Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Senator Ted "Calgary" Cruz and his 'Tortilla Coast Tea-Publicans', with an assist from the "Demented" Jim DeMint at the Heritage Fund (Heritage Action) and his Leadership PAC, the Senate Conservatives Fund, neutered the House GOP leadership last night and prevented any bill from coming to the floor.
The headlines this morning were deservedly unkind to the "Worst. Speaker. Ever.", the TanMan, Weeper of the House John Boehner:
New York Times: With
G.O.P. Badly Divided, Boehner Is Left ‘Herding Cats’
Washington Post: Who controls the House GOP? No one.
Washington Post: The Republican Party: A collection of tribes with no leader
Washington Post: Where does John Boehner go from here?
There are lots more headlines like this elsewhere in the media today. It reminds me of that Charles Krauthammer opinion at the end of 2011 regarding The GOP's payroll tax debacle - Washington Post:
The GOP’s performance nicely reprises that scene in “Animal House” where the marching band turns into a blind alley and row after row of plumed morons plows into a brick wall, crumbling to the ground in an unceremonious heap.
It's déjà vu all over again. "Boehner's Bunglers" led the Tea Party Animal House into the blind alley of complete failure.
Luckily, the U.S. Senate may have saved us from a catastrophic default on the debt. Senate leaders reach deal to end shutdown:
Senate leaders announced a bipartisan deal on Wednesday to raise the debt limit through Feb. 7 and end the 16-day-old government shutdown, as stock markets rose with optimism on Wall Street that the Washington stalemate was nearing an end.
The bill must be passed by both the Senate and the House of Representatives, and signed by President Obama, and it is unclear whether all that can happen before the Treasury Department exhausts its borrowing power Thursday.
Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced terms of the deal on the Senate floor, drawing support from the White House but a quick denunciation from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.).
But Cruz, who has helped lead a movement among House conservatives to block a deal that does not include White House concessions on Obama’s landmark health-care law, told reporters he would not seek to delay a vote through parliamentary procedures.
[Cruz told reporters immediately after the deal was announced that he would not attempt further delays. “Of course not, never had any intention to delay this vote,” he said, while making clear that he would vote against the legislation. “Delaying this vote would not accomplish anything.”]
The Senate deal avoids any major changes to the Affordable Care Act, a major victory for Democrats and a repudiation to House and Senate Republicans who for weeks tried to use the threat of a shutdown and potential default to force changes in the health-care law.
* * *
In addition to lifting the $16.7 trillion debt limit, the emerging measure would fund the government through Jan. 15, delaying the next threat of a shutdown until after the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. It would set up a conference committee to hammer out broader budget issues, such as whether to replace deep cuts to agency budgets known as the sequester with other savings.
In a small Democratic concession on the Affordable Care Act, Republicans got additional safeguards to ensure that people who receive subsidies to buy health insurance are, in fact, eligible.
* * *
In negotiating the compromise legislation, Democrats dropped their demand to delay a new tax on existing health-insurance plans, a change intended to benefit organized labor. And Republicans backed off their push to deny the Treasury Department flexibility to manage the nation’s books after Feb. 7, an aborted attempt to ensure that the short-term extension of the debt limit doesn’t somehow drag on into the spring.
* * *
Sen. Richard J. Durbin, the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat and chief vote counter, predicted that the package would easily pass the Senate with support from both parties. In the House, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has pledged the support of all 200 Democrats, meaning House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) would have to supply at least 17 votes.
"Passing the Senate bill before the Senate had even taken a vote would amount to a complete capitulation to the upper chamber, the latest embarrassment for Boehner in a speakership riddled with dark moments."
Just as General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appamatox Courthouse, this anti-government, Neo-Confederate insurrectionist party of radicals has been forced to surrender to Senator Harry Reid.
Remember back when this government shutdown started, far-right agitators and Tea-Publicans were going to "defund, delay and repeal ObamaCare"? "Then they would settle for a delay of the individual mandate for a year. Then the GOP's alleged boy genius, Ayn Rand fanboy Paul Ryan (R-WI), in a sop to the Christian Reconstructionists and Dominionists in the Tea Party was going to add a "conscience clause" to allow employers to deny coverage for contraception. Ryan also wanted to fast track his "tax reform" legislation and his evil designs on social security and Medicare. The GOP threw in its usual grab-bag of demands for the Keystone XL pipeline, offshore oil drilling, eliminating EPA coal regulations, crippling the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Dodd-Frank Wall Street reforms, and on an on.
So many big dreams -- and it ended in total capitulation and surrender. After threatening the U.S. government, and threatening to destroy the U.S. economy and the full faith faith and credit of the United States, and actually shooting one of the hostages -- the GOP government shutdown -- the only appropriate response to such economic terrorism from the Democrats had to be "The only question here is whether I let you live or die."
The Democrats will let this anti-government, Neo-Confederate insurrectionist party of radicals live to fight another day. We still have a democracy after all. But the GOP civil war will intensify, and may result in its political death. See, NBC-Wall Street Journa Poll, Poll Finds GOP Blamed More for Shutdown - WSJ.com, and ABC-Washington Post Poll, Poll: Republicans losing no-win game - Washington Post. There is already talk of a Democratic "wave" election in 2014. Even the far-right provocateur Matt Drudge says there will be a Democratic 'wave" election. Drudge Predicts Pelosi Will Be Next Speaker.
So just what the hell was accomplised by this Tea-Publican economic terrorism strategy of manufacturing crises in order to take hostages, i.e., a government shutdown and threatening to default on the full faith and credit of the United States, to extort concessions from the President and Democrats on an ever-changing list of hostage demands? The economic terrorists actually shot one of the hostages -- the GOP government shutdown. I predict a majority of Tea-Publicans in Congress will still vote no against the Senate deal, meaning that the nation was saved from GOP insanity by the Democrats and a handful of Republicans willing to stand up to Ted Cruz and Jim DeMint, and to risk defeat in a GOP primary. Heritage Action Will Key Vote 'No' On Senate Deal. They are unrepentant and demonstrate no remorse.
The Tea-Publicans waged a war against the federal government that resulted in their own destruction as a legitimate political party, and will likely end with the GOP coalition parting and going their separate ways.
UPDATE: Early assessment of the economic damage caused by the GOP (this will go higher as damage to the U.S. image abroad will affect interest rates and the cost of borrowing). S&P: Shutdown Cost U.S. $24 Billion, 0.6% GDP In Projected Growth. Also, Fitch Puts US AAA Rating on Rating Watch Negative .
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