Why Boehner is moving fast: Heritage Action, RedState surprisingly okay w/ short-term debt-limit hike, so he can’t dawdle…
— Robert Costa (@robertcostaNRO) October 10, 2013
Robert Costa has been one of my go to sources for Speaker to the Teabaggers role, although I suspect that his sources are closer to the leadership loyalist faction than the suicide club of the House GOP, but when Red State has an effective veto on policy, I just want to drink.
The Dangerman
I hope they pass a 6 week deal tomorrow; yes, Republicans, I double dog dare you to threaten a default exactly 6 weeks out, on 11/22/2013, the 50th Anniversary of …
…make that triple dog dare, assholes.
schrodinger's cat
HALP! I is being ruled by morons.
Original Lee
This might be why the Kooks are pushing for a resolution.
aimai
Did you guys see this little note up at TPM that the House Republican leadership changed the House rules at the eleventh hour right before the shut down to make sure that no dissatisfied Republican or Democrat could force a vote on the Senate’s clean CR? They really didn’t bumble into the shut down. They were intent on doing the shut down from the get go.
piratedan
at times I long for the center right/marxist/nazi state that GOPpers claim we live in so Obama could simply arrest these treasonous bastards and stick them in one of these FEMA black site camps that they fervently claim exist; where they can be incarcerated with other true patriots awaiting the arrival of the Oathkeepers to free them and lead the Christianist jihad that we so fervently need.
Jamey
They’ll fold faster than Superman on laundry day.
DanF
Dear god. RedState holds that much influence? The Titanic is going down people. Will the business interests grab the few remaining lifeboats or just go down with it?
Yatsuno
I was at dinner last night with the work Dawg and we were discussing this. It is happening exactly as I predicted: they’ll cover Wall Street’s ass before re-opening the government. Becuz gubmint does nothing amirite?
Comrade Jake
Well Erick Erickson thinks this is an effing brilliant plan!
Yeah, because Obama’s going to work to fix the website so that people can keep exploring options in the exchanges, only to then delay things for a year. God these people are fucking delusional.
schrodinger's cat
What do the Republicans really want? What is their endgame? Because what they are doing now is not helpful electorally.
Greg
Some tiny bit of sanity from the Republican side, at least. I’ll be glad to see the country’s and the world’s financial systems remain un-destroyed for at least a short time.
Plus, of course, the tea-tards who think default would be no big deal will be that much more pissed off at the ‘RINO’s, and so the cracks in the Republican caucus continue to grow.
dmsilev
Commissar Erick Erickovich approves. Well, sort of.
Excelsior! Onwards to VICTORY!
Redshirt
Well if Jim DeMint and Erick Bin Erick are for it, then it must be great!
Botsplainer
@piratedan:
I don’t know if the Oathkeepers are up for sustained tactical operations without a sustaining breakfast of hashbrowns and chocolate glazed donuts.
http://www.barefootandprogressive.com/2010/03/rand-paul-throws-a-play-soldier-dress-up-party-for-obese-white-men.html
Redshirt
@schrodinger’s cat: DEATH AND DESTRUCTION. Also, a nice big payoff.
RaflW
And I suspect Heritage Action is OK with the debt limit deal because a chunk of Wall Street is ready to fund Republican primaries from the left.
Petorado
Costa noting that Republicans trying to set up firewall against Obama minting trillion dollar coin so that Republicans can once again take hostages:
schrodinger's cat
@Redshirt: The monster they are creating is going to end up eating them too.
Crashman06
Great, so we all get to stress about the world economy melting down in another six weeks? Don’t you think the crazies will be even more empowered by then?
dmsilev
@Petorado: But there’s also the joker in the deck, which is that Boehner might not be able to get to 217 votes with just Republicans, given the maniacs he has to work with. Which brings this into play:
Boehner’s balls are in a vise, and both the Tea Party and Nancy Pelosi are eyeing the handle.
RareSanity
So…can someone explain to me why we won’t be watching this same rerun in 6 weeks?
aimai
@Petorado: Holy shit.
piratedan
@Botsplainer: part of a balanced breakfast! ooooo damn the FDA!
RaflW
Oh, and anyone who tells you that markets are rational, or that investors are smart at predicting things? The freakin’ Dow is up 200 points based on nothing but 1) speculation that 2) the debt ceiling will be extended a frippin’ six weeks and 3) the shutdown continues.
I believe the term of art is irrational exuberance.
Comrade Jake
“Some people say I’m not very bright. Well those people aren’t very bright.” – Erick Erickson, boy genius.
Face
Lemmie get this straight: they’re going to temporarily increase borrowing power, but keep the gov’t shut down in the meantime? Because Obama and Dems wont negotiate (rightly so), doesn’t this guarentee the shutdown lasts a minimum of 6 more weeks? There’s NO WAY the teatards will let them settle the budget issues before then and “only” hold the deficiet hostage if the GOP has just capitulated on the ceiling and may do so again.
If I’m a gubbmint worker, I’m expecting to be SOL until at least 2014.
Botsplainer
I really love this Oathkeeper photo.
http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2011/winter/are-the-oath-keepers-really-patriots-
Mark S.
Erik Erickson being the new face of Teabaggerism isn’t the worst development in the world.
RP
I recently read this very clever short story about a journalist in the 1930s who writes alternate history novels on the side. He’s trying to come up with a plot for a novel about an alternate ending to the civil war. One where Lee surrenders instead of taking his forces into the mountains and turning to guerilla tactics. It becomes clear that we’re actually reading an alternate history where the civil war never really ended, and the writer in the story is imagining our world. The story ends with a southerner assassinating the vice president at this event that the guy is covering, and he realizes that the south will never stop trying to rise. His children and grandchildren and great grandchildren will be dealing with this for generations.
What a crazy imagination!
RaflW
NPR had two useful stories yesterday about the shutdown’s economic impacts. One, importers/exporters are starting to get hosed by the dozens of US gov’t agencies that can’t inspect or process their goods. Two, mortgage originations are starting to get hamstrung by the shutdown.
Of course, Fox set the tone early on with their “I don’t feel anything, do you?” bullshit. They can’t or won’t imagine that some shutdown impacts take a few days or weeks.
But just ask the mom and pop hotels (or frankly, even the big chains) and cafes outside Yosemite. Or Zion. Or Yellowstone. Or…
The Dangerman
@Face:
I don’t think so; for the same reason Boehner blinked on the debt ceiling (“Wall Street Money” called him and asked him, I’m sure far more politely, if he was out of his motherfucking mind having some of his caucus come out to say a default was no big deal), they can’t go through the Holiday Season on shutdown. Too many businesses don’t make their numbers with shitty holiday sales
peach flavored shampoo
@Face: What’s the guarantee that, come November 20th or so, it’s not kicked down the road another 6 weeks?
The GOP could do this forever. A bad precedent to set.
Corner Stone
@The Dangerman:
IMO, it’s a little premature to conclude what Boehner “blinked” on or not.
But, also IMO, the Wall St. guys can call and excoriate Boehner all they want. There ain’t shit else he can do about any of the people holding him hostage.
Comrade Dread
@RareSanity: No. We will. That’s the plan. 6 more weeks of market jitters. 6 more weeks of people wondering if the government is going to screw itself and the world so House Republicans can play Braveheart and defend us from the oppression of affordable health insurance.
If these asshats gave a damn about the country, they’d retire the debt limit.
I really don’t understand what is so gorram hard about deciding how much the US is going to go into debt or how much of a surplus the government when you’re actually deciding what the budget will be.
jl
If a political leader can lead only those who do not lead themselves and no one follows who can evade being lead by the leader, can the political leader lead even himself?
I think we are into that kind of conceptual territory now.
Any logic mavens can help out on where this puts Boehner?
Perhaps he needs to switch barbers?
Punchy
Yeah, but for the mouthbreathers (and likely GOP voters) who cant connect the dots, it’s shutdown, my ass. Apparently these fuckers have no idea what the government actually does for them.
amk
So who thinks this ends with Boehner unable to whip the vote for a 6wk extension and then begging Pelosi to bail him out?
dmsilev
Administration reaction, via the Times:
KG
@schrodinger’s cat: they want a lighter skinned president, preferably from the South and from their party (though I suspect that they’ll settle for one of the last two). They want to live in a utopian version of what they think this nation was 50-60, 100, 175 years ago. But with the internet and cars and drivable roads. They aren’t just looking for a pony, they are looking for a herd of unicorns
hitchhiker
@dmsilev:
You win the internet today for that image.
peach flavored shampoo
@dmsilev: Hot damn. The O-clang has found his spine.
schrodinger's cat
@KG: Yes that’s what GOP voters want, I was asking something more specific, what is the plan of the GOP leadership in Congress, some intrepid reporter should ask them this question. What is it they are trying to achieve by endangering global financial stability.
ETA: What they are doing is not terribly, what’s the word for it, patriotic.
PeakVT
@aimai: A link would be helpful.
Cermet
I knew the mother thuggers wouldn’t crash the debt ceiling because that would be the best action they could ever do for the demorats. Even wally street would turn on them much less all the old farts expecting their checks. Of course, once we get to the point those old farts lose their checks due to the shut down, again, the thugs will fold like a cheap suit. Funny how the teabaggers are the worst cry babies and cowards – pain for everyone but if they get nicked, they’ll scream like the babies they are; fucking greatest generation were the most self righteous entitled cowardly generation. Don’t forget, the Russians did 70% of all the fighting in WW II and suffered orders or magnitude more deaths than the US did.
Roger Moore
Eternal night averted, rooster crows.
IowaOldLady
The whole govt worker situation leaves me baffled. Congress voteed to pay them, so why not let them work? What’s the point of not doing that?
IowaOldLady
Also, I miss the edit button.
Belafon
Reid should take the bill, strip everything out and turn it into a clean CR, and send it back to the House.
peach flavored shampoo
@IowaOldLady: As I understand, the House voted to pay them. The Senate did not, thanks to a block by a GOP Senator.
PeakVT
@IowaOldLady: Stop trying to use logic. This entire situation is insane. The Republicans at this point are people who just literally cannot process facts – no global warming, plenty of WMDs in Iraq, no harm from a default. They’re nucking futz.
Anoniminous
@peach flavored shampoo:
Politically having the GOP kicking the can down the road to November 4, 2014 is the best thing that could happen. Obama and the Dems could “nationalize” the election and tie every single GOP House member to the mess.
Economically it wouldn’t be all that wonderful. We’d see a 4 to 8 percent drop in GNP which gets us perilously close to Depression levels. If the $500 trillion of interest rate derivatives and $60 trillion in currency derivatives go south (h/t to Schrodinger’s Cat) we will be in a Depression.
Elliot Rosewater
it gets worse
Robert Costa ✔ @robertcostaNRO
So, as much as some conservatives are wary of plan, Heritage Action/RedState position makes whipping 6-wk ext a lot easier for leadership
How sad is Rush to find out Eric Erickson is running the GOP
Elliot Rosewater
it gets worse
Robert Costa ✔ @robertcostaNRO
So, as much as some conservatives are wary of plan, Heritage Action/RedState position makes whipping 6-wk ext a lot easier for leadership
How sad is Rush to find out Eric Erickson is running the GOP
Patricia Kayden
@Crashman06: Exactly. I don’t understand why the Dems are going for this. How is punting for 6 weeks just to face the same nightmare again a good thing?
TAPX486
Let’s see we will extend the debt limit for 6 weeks while discussing the GOP wish list. The negotiations will be about how to surrender to the tea party demands There will be no democratic items on the table. Man what a deal. Tell the GOP to pound sand
zzyzx
@RP: That’s a great story (I read it too) but there needs to be a ban on Alternate History stories having an author writing a AH story that happens to be our world. Becoming very cliched.
Patricia Kayden
@dmsilev: Sounds good to me.
Botsplainer
@Comrade Dread:
This has been gutting economic activity for the past couple of weeks. Calls from people attempting big moves have slowed to a trickle.
Greg
@Patricia Kayden:
The Republican party is going to fall apart on this. But it would really, really suck if they managed to delay their falling apart long enough to bring down the country at the same time.
So I’m in favor of taking any clean debt limit extension of any length, the same way I’m in favor of the crazy person putting down the gun, even if the rest of the hostage situation isn’t resolved yet.
Corner Stone
@TAPX486: It sounds crazy when you say it out loud, but yeah, pretty much.
Redshirt
@Patricia Kayden: Because you could plausibly pin the destruction of the world economy on the Dems if they refused to pass a clean Debt Ceiling bill, even if it’s only for 6 weeks.
It’s a good strategic move for the Insanity Party. If they can pass it, which I doubt.
schrodinger's cat
@Botsplainer: If we go into the recession again Republicans can blame Obama while MSM bots sagely nod their heads.
Patrick
@Punchy:
Amazing isn’t it?! What the hell did the Republicans think a shutdown would entail? And believe me, this is Republicans in that Utah county driving it.
I guess one good thing with a shutdown is that Republicans are slowly learning what their government actually does for them.
Tim C.
Sadly, it turns out it’s not a clean increase at all. Via the GOS it’s basically another ransom note that also weaponizes the debt limit by disallowing ‘extraordinary measures’ when it expires. So this one’s gonna be a no.
Corner Stone
@Redshirt:
And this is where we get into what the definition of “is” is. And by that I mean, what will the two sides agree “clean” truly means, at the end of the day?
IowaOldLady
@Tim C.: Yeah, because as I understand it, “extraordinary measures” doesn’t refer just to thinks like a billion dollar coin. It’s the juggling that’s been going on since May when we actually hit the debt ceiling.
Or maybe the Tea Party doesn’t know this. I’m shocked by how little they know.
hoodie
@Cermet: A stupid statement on many levels. Clue: Tom Brokaw is not a member of the Greatest Generation, the members of which are mostly dead or in their late 80’s and 90’s. A lot of folks in those post war generations live under some illusion that they inherited their parents’ achievements and sacrifices, when they actually had the fucking world handed to them and managed to fuck it up. That’s who we’re talking about.
Corner Stone
@Tim C.:
Ah, I’m not too worried about that extra. It has to be an overt opening to “give something” for negotiations.
Anyone who proposed that idea as serious would have to be crazy..to..think…
.
Waaaiiiittt a second.
The Dangerman
@Corner Stone:
OK, true enough.
No, if Boehner has to choose between Wall Street and the Tea Party, it’s an easy call; of course, the Tea Party will cut off Boehner’s Balls, but life as a Gelding will be far easier for him with Wall Street on his side.
kooks
@Petorado: No, I think it’s worse than blocking the trillion dollar coin. “Extraordinary measures” is what the Treasury has already been doing to avert default. It’s how we are technically already past the debt limit, but the Treasury shifts funding around to give us a few extra months breathing room. I think that’s what blocking extraordinary measures would do – it would make default that much easier and place a firm November 22nd deadline.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/house-republicans-mull-short-term-debt-limit-hike
Roger Moore
@IowaOldLady:
No. The House voted to pay them back pay when the government starts up again, but the Senate is sitting on the bill thanks to John Cornyn (R-Tx). Besides, letting them work involves a whole bunch of other expenses- keeping buildings open, providing them with supplies, paying the contractors the work with, etc.- that make the whole government much more expensive.
Fuzzy
@Cermet:You should thank their self righteous ass you are not speaking German or Japanese and able to voice your opinion or vote. They were given a job and did it for the duration without whinning like you are. Grow up or at least grow a set.
Original Lee
I think I broke my hand with a facepalm. Just overheard a coworker inform a friend of his that ACORN rebranded themselves and won the navigator contracts for Obamacare.
Redshirt
I hope we all see how the NAZI’s could take over all of Germany so easily.
People – even ostensibly decent people – can be so easily swayed to go along with insanity, until it’s too late. And once it’s too late, there’s little you can do. I’m sure we all know one Wingnut who’s an otherwise OK person, until the subject turns to politics.
I have been in a state of shock for the last 30 years watching the USA swallow obvious bullshit, and it only gets worse. And we’re the “Land of the Free”! Right?
chopper
@dmsilev:
yes, let’s relitigate the debt ceiling right when holiday shopping season begins. what could possibly go wrong?
Corner Stone
@The Dangerman:
As I understand it, Boehner is already wealthy and lives pretty much an unambitious life outside of his role as Speaker. So, having a Wall St. sinecure may be pretty great for him or maybe just a perk one day.
To partially agree to your point, I do sometimes wonder if Boehner has been playing the “my peeps are crazy!!” line to Big Business so he can string something juicy out of the money guys when he saves the world and exits the stage.
It comes down to if he’s savvy enough to pull that off, I think he is, and whether he really cares to be Speaker as much as every pundit tells us he does. And I don’t really know what to think about that.
Corner Stone
@Fuzzy: Cermet should thank the Russians?
Corner Stone
@Original Lee:
…that’s *not* true?
I thought ACORN secretly commanded the fourth branch of our govt?
Corner Stone
There’s no one I turn to more than Rep Jeb Hensarling R-TX when it comes to fiscal sanity and probity.
Original Lee
@Corner Stone: They’re all part of Obama’s Kitchen Cabinet, apparently, and the Obamacare navigator gigs are the progressive version of wingnut welfare. Being the Secret Commander of the Media does not pay (enough).
TAPX486
This entire dance is a wste of time. The differences between the Democrats and the GOP, even the sane ones, are so large I don’t think they can be bridged in 6 weeks, 6 months or 6 years. It is a clash of world views as to the role of the government in our society. The Democrats see a role for an active government in the 21st century and the GOP wants to go back to the Articles of Confederation (and I suspect some would be happy in a pre-Magna Charta era). There is no middle ground for compromise, even if the Tea party didn’t view compromise as surrender.
Anoniminous
@chopper:
If the Big Box retailers can’t stock their shelves by importing cheap junk from China it really doesn’t matter what the Consumer Confidence number is.
Punchy
Now that Obama has just endorsed the House plan, can we pop some popcorn and watch as that endorsement will be the bill’s Kryptonite? The GOP is going to tear themselves in half voting for “Obama’s bill”, or whatever the teatards will brand it.
I wish all the GOP congressmen would get photographed with Obama. Every one would lose their primary to a mouthbreather, and Dems would clean up. Cleek’s Law may actually save this country….
IowaOldLady
@Original Lee: Whoa! You should move away. That kind of stuff will rot your brain.
dogwood
@schrodinger’s cat:
This is so true. But it’s a long process. I steer clear of all the articles about the end of the GOP. I knew they were misguided in 08 just as they were misguided in 12 and are off the mark now. The election of 2008 was a cultural earthquake more than a political one. These kooks in Congress think they hate Barack Obama, but they really hate the people who voted for him – twice. And now they are dead set on punishing the people who shattered their parochial views of who we are as a nation. The biggest mistake extreme partisans on both sides make is believing every election is the most important ever, and every policy issue or budget item represents some hill to die on. Politics is a series of advances and retreats. Few things are permanent and success depends on adaptability.
Belafon
@Punchy: He said he would sign an extension but not this one. It has too much attached to it.
Sylvainsylvain
I’ll say it again.
I’m an hourly government employee. They’re not going to give me any back pay, I’m just going to have to do my work later.
So I can’t take a different/better job (which doesn’t exist) and squeeze ANOTHER job into my schedule – the bosses are just going to expect me to do a good job, which is what I’m going to do anyway.
I know there are thousands of us. It’s not like every government employee is a member of a union, has benefits, etc.
IowaOldLady
@Sylvainsylvain: And even govt workers who are working now aren’t being paid now. Plenty of people live paycheck to paycheck, and the mortgage is due.
Keith P.
Erickson’s latest screeds have very much had the tone of a boss in charge of the show.
Botsplainer
This was an interesting diary at the GOS.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/10/10/1245997/–How-FOX-News-Accidentally-Blew-Up-the-GOP
I’m reminded of what happened with Terri Schiavo, where epistemic closure and manipulative Right to Life activists convinced congressional, gubernatorial and presidential staffers and politicians that the volume of messages that they were receiving was reflective of a wave of support for Federal intervention, and that the polling data (which solidly and unequivocally declared the opposite) was wrong.
They got caught flatfooted.
Gene108
I think this is a nullification crisis.
Jackson and Lincoln handled it by sending the Army in to sort things out.
I think Obama has a historical precedent for another way to handle this situation.
Original Lee
@IowaOldLady: Wish I could, but the cubefarm seating assignments won’t let me.
virginia
@amk: @aimai: This is my most fervent hope as it would likely mean the reopening of the federal government.
What’s so disgusting about all this is that Boehner has obviously made the craven calculation that the only way to get the DL thing raised is to offer up the Federal Government to the TP in exchange. Without the TP — looking to cannibalize the government (and the Civil Service in particular) — Boehner can’t save his own sorry ass by seeing the DL thingie lifted.
I’d rather have these crazy ass Teapeople say, Hell, NO, John, and have Boehner have to go on his knees to Pelosi for help help help. At which point she can p*****whip him into submission.
Sorry, shouldn’t say such pussy things, not my nature, but I’m just sooooo pissed off by all this. It really is just so unbelievably corrupt and craven. Sad sad day for the USA for sure. Let’s hope that having lanced this infection, once we do, things will finally begin to change for the better.
Starting with a close look at the Kock Brothers books.
Botsplainer
In order to refresh memories, here is the rogues gallery that had so much sway.
http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0504/fadek01.html
As you click through, get really offended at the level of access and control that Jeb Bush granted those people, particularly Terry and Klayman.
Villago Delenda Est
@schrodinger’s cat:
Diseased dickhead Ron Fournier leading the head nodders.
chopper
@Botsplainer:
same as 2012. i guess a bubble is a really, really comfortable place to live.
liberal
@Cermet:
I’m pretty sure it’s more than 70%. My own back-of-the-envelope calculation was that 5/6 th of German casualties were inflicted by the Russians.
Not to mention that the Soviet population as a whole suffered the equivalent of a 9/11 in terms of pop loss every what, few hours?, for years. (Putting aside the losses their leaders inflicted on them just a little before that.)
That’s not to say, of course, that “our” guys fighting in WWII didn’t face much greater hardships than an American in my age cohort.
David Koch
BWHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHA
He’s being led around by Redstate’s puny traffic.
HAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAH
That would be like Nancy Smash taking orders on bended knee from the fire-pups.
Ah, this is too rich.
Studly Pantload, the emotionally unavailable unicorn
I thought the saddest tweet of the week was the one made by actor James “Mm, Piece ‘o Candy” Woods lamenting in 140 or so characters that due to his outspoken criticism for PBO, he expects no one in Hollywood will ever hire him again. Last night, he was trending big on the Facebooks, with conservatives championing him for sacrificing his career for the sake of speaking truth to power. (As for my part, I hadn’t the slightest clue Mr. “I Used to Be a Big Deal” had uttered or penned (or tweeted) Word One about this or any president, but m’be that’s just a-cause I don’t look to Hollywood for my political cues.)
What is it with the overhyped victimology these people wrap themselves up in like some tear-encrusted Snuggie?
Oy…
fuckwit
@virginia: Nancy Smash does no such things. Nancy Smash is an Italian Nonna from Noo Joisey. She’d fucking pinch his ears so hard, and then whack him on the ass with a fucking rolling pin until he learned to show some RESPECT.
You don’t fuck with Italian Nonnas.