Republicans
in Congress are reaping the rewards of their blackmail tactics as public
disgust and scorn grow daily; as Obamacare /Affordable Care Act rolls out and
more people actually understand what it’s about and that it benefits them; and
as the next crisis aka the debt ceiling deadline looms.
This isn’t the first time this Congress has tried governing
by blackmail. The last time they caved; this time they didn’t, but they haven’t
got many kudos for it, from Democrat or Republican voters. Everybody, except
for the hell-raisers in Congress, is worn out and out of patience with the
stupidity that has governed Congress lately and resulted in disaster for so
many. The hell-raisers have celebrated, with Michelle Bachman quoted by the Washington Post as saying “We’re very excited. It’s exactly
what we wanted and we got it.” but clearly she and her ilk didn’t think about
the consequences of their desires.
Now that more
than a million are having to work without pay, and 800,000 others are on forced
leave, Congress is scrabbling to save face, backing down, trying to pass
piecemeal bills to protect those who have been disastrously affected by their
actions.
Too little
too late. President Obama and Democrats are standing firm. No compromise on
this because the stakes are too high. If they allow government by blackmail
they set a dangerous precedent. Members of Congress and especially Speaker
Boehner are still doing all they can to point the blame at the Senate for
refusing to compromise but few are buying it.
And now the
debt ceiling crisis looms. Boehner has been making a point of talking privately
and publicly about his determination to raise the debt ceiling, but what he
says now and what he actually does could possibly be worlds apart.
He has said
that if necessary he’ll work with Democrats in Congress and even break the informal
Hastert Rule – which requires a bill to have a Republican majority support.
What stopped him doing that up until now? He had only to present a bill to keep
government open, without any blackmail conditions attached, and it would have
been passed by Democrats and moderate Republicans in the House. No showdown. No
shutdown. No consequences to millions. No scrabbling about now trying to fix
things that broke real fast.
It was all
up to Boehner, but he allowed himself to be caught between rationality and what
the voting public wants, and conservatives pushing an agenda that hurt the
majority and who have only a small voting public support base but who have the
power to have him fired. Boehner chose to keep his job.
Now he’s
going to be up against the same fight, and that’s what happens when you align
yourself with thugs. With the debt ceiling, the only new factor is his powerful
business connections. Are they powerful and influential enough to ensure that
he doesn't lose his job if does what they want in the face of resistance from hardliners?
Because it’s hard to imagine that the Tea Party members of Congress won’t try
the same blackmail tactics.
Boehner has
gotten praise for his comments but it looks as if he's trying to placate his
powerful connections and a public that is openly fed up with Congress. Either
that or he's trying to raise people's hopes so high that the Tea Party members
and their support won't dare to try and hold the country hostage again. The
problem is that they've already shown they aren't that smart; they don't read
the polls or notice anything outside the bubble of their own self-delusions. Again,
to quote Michele Bachmann, this time speaking on the Hannity Show two days ago (as reported on MEDIAite),
“This is about the happiest I’ve seen members in a long time because
we’ve seen we’re starting to win this dialogue on a national level.”
So chances are they'll do it again. And again. As Senator
Harry Reid said, “You know with a bully you cannot let them slap you
around, because they slap you around today, they slap you five or six times
tomorrow.”
President
Obama, speaking recently on CNBC, said “It is not unusual for Democrats and
Republicans to disagree. That’s the way our founders designed our government;
democracy is messy. “But when you have a situation in which a faction is willing
potentially to default on US Government obligations then we are in trouble. And
if they’re willing to do it now they’ll be willing to do it later.
“One thing
that I often hear is ‘well Mr. President, even if they’re being unreasonable,
why can’t you just go ahead and do something that makes them happy now?’
“What I
have to remind people is that what we’re debating right now is keeping the
government open for two months! We
would then be going through this exact same thing in the middle of Christmas
shopping season…and then we’d have to go through it again six months from now
and six months after that. And one thing that I know the American people are
tired of - and I have to assume the vast majority of businesses are tired of – is
this constant governing from crisis to crisis. So in that sense, do we need to
break that fever? Absolutely.”
Speaking
about a week ago, he said this: “If Republicans do not like the law,
they can go through the regular channels and processes to try to change it.
That's why we have elections.”
