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2 CommentsWhat is at stake in this government shutdown forced by a radical Tea Party minority is nothing less than the principle upon which our democracy is based: majority rule. President Obama must not give in to this hostage taking — not just because Obamacare is at stake, but because the future of how we govern ourselves is at stake.
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2 Comments[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.
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7 CommentsEK: How much of this is a Boehner problem and how much of this is a House Republicans problem? Which is to say, if Boehner decided to retire tomorrow, is there another House Republican who has enough trust and allegiance in the conference that he or she could manage the institution more effectively? RC: What we're seeing is the collapse of institutional Republican power. It’s not so much about Boehner. It’s things like the end of earmarks. They move away from Tom DeLay and they think they're improving the House, but now they have nothing to offer their members. The outside groups don't always move votes directly but they create an atmosphere of fear among the members. And so many of these members now live in the conservative world of talk radio and tea party conventions and Fox News invitations. And so the conservative strategy of the moment, no matter how unrealistic it might be, catches fire. The members begin to believe they can achieve things in divided government that most objective observers would believe is impossible. Leaders are dealing with these expectations that wouldn't exist in a normal environment.
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24 CommentsWhat is our present condition? We have just carried an election on principles fairly stated to the people. Now we are told in advance, the government shall be broken up, unless we surrender to those we have beaten, before we take the offices. In this they are either attempting to play upon us, or they are in dead earnest. Either way, if we surrender, it is the end of us, and of the government. They will repeat the experiment upon us ad libitum
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6 Comments[This] is as embarrassing as it is frustrating. There is no reality where the Senate and President Obama agree to repeal the Affordable Care Act — which was passed by Congress, upheld by the Supreme Court, and sustained in the last presidential election — but the House of Representatives has been unrelenting in its drive to tear it down. They know that shutting down the government won’t stop the new health insurance marketplace from opening tomorrow, but are determined to make their point, no matter the cost to our nation. Delawareans deserve better than this.Congressman John Carney:
Carney lays the blame [for the shutdown] at the feet of a small group of House Republicans who he says are intentionally trying to use the shutdown as leverage to gut the Affordable Care Act. He adds that he believes that most House Republicans don’t want a shutdown. “But they’ve allowed some of the tea party elements in their conference to control the agenda here and I’m looking towards those members to try to find a way out that addresses the real problems that we face as a country, a fiscal plan that seeks to improve the Affordable Care Act, not defund it,” said Carney.
At 11:00 this morning, approximately 350 fulltime Soldiers and Airmen from the Delaware National Guard were sent home without pay until further notice. The 350 were uniformed Federal Technicians who serve as part of the 750-person fulltime staff of the Delaware National Guard. They reported to work at 7am and were on duty for four hours. The time was spent providing instruction, answering questions, and referring them to resources available (unemployment, health insurance, financial counseling, etc) with regard to the government shutdown. The shutdown places significant additional hardships on our workforce, which is already strained by recent administrative furloughs, said Maj. Gen. Frank Vavala, Delaware's Adjutant General. Despite the substantial disruption and challenges, the Delaware National Guard can and will continue to support key military operations both here in the state and overseas.
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1 CommentToday, a consortium of environmental groups held a press conference on the State House steps to announce a lawsuit to stop several companies from polluting the Delaware River. I spoke with the NJ Sierra Club Director Jeff Tittel about this, but first asked him about the affect of the GOP government shutdown on New Jersey's environment.And here is a video of that press conference: Come inside for the Sierra Club press release and the lawsuit filings.
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7 CommentsSo... Listening to all the bullshit today. It comes down to one issue - affordable healthcare. At the root of this is money, of course. The Republicans are on the side, always have been, of big business and there is no bigger business than healthcare. I have a very personal stake in all of this - I am one if those people who falls through the cracks. I have a pre-existing condition. I was diagnosed in 2004 with multiple myeloma but it turned out that I did not have that, but a neoplasm of unknown origin. This tumor ate through three vertebrae of my neck - C5, C6, C7 - As it strangled my spinal cord and started to restrict my lower limb mobility. I found a great neurosurgeon who removed 80% of the tumor and stabilized my neck with titanium rods and screws. I am supposed to have a MRI every three months for the rest if my life. Problem is, I lost my job in 2008. I was without healthcare for two months. So I had a gap in coverage, and now no one will cover any costs due to my neck. If I get the tests I need each year, the out of pocket expenses would be $7000+. So while everyone is fighting about why it is fair or not to cover people like me, I sit here and listen to the bullshit. And believe me, that is all it is.
“That’s Ted Cruz’s fault. Ted Cruz led us down this path. This was a disaster from the start,” King said. “I could have predicted this and this is what the leadership predicted three weeks ago when they said they would never pursue defunding because it was going to work against us and we’d be blamed. But Ted Cruz insisted that his people follow him, and we did it, and that’s why we’re in this position. It’s his fault, and he wants us to get him out of it. Listen I’m saying the president should negotiate, but I ‘m saying that this was caused by Ted Cruz and his acolytes in the House of Representatives. They led us down this dead end street.” King continued battering Cruz, citing other prominent Republicans who had attacked Cruz’s strategy in the past. “Wall Street Journal, Karl Rove, Tom Coburn, all solid conservatives said this was a terrible policy to begin with,” King said. “We had a Republican Senator say it was the dopiest idea they’d ever heard. Ted Cruz is to blame, and those in the House who stand with him have brought about this train wreck. It’s up to us to try to get it out and it’s up to the president to step in and stop standing on the sidelines.”No, Mr. King. The President is not obligated to help out the Republian Party in its Civil War. The President is not obligated to solve a problem the Republican Party started. The solution to this whole mess is so fucking simple my 3 three old niece could figure it out: Pass the clean Senate bill. That is your solution, Mr. King. Stop being a coward and vote no on these Obamacare defunding blackmailing hostage taking House CR and tell each sane Republican to do likewise. That is your job, Mr. King, not the President's.
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