The New York Times ran an important story yesterday tracing the GOP’s government shutdown strategy to a well-planned strategy by conservative groups and elected representatives (“A Federal Budget Crisis Months in the Planning“).
Shortly after President Obama started his second term, a loose-knit coalition of conservative activists led by former Attorney General Edwin Meese III gathered in the capital to plot strategy. Their push to repeal Mr. Obama’s health care law was going nowhere, and they desperately needed a new plan.
Out of that session, held one morning in a location the members insist on keeping secret, came a little-noticed “blueprint to defunding Obamacare,” signed by Mr. Meese and leaders of more than three dozen conservative groups.
It articulated a take-no-prisoners legislative strategy that had long percolated in conservative circles: that Republicans could derail the health care overhaul if conservative lawmakers were willing to push fellow Republicans — including their cautious leaders — into cutting off financing for the entire federal government.
It provides a long, detailed account of the conservative interest groups fueling this campaign, including $200 million from an organization linked to the billionaire Koch brothers.
An article on Friday by Gail Russell Chaddock of the Christian Science Monitor’s DC Decoder looks at the dynamics within House Republicans (“Government shutdown: Why Boehner doesn’t overrule tea party faction“), tracing it back to gerrymandered “Super Republican” districts created in states controlled by the GOP following the 2010 elections.
The article contains links to some fascinating analysis.
Americans reelected President Obama in 2012 and trimmed Republican representation in both houses of Congress – an outcome that he and Democrats took as a national referendum on health-care reform. But the elections also solidified the hold of GOP conservatives on districts whose boundaries were redrawn by victorious Republicans after 2010.
Call it an alternate political universe. The new, bullet-proof GOP districts created voting blocs significantly at variance with the rest of the country, according to data released by David Wasserman, House editor of the Cook Political Report.
NPR ran a interview with Republican Rep. Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania that’s also worth checking out (“Rep. Dent: Congress Has An Obligation To Fund Government“).
Dent predicted that if a “clean” continuing resolution were brought up for a House vote, it would undoubtedly pass.
Then, asked if the Speaker were a “hostage” of a small group of within the most conservative wing of the party, Dent responded:
Well, I’ve often said, you know, there are 232 House Republican members. And there are probably somewhere between, you know, 180 to 200 on a given day, you know, who I would call the, you know, the regular governing wing of the party. And there are a few dozen, you know, who don’t have that same sense of governance. And that’s the reality.
Interesting times indeed.
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sedition [s??d???n] n
1. speech or behaviour directed against the peace of a state
2. (Law) an offence that tends to undermine the authority of a state
3. (Law) an incitement to public disorder
4. Archaic revolt
I think there’s a law against what they are doin’.
“On July 2, 2013, the Obama Administration announced that it would be delaying one of the key requirements of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (commonly known as “Obamacare”).[2] The requirement that all companies which employed more than 50 workers must offer an employee health insurance plan or pay a fine would now be delayed until 2015, according to the Administration.[3] The Administration, however, did not do anything to delay the individual health insurance mandate which was directed and individual people and families, rather than at companies and unions. In response, on July 11, 2013 by Rep. Todd Young (R-IN) introduced the Fairness for American Families Act, which would apply the same delay to the individual mandate requirement.[2]” wikipedia (Fairness for American Families Act (H.R. 2668; 113th Congress)
Why isn’t this being discussed?
The only thing I hear is ranting and name calling.
The issue is not why this and other issues are not being discussed in the present situation.
The issue is why the Republicans in the House think that the only way to get the issue discussed is to shut down the government and/or threaten to default on the US debt.
The Constitution provides ample opportunities to hold discussions, build consensus, contest for votes in elections, etc. which are the methods provided for getting legislation passed or repealed.
Throwing the economy back into recession, increasing unemployment and misery for many, and destroying the country’s credibility as a major power seems all out of proportion with what you have identified as your motivating issue.
It’s not my motivating issue. It is what they identified as their position. Your opinion on how wrong it is doesn’t change what it is.
There certainly is a credibility problem. It is worsened when journalists fail to report the news and want to become the news. Americans continue to die in the battlefield and the military-industrial complex and Wall Street dominate Washington. The buck doesn’t stop with Bush or the tea party. This is all largely a distraction.
Another NYTimes article that indicates there might have been a different spawning of this showdown
“Seeing Opening, House G.O.P. Pushes Delay on Individual Mandate in Health Law
By JONATHAN WEISMAN and ROBERT PEAR
Published: July 9, 2013”
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/10/us/politics/house-gop-pushes-delay-on-individual-mandate-in-health-law.html?pagewanted=all&_r=2&
We get a daily deluge of this via radio, TV, newspapers and Internet. Do we have to continue to flog the finger pointing and blame game here? I liken it to mental mast…tion in that it may feel good but it serves no useful purpose.
I was just thinking, “Gee whiz, you don’t hear much about that budget thingie in the media.”
I, for one, am glad that Ian provided this forum to offset the paucity of opportunities to criticize Republicans.
I thank Ian for sharing the NYT article. It provides clear evidence contrary to the dominant media narrative that, somehow, crazed Republicans stumbled into this mess thorough excessive zeal and carelessness. The NYT article shows this was purposeful and according to an agreed upon plan.
It is like the difference between a murder committed in the heat of passion versus a premeditated and carefully planned killing. A jury tends to be more forgiving of a crime of passion than a coldblooded murder.
This rot is deeper than simply an “uncontrollable” minority within the Republican Congressional Caucus. When the core mission of the opposition party is to obstruct and tear down government rather than participate in governance, the rot is very deep. I hesitate on using the word “sedition” suggested by John Bruce above. But the “patriotism” of these Tea Party representatives and their sponsors falls away as a hollow pretense when they knowingly threaten to destroy the economy, deprive our citizens of very needed services in pursuit of their partisan advantage.
There is a virus of treason which has worked its way into the dominant Republican world view. It is very perverse. These are not my grandfather’s Republicans.