Category Archives: Politics

What Would Boehner Do? A Political Cartoonist’s Answer

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The New York Times doesn’t do political cartoons, except the ones on Sunday by Brian McFadden:

{Unfortunately, the link is broken, but you can see the cartoon by going to the address below and then using the arrow on the right until you get to the one for October 6, 2013}

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2012/07/08/opinion/sunday/the-strip.html#1

There’s a long article in the Times today about how the right-wingers have been planning this crisis for months. It might be too depressing to read the whole article, so here’s a brief quote:

A defunding “tool kit” created in early September included talking points for the question, “What happens when you shut down the government and you are blamed for it?” The suggested answer was the one House Republicans give today: “We are simply calling to fund the entire government except for the Affordable Care Act/Obamacare.”

Boehner was on television this morning, trying to explain his position:

“We’re not going to pass a clean debt limit increase,” the Ohio Republican said in a television interview. “I told the president, there’s no way we’re going to pass one. The votes are not in the House to pass a clean debt limit, and the president is risking default by not having a conversation with us.”

Of course, there are enough votes in the House to open the government and raise the debt limit, which is why Boehner won’t allow a vote to take place. And, of course, Obama had a meeting with Congressional leaders, including Boehner, a few days ago. Senate Democrats have been requesting budget negotiations with House Republicans for months, but the Republicans have refused to meet. What Boehner means when he says “having a conversation” is “giving into our demands”.

Pardon my French, but Boehner is what we used to call at work “a lying sack of shit”.  

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/us/a-federal-budget-crisis-months-in-the-planning.html?ref=politics

http://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/Weekend-in-Washington-yields-little-on-shutdown-4873299.php

P.S. – Pittsburgh 5, St. Louis 3. The Pirates now lead the 5-game series 2-1. It might be over tomorrow.

If You’re Trying to Understand John Boehner

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Speaker of the House John Boehner could end the government shutdown and raise the federal debt limit quite easily by allowing the House of Representatives to vote on those two things alone. There are enough “moderate” Republicans to join with Democrats in passing the necessary legislation, which would sail through the Senate and be supported by the President. The Speaker has chosen instead to demand changes to the Affordable Care Act that Senate Democrats and the President won’t (and shouldn’t) accept.

The debt limit won’t be a problem for a week or so, but why is Boehner refusing to allow a “clean” vote on the shutdown?

Two New Yorker writers offer their opinions at the links below. One argues that Boehner is primarily a coward. The other argues that he is primarily a hack (i.e. that he has no personal convictions). A reasonable conclusion is that he is a cowardly hack.

The two New Yorker articles:

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2013/10/what-is-john-boehner-scared-of.html

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2013/10/darkness-in-washington.html

You can share your thoughts with the Speaker’s office here:

http://www.speaker.gov/contact 

People Like the ACA, Whether They Know It or Not

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In Kentucky, of all places. But Kentucky has a Democratic governor who wants to make it work.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/10/03/1243855/-Kentucky-s-success-makes-a-mockery-of-GOP-Obamacare-foes

Professional Journalists Cover the Shutdown

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Journalist Dan Froomkin, who has worked for the Washington Post and the Huffington Post, makes an excellent point about the responsibility of the press in situations like the government shutdown. The article is called “Shutdown Coverage Fails Americans”:

The political media’s aversion to doing anything that might be seen as taking sides — combined with its obsession with process — led them to actively obscure the truth in their coverage of the votes [in Congress]. If you did not already know what this was all about, reading the news would not help you understand.

Trying to be fair and balanced by splitting the difference between Democrats and Republicans when one side is doing something truly extreme is neither fair nor balanced.

Mr. Froomkin’s opinion piece is available at the link below and is definitely worth reading. It’s Al Jazeera America’s website. Al Jazeera, based in Qatar, recently started a news channel on American cable TV. It’s available in our area, but we would have to pay extra to watch it, even though CNN and Fox News are included in the package we already have. Based on the straightforward way they deliver news on their website, I’d rather get information from Al Jazeera America than CNN or Fox.

Note: At the end of his article, Mr. Froomkin puts in a plug for a new website he’s starting called “Fearless Media”, but that’s o.k. Self-promotion is an honorable American tradition.

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/10/1/reporting-governmentshutdowndemocracy.html

It Should Be Unbelievable, But Isn’t

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As reported this afternoon on the NY Times website:

Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, called House Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio on Wednesday to commit to negotiations on a long-term deficit reduction deal, but only after the House passes the Senate’s bill to reopen the federal government without policy strings attached.

[Reid called Boehner on the phone and also sent this in a letter:]

“Before the House you have the Senate-passed measure to reopen the government, funded at the level that the House chose in its own legislation. I propose that you allow this joint resolution to pass, reopening the government,” Mr. Reid wrote. “And I commit to name conferees to a budget conference, as soon as the government reopens.”

The speaker’s office dismissed it as a surrender demand.

“The entire government is shut down right now because Washington Democrats refuse to even talk about fairness for all Americans under Obamacare,” said Michael Steel, a spokesman for Mr. Boehner. “Offering to negotiate only after Democrats get everything they want is not much of an offer.”

Wait a minute. “After the Democrats get everything they want”? It’s what the Democrats and the rest of us already have! Except for the federal government being on life support, and presumably most Republicans want that little problem to be fixed too.

The Affordable Care Act has gone into effect. It’s not going away. It’s not something that has to be renegotiated. There was an election. The Supreme Court approved it. People are already signing up (although there is so much interest, the new websites are having trouble keeping up with the demand). 

Get over it, Boehner spokesman, and move on to the next crisis!

Earlier today I read a comment from a Republican at the Boston Herald site. She said that delaying the entire ACA for one year was “reasonable”, since some parts of it have already been delayed. She also said it was o.k. to delay it because the thing doesn’t work anyway (the evidence being that thousands of people who visited the websites yesterday had trouble getting through, because thousands of people were trying to get through).

This is the problem we’re having in this country. There are many among us who live in a different reality and use words like “reasonable” in a different way. “Extortion” becomes “negotiation”. As a result, communication becomes terribly difficult. Ideology can certainly cloud your perception of the world. 

http://www.nytimes.com/news/fiscal-crisis/2013/10/02/reid-says-hell-negotiate-once-house-drops-demands/

http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/us_politics/the_lone_republican/2013/10/
day_2_in_obama_holding_federal_government

PS — Someone just left a comment on the previous post asking why it’s bad for the Republicans to want to delay the ACA. That’s their right, of course. The question is how they try to achieve that goal. See the comments on the post below if you’re interested, including a link to another opinion piece.

In the meantime, I’m going to watch some soccer.