Congress threatening to shutdown unless ACA is defunded/repealed immediately.

[kuronosan]

Is it just me or is there not really a thread talking about this crap?

Are they that worried the law is going to work?

[Ghost_Wheel22]

I'd be worried too if the law I voted down 40+ times turned out to be successful.

[Cantih]

It's too early to say how it's gonna be.

Last time this happened, it was pmuch the whole GOP on board with pushing the debt fight and threatening shutdown.
This time, the pressure is coming from a few dozen Tea Party reps throwing weight around, and that the fact that the GOP generally votes lockstep.

Last time it was which party will blink first.
This time, it's more, what's going to happen to the GOP internally.

[Alarial]

Obama conceded to the Republicans last time, so he's not going to be willing to give even more concessions this time. He's also not going to let his landmark healthcare law die.

[Cantih]

The ACA isn't even in any real danger.
This won't pass the Senate, the President doesn't even need to use his veto.

But as long as all of the over two hundred GOP reps follow the Tea Partiers, there will be a shutdown unlike last time.
The only way it doesn't happen is if they back down (and the TP is ideologically insane, so not gonna happen), or if the old guard of the party pulls a deal, undercuts them, and makes their votes pointless.

But if the second happens, it's basically going to be civil war inside the GOP. And TP is going to use it as a cause to drive to replace them and swell their ranks even more during next year's midterms.
In fact, the President can even make (yet more fucking) concessions on other matters to the GOP old guard to tempt the freeze out. If the GOP takes them, it wrecks their shit, if they don't Obama looks even better, offering compromise but being rebuked.

Basically, Boehner is in a bad fucking spot right now, and Obama isn't in a position he hasn't already been handling for years already.

[Alarial]

I kind of want to see Obama use an executive order, if only to see how it shakes out in the courts.

[BaneTheBrawler]

The Tea Party and GOP in general have succeeded in convincing a lot of people to vote against their own interests (in general). That's great for them in the short term, but they've apparently never heard about the little boy who cried wolf. No one outside the field cares about the budget anymore- we've been hearing about how the government will screech to a halt for years now. At this point, the regular guy on the street, when asked, would probably say "Well they're not doing anything anyway."

The party will either split or grow even more insane. If it splits, the Tea Party will sink back into obscurity, while the Republicans emerge with a more centrist view. Possibly even centrist enough to dominate for a while; Democrats are good at defeat. If the party doesn't split, it will grow increasingly insane and start to shed voters left and right. A new party will emerge to take its place as one of the two main parties. That's ALWAYS been the American paradigm. Party A and Party B. Always with roughly the same values in contention, too. Names are cheap, values are the party's real identity.

[Outlaw]

Oh no! The government might shutdown?! They do so much for us.

Seriously, who cares. Let it.

[Blubbartron]

I think the tens (hundreds?) of thousands of people that would suddenly not get a paycheck anymore would be a little upset.

[Quicklet]

Yeah. Or when the stock market dives 20% and interest rates spike 1-2% the instant there's a government default.

[Ragnus]

I think those numbers are pretty conservative Quick.

[SephYuyX]

Shutdown? SHUTDOWN?!?!

PLEASE DONT THREATEN YET ANOTHER BIMONTHLY SHUTDOWN

Seriously. Why is this shit news? The government has a possible shutdown it seems like every other week. THE FUCKING GOVERNMENT ISNT GOING TO SHUTDOWN

[Quicklet]

It's because the republicans who vehemently oppose obamacare know that once the law starts to kick in, it could become nigh impossible to repeal it (not that they'd be able to do that anyway without taking back the Senate / presidency), so a bunch of them want to make some kind of last stand where they hold the continuing resolution and debt ceiling hostage as bargaining chips. Some of these people actually believe that failing to raise the debt ceiling would have no consequences and that the government can just prioritize its revenues in order to cover the interest on its debt obligations.

Yes, they've been doing this over and over again to the point where you expect them to come back from the brink of self-destruction, but even the suggestion that these actions would not be incredibly damaging to the economy (which is not exactly doing great outside of the stock market) and the power that these members have exerted in the House should be alarming.

The market hasn't priced in a government debt default because, like you suggest, most people believe the republicans are just playing games as usual. A government shutdown would be harmful but life would go on if they came back to the table quickly enough. A default, by most people's accounts, would not. It only takes one miscalculation by the republicans to make it happen. After an election where they were so badly wrong on their polling estimates, they've doubled down on extremism and things like voter suppression because, frankly, that's all they have left short of imploding as a party and reforming into something more moderate and sane.

Okay: to give you an idea on how delusional some of these people are, you had one republican from the House actually touting that their continuing resolution which funds the government through December but strips out funding for obamacare was passed with bipartisan support. The bill got 2 votes from democrats, and both of them had originally voted against obamacare in the first place. So this is the level of delusion we are talking about.

[tyven]

The feeling on the hill is leaning shutdown,in fact only one of my colleagues is confident the gov won't shutdown. We'll know next week I guess.

[Callisto]

I understand this is their last ditch at failing to kill the ACA, but these guys aren't very good with history. This was political suicide when they did it back in the Clinton administration, and that was before the country went to shit; I don't know why they think the people will support them this time around. I seriously don't think I've ever seen a group be this much of sore losers over something that passed both houses and was upheld by the SC...

[Meresgi]

Oh no! The government might shutdown?! They do so much for us.

Seriously, who cares. Let it.

Ummm who is going to collect all our emails/voicemails and the fingerprints from the new Iphone if the government shuts down? Come the fuck on and think man. We need to keep it running!

[archibaldcrane]

I have a hard time believing that Boehner is going to support a government shutdown that he'd have the votes to prevent, just to continue to allow the tea party to terrorize his party and simultaneously accomplish nothing.

[Howie Roary]

heh Boehner

[Byrthnoth]

I want to believe, but I don't think most of the people in Congress feel any strong obligation to do what is right for the country. As long as whatever happens can be blamed on someone else in such a way that the constituents believe them, I don't think it will even hurt their re-election chances. Crossing the aisle and supporting anything Obama wants is going to bring out the hyperconservatives for the primary and lose moderate Republicans their seats in the next election. You'd hope that some of them might have the balls to give up their jobs for the sake of the country, but I don't think they actually will.

[Callisto]

I have a hard time believing that Boehner is going to support a government shutdown that he'd have the votes to prevent, just to continue to allow the tea party to terrorize his party and simultaneously accomplish nothing.

Maybe he's just fronting but he's talking like he's fully on board for it.