Congress threatening to shutdown unless ACA is defunded/repealed immediately.

[kuronosan]

It's not as bad as it seems because the people who don't give a shit are still being paid.

[Talint]

It's not as bad as it seems because the people who don't give a shit are still being paid.

There's much truth to this.

Start throwing in flight delays and cancellations and they'll fix that shit right quick.

[Xno Kappa]

It's crazy how Republicans are even trying to spin this nonsense as far as blame goes. The party labeled big-government by they themselves are all of a sudden the party of no-government lol.

[Byrthnoth]

Good job, Congress!

[notorious bum]

Only these Republicans could make these Democrats look good by comparison and anyone can see how eager partisan Democrats have been for this shutdown to happen as proof of Republican malfeasance.

Here's one of the better analyses of what has been happening.

When an “Act of God” happens–a flood, a hurricane, an earthquake–it is always the least among you who suffer the greatest losses. People without money to rebuild, who live in the floodplain, who depend on interrupted services, who couldn’t afford insurance, who didn’t have a car to evacuate, who didn’t, who couldn’t, who can’t. Those are the people who suffer most from “Acts of God.” God makes distinctions like that. God favors the wealthy, who have the resources to prepare for the worst, to endure it, and to rebuild afterwards. For everyone else, good luck and good night.

God is a mean son-of-a-bitch that way. But so is the market. When a famine happens–which is to say, when conditions of mass starvation start piling up the bodies enough so you notice–the underlying cause is never an absolute absence of food, not in a world with a global market like ours. The food is there; it’s just too expensive for (some) people to buy. So yes, a drought, crop failure, disease, and other unanticipated events can start the ball rolling towards famine. But it’s always, always, always the underlying problem of food insecurity that makes a potential famine into a reality. People only starve to death when they don’t have the money to buy food, so only the poor starve when the prices go up.

The US government is also a mean bastard-ass son of a bitch. When a funding shortfalls happen, they have a plan, a plan to make sure that the least among us suffer the most. When the government “shuts down,” it has a plan for how to continue, because things don’t really shut down when there is a shutdown. A shutdown is a state of exception when the government gets to do things it normally can’t do, like close the Environmental Protection Agency, de-fund WIC, close the national parks, send a lot of government employees home, and all sorts of other stuff. A shutdown is a moment in which a choice gets made about which laws to obey and which laws to ignore, when the government gets to decide that some people are essential and some people aren’t.

This is a choice, a choice that happened long before Ted Cruz was a thing we had to know about. This is a choice the government made. Republicans believe that WIC should be de-funded and the EPA should close down, and while the Democrats say they disagree, they were willing to compromise, temporarily, as long as everyone agreed that the important stuff, the essential stuff, would continue.

Partisans can’t see this, even the smart ones. And sure, republicans who think it was all Obama’s intransigence that caused this are living in fantasy land. But it takes two to tango, and the Democrats have plenty of blood on their hands, enough that it doesn’t really matter who has more. Ted Cruz gets to play maniac, and the DNC gets to play its favorite role, the reasonable liberal who doesn’t actually have the power to do anything. When the Tea-Party took a hostage, the Democrats said, “Go Ahead. Make my day.”

Seriously. If a government shutdown meant that planes would be grounded, it would never have happened. If a government shutdown meant the NSA would turn off the lights, not a single Republican would have signed on. If it meant that soldiers would stop killing, that police would stop putting people in jail, or that any of the many things that the government does to keep the economy running would come to a halt, it would be a cold day in hell before Ted Cruz would make himself the face of the shutdown. But the Office of Management and Budget helpfully requires every federal agency to have a plan for all the important stuff to continue, if ever there’s a shutdown. They must distinguish between essential services and inessential services, between the government functions that matter and those that don’t. That means that when the Republicans threaten to blow up the government if they don’t get everything they want, they know that the technocrats won’t let them hurt anyone who matters. The OMB won’t let them hurt the business community, or wreck the economy, or imperil America’s status as world’s warmonger. They know that poor people will suffer the most, and rich people will suffer the least. There are some things that transcend partisan divisiveness.

http://thenewinquiry.com/blogs/zungu...ially-vicious/

[tyven]

I don't know really what the news is saying since I'm more or less here all day, but I can tell you that the shutdown is 100% the Tea Party. Republicans didn't want it, Democrats certainly didn't want it, it's all the Tea Party (~30-40 members of the House). So there's a few theories being thrown around as to why Boehner allowed this.

1) Boehner hates Obama and health care and America and freedom and puppies and wants nothing more than to spend all of his energy shutting down the Affordable Care Act before stealing Christmas. Shutdown happened because he honestly wants to get rid of the AFA and will stop at nothing to do so.

2) Boehner loves being Speaker and doesn't want to give that up. Majority in the House means whoever can get to 218, and without the 30-40 Tea Party votes in their camp, Republicans don't have 218. Boehner loses the Speakership, Republicans lose their choice committee chair seats. Therefore he's doing what he can to keep a Tea Party rebellion from happening so they can continue to control the House.

3) Boehner knows full well what a government shut down will do and orchestrated this on purpose. He wants the blame to fall on the Tea Party so that when the time comes, they'll be marginalized and ostracized. They all come from safe districts, so a Democrat wouldn't take their place and a more agreeable Republican might. The entire shutdown is a strategy to exorcise the Tea Party from Congress.

4) (Least likely but most favorite) Boehner sees himself as literally the last gatekeeper between America and someone like Eric Cantor taking over the Speaker position and destroying the country. He's pulling out all the stops to make sure he keeps the seat because he is the only thing standing between us and Extreme Takeover: Tea Party Edition.

as exciting as 3 and 4 are its number 2. The entire party is being held hostage by 40 hardliners and Boehner is their puppet because he loves being speaker.

[Cantih]

So there's a few theories being thrown around as to why Boehner allowed this.

1 and 4 would require Boehner to personally and truly believe in something, so that's right out.

3 is a possibility, but it's a lot riskier than I think he thinks it is. It's essentially political chemotherapy. But like that, it's a race to see what dies first, the body (unfortunately in this case, the entire fucking nation) or the cancer. Sadly, the cancer is completely curable by surgery, but the patient won't submit to being cut. Maybe it gets Tea Partiers out of seats (and as you say, those seats are safe, but I doubt the tards that voted them in will change their vote), but the way public opinion is working, it's going to also eat into the non-safe, non-tea republican seats at the same time, and this is largely going to yield congress to democrats.

2 is where my money is though. Even if the needed republican reps cross the aisle to pass a clean bill, I doubt it'll be a full defection to the other party, so on paper he'll be able to hold on to the position.

[Azull]

2 with a dash of 3?

[archibaldcrane]

It's not just that Boehner loves being speaker, it's that the thought of him going down in THIS way makes him go

http://weknowgifs.com/wp-content/upl...e-this-gif.gif

Being brought down by infighting amongst your own party before you finally give in to the Democrats is a particularly ignoble ending for a House Speaker.

[Byrthnoth]

I still think the tea party people are just Ron Swanson-ing and are probably patting each other on the back for a job well done.

[ronin sparthos]

#2, final answer. #4 is quite charming though, John Boehner, a true American hero. *GI Joe track here*

I still think the tea party people are just Ron Swanson-ing and are probably patting each other on the back for a job well done.

Well, they were sent to Congress to do this. As far as they're concerned, the constituents are happy so who gives a shit about anything else?

[archibaldcrane]

I still think the tea party people are just Ron Swanson-ing and are probably patting each other on the back for a job well done.

They pretty much campaigned on "we're gonna fuck shit up" - they're just living up to campaign promises.

[Talint]

I'm sure Boehner is going to enjoy his position as minority leader even more after 2014.

Oh who am I kidding, he's going to announce retirement way before that happens.

[ringthree]

I'm sure Boehner is going to enjoy his position as minority leader even more after 2014.

Oh who am I kidding, he's going to announce retirement way before that happens.

It is going to be very difficult for the Republicans to lose the house with the most recent round of redistricting.

[Callisto]

http://www.theonion.com/articles/the...t-obama,34074/

[archibaldcrane]

I'm sure Boehner is going to enjoy his position as minority leader even more after 2014.

It is going to be very difficult for the Republicans to lose the house with the most recent round of redistricting.

This. Only way he's losing his job in 2014 is if the Tea Party ousts him. MAAAAYBE if they breach the debt ceiling the Republicans could be doomed in 2014 but I doubt it.

[Talint]

This. Only way he's losing his job in 2014 is if the Tea Party ousts him. MAAAAYBE if they breach the debt ceiling the Republicans could be doomed in 2014 but I doubt it.

Oh yes. I'm also equally cynical. But if this horse shit doesn't cause a wave election to overcome the insane gerrymandering, then nothing will.

Also you forgot number five:

Boehner is making sure this drains the Tea Party out so when it comes time to break the Hastert rule for the debt ceiling, the Tea Party won't care.

[archibaldcrane]

Hey Tyven, what are the odds that this goes another couple weeks to the debt ceiling, at which point Boehner finally proposes a clean bill to fund the government and raise the ceiling with no stipulations, because the republicans won't back off delaying Obamacare as a condition for anything?

[ringthree]

Hey Tyven, what are the odds that this goes another couple weeks to the debt ceiling, at which point Boehner finally proposes a clean bill to fund the government and raise the ceiling with no stipulations, because the republicans won't back off delaying Obamacare as a condition for anything?

Boehner's office has already hinted the debt ceiling will be handled separately and not subject to the Hastert rule.

[tyven]

Hey Tyven, what are the odds that this goes another couple weeks to the debt ceiling, at which point Boehner finally proposes a clean bill to fund the government and raise the ceiling with no stipulations, because the republicans won't back off delaying Obamacare as a condition for anything?

many think it will last until debt ceiling deadline. zippy chance is the funding CR clean.

Boehner is working on a "framework" of a plan that he can get majority GOP support on, it will most likely have some ACA provisions in it (e.g., medical device tax repeal and possibly changing the definition of full time work to 40 instead of 30 hours/week) but no individual mandate delay, defunding, etc