On August 7th I wondered aloud what kind of chaos a GOP controlled Senate would unleash on the nation. There is no longer any need to wonder. Senate Minority Leader and soon to be Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is very candid about the mayhem he is going to sow.
Interviewed by Politico aboard his campaign bus, the Senate minority leader offered his vision for the Senate should he be promoted to majority leader: confrontation, manufactured crises, and the ever-present threat of a government shutdown:
In an extensive interview here, the typically reserved McConnell laid out his clearest thinking yet of how he would lead the Senate if Republicans gain control of the chamber. The emerging strategy: Attach riders to spending bills that would limit Obama policies on everything from the environment to health care, consider using an arcane budget tactic to circumvent Democratic filibusters and force the president to “move to the center” if he wants to get any new legislation through Congress.
“Move to the center” is a clever euphemism for “pay ransom in exchange for hostages.” And I’m not putting words in anyone’s mouth here – back in 2011, McConnell was asked what lessons he learned from threatening to put the government in default in order to extract concessions from the White House, and he said the debt limit was “a hostage that’s worth ransoming.”
But for a few GOP Senate candidates who thought that “rape” is basically a myth, the Senate would be in GOP hands right now. They’ve cleaned up their act this time and with no apparent desire on the part of the Democrats to keep the Senate – the GOP will be in a majority in both houses after the next election. What does that mean for America?
Some people suggest that “control of both houses of Congress will make Republican act more responsibly, with fewer scorched-earth tactics and forced standoffs, and more reining-in of the wild right wing.”
Those people are known as idiots. What evidence can they point to that suggests Republicans can act responsibly? No. It is going to be a shit storm.
Standoffs over government funding and the debt ceiling will be routine. Welfare boogeymen will be hunted down and food stamps and unemployment insurance and basically anything that can be viewed as helping the poor will be targeted. Sabotaging the economy and attempting to kill off the ACA will vie for primacy.
Obama will have seen his last appointee appointed. I hope none of the Supreme Court Justices croaks (unless it is Scalia). It is going to be a miserable time to be an American as none of the nation’s real business will be conducted. Instead we’ll have wall to wall Bengahzi hearings attempt to soften up Hilary Clinton for 2016.
When the GOP takes the Senate we’ll have the government we deserve. A government that is not the least bit interested in governing.