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You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / Incremental Progress at the National Sausage-Making Factory

Incremental Progress at the National Sausage-Making Factory

by Anne Laurie|  March 1, 20119:07 pm| 48 Comments

This post is in: Domestic Politics, Republican Stupidity, Teabagger Stupidity

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The Washington Post reports that the “House passes stopgap funding to avert federal shutdown“:

The House on Tuesday approved a stopgap measure that would keep the federal government funded through March 18 and cut $4 billion in spending by targeting programs that President Obama has already marked for elimination.
__
The proposal, which passed the House on a 335-to-91 vote, now goes to the Senate, where it is expected to pass easily. The Senate has set a vote on the bill for 11 a.m. Wednesday; Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said on Tuesday that Senate Democrats support the measure….
__
All but six Republican House members voted in favor. Among the Republicans opposing it was Rep. Steve King (Iowa). King tweeted Tuesday afternoon that he would vote no because it would not eliminate funding for the national health care law and would not include an amendment proposed by Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) that would bar federal funding of Planned Parenthood.
__
The other five Republicans opposing the measure were Reps. Louie Gohmert (Texas), Justin Amash (Mich.), Michele Bachmann (Minn.), Ron Paul (Texas) and Walter Jones (N.C.).
__
House Democrats were divided on the measure: 104 Democrats backed it while 85 opposed it. Two members of Democratic leadership, Democratic Caucus Chairman John Larson (Conn.) and Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (Md.), voted yes; House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), Assistant Minority Leader Jim Clyburn (S.C.) and Democratic Caucus Vice-Chairman Xavier Becerra (Calif.) voted against it.
__
Ahead of the final vote, Democrats offered a motion that would have ended subsidies to oil companies. The measure failed on a 176-to-249 vote, with all but 13 Democrats voting in favor and all Republicans voting “no”.

Meanwhile, Dan Froomkin at the Huffington Post reports “Raucous first caucus for House Tea Partiers Exposes Dangerous Rifts“:

A boisterous first meeting of the House’s Tea Party Caucus on Monday night exposed two potential rifts — one between its members and state-level Tea Party activists, who have no appetite for compromise, and another between its members and Republican Party leaders, who will soon be asking them to do just that.
__
Tea Party leaders from Virginia, Florida and Pennsylvania hotly demanded that the members of the caucus not settle for anything less than defunding the Obama health care law, even on a very short-term basis, attendees told the Huffington Post. They also scoffed at the new Republican target of $61 billion in budget cuts from the rest of this fiscal year, calling it insufficient. And they made it clear Republicans who don’t stand firm will face primary opponents in 2012.
__
“The look on the faces of the members was just unbelievable,” said one attendee, who didn’t want to be identified by name…
__
[D]espite the fact that Republicans symbolically voted to defund Obama’s healthcare law last month, there is no such provision in the short-term budget resolution. That, of course, would be a deal-breaker with the Democrats who control the Senate and the White House.
__
The Tea Party hard-liners just don’t care. “We feel Obamacare is an albatross around the neck of our country. It’s going to sink us,” Stefano said. “So we continue to go at it in every way possible.”
__
Voting to fund it — even for two weeks — “sends the message that it’s not dying,” she said. “The Republicans need to understand this is a key issue.”
__
“I think in general that the Tea Party believes that the very first thing you should do in terms of tackling the spending problem is defund Obamacare,” said fellow speaker Jamie Radtke, a Tea Partier running for Virginia’s U.S. Senate seat.
__
“If you give ground at the very beginning,” she told HuffPost, “then it’s hard to ever make that ground back up again.”

Tea Party to the Republicans: We are sooooo the boss of you! Or, as my people would say, Confusion to our enemies!… not that Steve King and Michele Bachmann weren’t pretty confused already…

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Reader Interactions

48Comments

  1. 1.

    patrick II

    March 1, 2011 at 9:12 pm

    What is the reason the democrats did not pass a budget back when they had a majority? I haven’t really heard this talked about, and it baffles me.

  2. 2.

    Scott

    March 1, 2011 at 9:12 pm

    I’ll admit, I’m going to enjoy watching the teabaggers’ impotent fury over the next few years.

  3. 3.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    March 1, 2011 at 9:18 pm

    Yeah like providing basic health care, a fundimental human right is somehow communist. I hope these people get some awful disease and then have to deal with an insurance company, there would be no greater irony.

  4. 4.

    gbear

    March 1, 2011 at 9:19 pm

    Bachmann is confused like Don Quixote is confused.

    If Don Quixote ran for office now, he’d win on a platform of attacking wind turbines.

  5. 5.

    Loneoak

    March 1, 2011 at 9:21 pm

    @gbear:

    If Don Quixote ran for office now, he’d win on a platform of attacking wind turbines.

    CAP AND TAX!

  6. 6.

    General Stuck

    March 1, 2011 at 9:21 pm

    Obama has already laid down the law, or veto threat on the long term draconian budget for the remainder of this year.

    And no defunding HCR, so it’s on Harry Reid and the chickenshit brigade of conservadems in the senate, to put a halt to this two week funding nonsense, and just let the wingers close down government, like they want.

    King is just impatient, they all want what this is about, and that is defunding HCR, and are hoping senate dems will cave and let them defund it, and PP, for a start. I expect we are going to see something fairly rare in congress, and the senate, and that is majority filibusters, at some point.

    Because I have little faith in Nelson, both of them on this, and the other blue dogs in the senate up for reelection in 2012, for selling the farm, and likely their own mothers along with it. All to polish the tea tard knob in their states, who will never vote for them anywho, no matter how much they grovel.

  7. 7.

    Davis X. Machina

    March 1, 2011 at 9:21 pm

    @patrick II: They wanted to avoid all the will-never-pass-but-will-make-good-attack-ads amendments that the GOP promised to attach to the budget, going into the November elections.

    This Economist piece
    sums up where the players were back in September pretty well.

  8. 8.

    Karen

    March 1, 2011 at 9:27 pm

    @patrick II:

    What is the reason the democrats did not pass a budget back when they had a majority? I haven’t really heard this talked about, and it baffles me.

    I can’t be 100 percent sure but I’d think that possibly the Democratic party may have had a majority but they couldn’t agree. The same problem the Democrats always have, though it’s quite delicious to see the Republicans eat their young. Or is it the young who will eat the Republicans?

  9. 9.

    ppcli

    March 1, 2011 at 9:27 pm

    “Ahead of the final vote, Democrats offered a motion that would have ended subsidies to oil companies. The measure failed on a 176-to-249 vote, with all but 13 Democrats voting in favor and all Republicans voting “no”.”

    But, but, the superkillerdeficitmonster is going to eat us! How can we afford to shovel *taxpayers’* money to private companies? If they can’t make a profit without that money, shouldn’t they be, like, going bankrupt or something?

  10. 10.

    gbear

    March 1, 2011 at 9:28 pm

    The look on the faces of the members was just unbelievable

    Pictures or it didn’t happen. I want to see them.

  11. 11.

    rob!

    March 1, 2011 at 9:28 pm

    I’ll say it, that Tea Party article gave me a hard-on.

  12. 12.

    stuckinred

    March 1, 2011 at 9:32 pm

    For those who didn’t see it there was a plea for funds for a sweet basset stray who needed surgery a few threads back. The goal was $1000 and we (I’m not sure who outside of BJ was in on it) went over in a couple of hours. This place is good.

  13. 13.

    Elvis Elvisberg

    March 1, 2011 at 9:35 pm

    “We feel Obamacare is an albatross around our neck…”… “I think in general that the Tea Party believes that the very first thing you should do in terms of tackling the spending problem is defund Obamacare”

    To hell with the CBO estimates, to hell with the fact that we spend well over twice the OECD average on health care for worse results… the feelings of white people are far more important than facts.

  14. 14.

    mclaren

    March 1, 2011 at 9:36 pm

    So General Crackpot Fake Name dire prediction of fiscal end-of-the-world doom turned out to be bullshit.

    Gee. What a surprise, eh?

    Since essentially everything General Crackpot Fake Name has ever posted has turned out to be bullshit, this was a no-brainer.

  15. 15.

    arguingwithsignposts

    March 1, 2011 at 9:37 pm

    @Elvis Elvisberg:

    To hell with the CBO estimates, to hell with the fact that we spend well over twice the OECD average on health care for worse results… the feelings of white people idiots are far more important than facts.

    FTFY

  16. 16.

    General Stuck

    March 1, 2011 at 9:39 pm

    @mclaren:

    Yawn

  17. 17.

    KG

    March 1, 2011 at 9:39 pm

    The Tea Party is everything they think the Democrats are, which is to say, everything the Talk Radio set has told them for years that the Democrats are: a group of people who are not interested in “compromise”… paraphrasing Limbaugh, Democrats believe compromise is they get everything they want and the Republicans go along with it. Our system is built to build consensus and operate with compromise, the Tea Partiers will have none of it, because they are righteous and good (in their minds) and the rest of us are evil assholes hell bent on destroying the country.

  18. 18.

    Wile E. Quixote

    March 1, 2011 at 9:41 pm

    Ahead of the final vote, Democrats offered a motion that would have ended subsidies to oil companies. The measure failed on a 176-to-249 vote, with all but 13 Democrats voting in favor and all Republicans voting “no”.

    Wait, are the Democrats learning something here? Forcing the Republicans to vote against a measure to stop subsidizing oil companies. Why it’s almost like they’re learning tactics or something. Now if we could just get the Senate to do this sort of thing.

  19. 19.

    Wile E. Quixote

    March 1, 2011 at 9:46 pm

    “I think in general that the Tea Party believes that the very first thing you should do in terms of tackling the spending problem is defund Obamacare,” said fellow speaker Jamie Radtke, a Tea Partier running for Virginia’s U.S. Senate seat.
    __
    “If you give ground at the very beginning,” she told HuffPost, “then it’s hard to ever make that ground back up again.”

    She might be a batshit insane teabagging whore, but Jamie Radtke could teach the Democrats a few things about how to negotiate.

  20. 20.

    stuckinred

    March 1, 2011 at 9:47 pm

    @Wile E. Quixote: First thing I thought when I read it.

  21. 21.

    Comrade Luke

    March 1, 2011 at 9:49 pm

    Since there’s no open thread I’ll post this here.

    This takedown of David Brooks – all of them – is the best I’ve ever read.

  22. 22.

    Wile E. Quixote

    March 1, 2011 at 9:49 pm

    @ppcli:

    But, but, the superkillerdeficitmonster is going to eat us! How can we afford to shovel taxpayers’ money to private companies? If they can’t make a profit without that money, shouldn’t they be, like, going bankrupt or something?

    No, because if we stop giving subsidies to the oil companies it would be soⅽⅰaⅼⅰsm and the terrorists will win because they hate us for our freedoms.

  23. 23.

    karen marie

    March 1, 2011 at 9:49 pm

    @patrick II: @Davis X. Machina: And then after the election, with the “huge” Democratic losses and the stink Republicans made about how “unfair” it was for the Democrats to “ram” the budget through before the end of the session, Democrats decided it would be a really good idea to let the newly-elected teabaggers decide the federal budget.

    Yeah, I don’t understand it either.

  24. 24.

    patrick II

    March 1, 2011 at 9:52 pm

    @Davis X. Machina:
    Thanks. I had no idea that five of the last seven budgets were not passed. It seems the entire country is now being run like a giant game of chicken — holding out until the last second until someone actually crashes.

  25. 25.

    Loneoak

    March 1, 2011 at 9:53 pm

    @Comrade Luke:

    Schadenfreudgasm.

  26. 26.

    CB

    March 1, 2011 at 9:58 pm

    OBAMACARE is the albatross around our necks??

    where the hell have these people been for the last 10 years!

    the lack of awareness, and the willingness to be led of a cliff in the name of tribal loyalty, would be funny if it werent so god damn sad.

  27. 27.

    gbear

    March 1, 2011 at 10:10 pm

    @Comrade Luke: Wow. That was good. And brutal.

  28. 28.

    Martin

    March 1, 2011 at 10:11 pm

    Yeah, this is going to end very badly for the GOP in 2012. Unfortunately for them, the tone for the national debate is coming in the shadow of Walker’s asshattedness. The House needs Walker to knock that shit off or they’re going to step onto stage looking like complete dicks from the outset (which of course they are), but even an apathetic public is having trouble not noticing what’s happening in state capitols.

  29. 29.

    Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen

    March 1, 2011 at 10:11 pm

    What sort of drinks does one serve Purity Purge Party?

  30. 30.

    realbtl

    March 1, 2011 at 10:16 pm

    @Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen:
    Ipecac martini, what else.

  31. 31.

    The Dangerman

    March 1, 2011 at 10:22 pm

    @Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen:

    What sort of drinks does one serve Purity Purge Party?

    Iced Tea with a twist of bitter.

    Edit: Would it be humanly possible for the Right to actually do something on JOBS? Yes, improving the economy means they lose in 2012; newsflash, fuckers, you are going to lose in 2012. Are you really going to tank the economy all the way to 2016?

  32. 32.

    Chuck Butcher

    March 1, 2011 at 10:23 pm

    @Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen:
    I thought that was the Democratic drink…

  33. 33.

    abscam

    March 1, 2011 at 10:25 pm

    @General Stuck: Try “meh,” it works for me.

  34. 34.

    Angry Black Lady

    March 1, 2011 at 10:26 pm

    @stuckinred: that’s fantastic! i didn’t see it or i would have donated. i’m a sucker for animals in need.

  35. 35.

    JCT

    March 1, 2011 at 10:35 pm

    @Comrade Luke

    I read Brooks’ drivel this AM and instantly regretted it – the takedown made me feel better, thanks!

    Hah, when I originally read this part:

    We should adjust pension promises and reduce the amount of money spent on health care during the last months of life so we can preserve programs for those who are growing and learning the most.

    I almost lost my cookies – yes, Brooks you twit – there are those OMG, DEATH PANELS.

    I just don’t know how he makes a living at this.

  36. 36.

    Omnes Omnibus

    March 1, 2011 at 10:36 pm

    @CB: Eventually the tea people will be sadder and wiser people.

  37. 37.

    ppcli

    March 1, 2011 at 10:41 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:
    “Eventually the tea people will be sadder and wiser people.”

    I don’t doubt for an instant that they’ll be sadder. But I’m not as much of an optimist as you otherwise. Though I imagine that their unwisdom may mutate into a slightly different form. (Channeled, no doubt, by a different Koch-funded organization run by Dick Armey.)

  38. 38.

    ppcli

    March 1, 2011 at 10:43 pm

    @ppcli:
    Perhaps it will be called “The New Jacksonians” and everybody will wear their hair shaggy.

  39. 39.

    Cliff in NH

    March 1, 2011 at 10:44 pm

    @patrick II:
    @Davis X. Machina:
    @Karen:
    @karen marie:

    They Never had a majority.

    Lie berman is NOT A Democrat.

  40. 40.

    Phoenician in a time of Romans

    March 1, 2011 at 10:49 pm

    “The look on the faces of the members was just unbelievable,” said one attendee, who didn’t want to be identified by name…

    Yeah, I imagine it was similiar to that on the delegates to the French National Convention when they realised that Robespierre and the Committee of Public Safety hadn’t ordered those guillotines as lawn ornaments…

  41. 41.

    Cliff in NH

    March 1, 2011 at 10:53 pm

    @Cliff in NH:
    A Traitor Among Us? The Dems’ Lieberman Problem
    http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1857307,00.html

  42. 42.

    Mike in NC

    March 1, 2011 at 10:56 pm

    @The Dangerman:

    Would it be humanly possible for the Right to actually do something on JOBS? Yes, improving the economy means they lose in 2012; newsflash, fuckers, you are going to lose in 2012.

    Meanwhile, they have roughly 20 months to return the country to the 19th century.

    Full speed astern, teatards!

  43. 43.

    Jim, Once

    March 1, 2011 at 10:59 pm

    @Comrade Luke: Thank you. That went on my FB page immediately.

  44. 44.

    Nylund

    March 2, 2011 at 12:55 am

    Spending cuts will result in major job losses at a time when unemployment remains very high and the private sector still isn’t hiring. Every (decent) economist knows this. But, I bet, no matter how thoroughly you explained this to a teabagger, it wouldn’t matter. Their mentality is, “my team wants X and if we don’t get X, we’ll be mad.” The fact that X doesn’t actually do any good doesn’t matter. X could be anything. It doesn’t have to be spending cuts. it could be purple balloons. its purely a tribal mentality. They could say they want deficit reductions and you could point out that ACA helps towards that goal, but that doesn’t matter. Its not about the goal, its simply a mindframe that the world is a zero-sum game, that if their tribe gets what they want, then the other tribe must have lost something. There is no concept of anything being mutually beneficial or “good for America” as a whole.

  45. 45.

    sfp

    March 2, 2011 at 12:55 am

    @Wile E. Quixote: Knowing that none of your priorities are going to pass this term makes the tactics a whole lot simpler.

  46. 46.

    liberal

    March 2, 2011 at 8:09 am

    @Cliff in NH:
    Uh, they didn’t need Lieberman for a majority, did they? They needed him for a supermajority.

  47. 47.

    liberal

    March 2, 2011 at 8:11 am

    @Martin:

    Yeah, this is going to end very badly for the GOP in 2012. Unfortunately for them, the tone for the national debate is coming in the shadow of Walker’s asshattedness.

    I hope you’re right, but where’s the polling data that shows this? Last I heard re Fed shutdown the public was something like 1/3 blames the Rethugs, 1/3 blames the Dems, and the idiot independent/undecideds blamed both for playing politics.

  48. 48.

    rapier

    March 2, 2011 at 8:58 am

    The deficit cannot be cut. Maintaining the borrowing and spending is an existential necessity for GDP growth currently and has been for 30 months. On the other hand the global markets cannot support the 8 trillion in Treasury borrowing, that is new borrowing and rolling over old borrowing, over the next two years at anywhere close to current low interest rates. It will need the help of the Fed to buy up the Treasury bonds with printed money which will flow into the financial world where it will bid up various assets classes, stocks and commodities or freaking gold and let’s not forget oil. So our overlords will get even more wealthy and social cohesion will continue to devolve.

    Now you don’t have to believe this story but at least consider the possibility that it is generally true. What it means is we are in an interlocking series of dilemmas in the political economy and that makes perfect sense. After all the political world is a total fail. Failure of the political sphere guarantees failure in the economic because they are totally entwined. The economic failure and the political failure, or to put it another way the failure of governance, are perfectly coincident.

    As whacked as you think various flavor of alt economic analysis are from Austrian to low Tea Party to anarchist it must be appreciated that the root of all of them a coming to grips with the collapse of the pose WWII order. We are officially in interesting times and thinking in terms of the old playbook, ie. let’s deficit spend till things are right, is simply not possible. You can wish it and hope it and write a billion pages on how it is totally rational and moral but history doesn’t care about rational or moral.

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