… It would be vastly better if there was no shutdown and no default and House Republicans stopped trying to enact an agenda that lost at the polls by threatening the country. But American politics is what it is right now, and given its sorry condition, a shutdown might be the best of very bad options. …EzraKlein/WaPo
Because a shutdown will screw the economy. No one outside of the House wants a delay in the ACA, and neither the Senate nor the White House will let that get through. Obamacare begins on Tuesday.
So a shutdown begins Tuesday. That’s bad. And it costs big time, so it’s hardly a cure for spending. A shutdown is no picnic: but a default would be way, way worse.
A shutdown, after all, is just bad for the economy. A default is catastrophic for it. You’d have to be insanely reckless to permit the federal government to default on its debts. And Boehner believes that House Republicans are insanely reckless and that President Obama isn’t.
But that strategy failed. Boehner’s members refused to wait for the debt ceiling. They want their showdown now. And that’s all for the better. ...EzraKlein/WaPo
Wall Street, says Klein, along with a lot of confident voters, are assuming the shutdown won’t really happen. If it does, and it probably will at this point, the pressure will be on House Republicans. What they’ve been treating like their gang’s territory may turn out to have a machine gun in every window aiming at them.
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There is something pathetic — and dangerous — about the dedication of the tea party faction to this effort. They still see themselves as patriots in 18th century costumes having willed away any memory of their insalubrious beginnings as a political force.
As aboriginals, not yet calling themselves a tea party, they were respected rebels against corporate/government hegemony. But that lasted only months. By the late autumn of their first appearance, corporations were providing them campaign buses and conference money, and the corporate media were stuck to them like barnacles on fish.
A group that really cared about spending and the nation’s economy wouldn’t use up its good will going after a cost-saving healthcare plan and it certainly wouldn’t choose costly political tactics or a catastrophic debt default in an attempt to reinstate insurance companies at the top of the food chain.
We’re talking about a group in our House of Representatives that’s extraordinarily corrupt.
As provocative as it was, the move by House Republicans was an expression of their most basic political goal since they took control in 2010: doing what they can to derail the biggest legislative achievement of Mr. Obama’s presidency. ...NYT
That’s the goal and that’s why we have to face the weird spectacle of confused respondents to pollsters declaring their dislike for “Obamacare” but their relief at having the opportunity of to get reasonable, fair coverage from the Affordable Care Act.