity and Rush, and reads the Washington Times which prints Rasmussen Polls. No voters call him, except for those poor, fearful people who are consume the same “news” he does.
I’m sure he honestly believes that default “would bring stability to the world markets” because he’s probably heard that 1,000 times in the past 2 weeks. It is another reason why Carney’s friendship campaign is stupid and pointless.
*Somebody’s* getting some benefits from the Government shutdown: Free Vibrator For Federal Employees During The Government Shutdown
Be sure to read the item description!
Having suffered thru watching a Ted Yoho interview I find him an idiot the caliber of Louie Gohmert, impressive and an idiot that stands above the others in a crowded field.. As for the shut down I think at some point we’re headed for a constitutional crises, this is clearly an attempt to end run majority rule and if successful in any way will alter American government for the far, far right worse. Fortunately the seeds of Republican destruction are long planted and germination at hand. Enjoy!
At this point, I can’t help but think about what would be the outcome if the shoe was completely on the other foot. If there was an alternative universe where Obama was the first black Speaker of the House, Boehner or Ted Cruz was President, and Obama, controlling 1/3 of the federal government, shut it down over his want to delay or repeal a tax cut.
How long do you think it would realistically take for the Tea Party to accuse Obama, the House Democrats, George Soros, etc. of attempting to overthrow the democratically elected government?
I admire John Carney a lot and I think his so-called “friendship campaign” has been proven to be necessary now more than ever, in the age of the Hastert rule where literally every single bill Democrats propose in the House gets shut down if it doesn’t get majority Republican support. I would much rather have someone like that be my Congressman than an Alan Grayson, who I may find more room for agreement with, but will literally never get anything on his legislative agenda done so long as there’s a Republican majority in the house.
This, however, is a completely different situation. Failing to pass a debt limit increase could be absolutely disastrous, not only for the United States, but the world economy as a whole. While my gut instinct is to fight this shit with whatever we’ve got, and make sure people know how serious this is, I can’t help but think Obama is going to have to make concessions in order to ensure we don’t cause a worldwide financial collapse.
Our side doesn’t have to be the stupid one. If this means he needs to eliminate the medical device tax, or health care subsidies for Congressional staff, or something that maintains the structure and rollout of Obamacare, but gives the Republicans a small victory, then that’s what needs to happen. And then, the Democrats need to run in 2014 on being the fucking adults in this situation.
The Republicans need to earn their small victory the old fashioned way — by getting enough votes to pass a bill.
And as that obviously is not going to happen, do we let them tank the worldwide economy? I don’t get what the endgame is. Even if everyone in America was to wake up to what the Tea Party stands for, the much larger issue at hand is the world economy, which could be plunged into a depression because of Tea Party lunacy.
The fact is that no matter how much it hurts liberal pride, this needs to end by October 17th or else we’re all in deep shit if we let the wingnuts take us over the cliff with them.
That isn’t going to happen because they won’t do their jobs. All of this works because they do their jobs, not because President Obama deigns to wipe their snotty noses.
Week two, unaffordable health care website still not working in many areas
http://freedomslighthouse.net/2013/10/07/cnn-tries-again-obamacare-website-still-does-not-work-video-10713/
Obama should delay the individual mandate for at least six months or a year. It is not fair, and I am sure the supreme court would not have found it constitutional if you have to buy health insurance, but you can’t because the system does not work, yet you still have to pay the fine or penalty for not buying. That is not reasonable. Obama should just concede this fact and agree to delay for six months or a year. Not even taking into account the hundreds of thousands of people who have already lost their health insurance, ie James Hoffa, teamsters, UPS, Home depot, not even taking all this into account, it is just not reasonable to require someone to pay a penalty or fine or tax, (whatever you want to call it), for not buying their health insurance, when the government run health insurance exchange system does not work properly. And make no mistake, they took 3 years to get it to this point, they are not going to get it running smoothly in the next few days. The architects of the system are already admitting their math was flawed, and that they did not build the system for enough volume. So the right thing to do, is delay the mandate for at least 6 months, that will get the republicans to fund the government, and raise the debt ceiling, and everyone can get on with life.
And yes, with logic like this, I should be in Washington getting these people to take action, but, not bloody likely
Sorry, no deal. Though 70% of the public is against Republicans now, I think another week could push that up to 80%
@Rd “Obama should delay the individual mandate for at least six months or a year.”
Though you might think this delay might be a reasonable request, Obamacare requires the individual mandate to function. It fails to work without it.
Those who smiling say “A delay is only fair…” are FOS. They know that this will kill the ACA.
Those who say “The websites are broken…” should wonder whether there’s a DNS like attack campaign against them. Do you really think that those things aren’t targets?
You should class up your act and stop posting stupid stuff that we all know is… well… stupid.
Le, all that being said, it is unreasonable to charge a penalty fine for not buying insurance when the exchange does not allow you to purchase it because it does not work. The only solution is to delay the mandate until the exchange is working properly
Uhhh… No!
Your motives are pure evil. The actions of the people attacking the websites is pure evil. The efforts to deny healthcare to the poor and needy is pure evil.
Dils – Enrollment closes on March 31, 2014.
So jason, are you inferring that if the exchange continues to malfunction for two or three months, and everyone is compressed into signing up in the last two months, that it is still fair to charge a penalty for not sugning up?
You are doing the inferring. You are also auguring and soothsaying.
Jason, so what is your point about enrollment being open until march 31
All of your predictions have predicted the opposite of the eventual outcome. Your auguries are a perfect reverse barometer.
@Rd “Jason, so what is your point about enrollment being open until march 31”
That there’s no need to run around like a chicken yelling “Shut it DOWN!!! Shut it down NOW!!”
We’ve got six months to fix those websites.
…and maybe the media will expose the DNS style attacks on those websites for what they are. Right wingers attack those websites so people who want healthcare have difficulty signing up… nice! (NOT)