Boehner takes on critics on his right

“They pushed us into the fight to defund Obamacare and shut down the government,” Boehner said. “That wasn’t exactly the strategy I had in mind. But if you recall, the day before the government reopened, one of these groups stood up and said, ‘Well, we never really thought it would work.’ Are you kidding me!”

It wasn’t exactly the strategy, but I imagine close enough.

I have written before that the Tea Party represents an insurgency against those incumbent forces inside the US government that want to maintain the status quo. The insurgency has now split itself into two groups.

Boehner represents the first group. They are End Timers who want to see an “end” in the way the US government does business. They own the re-districts, which were formed to keep this group in office, at least they hope to “own” them long enough to enact change that is the strategy.

The Second group is now, after the split, represented by the Tea Party.

The Tea Party doesn’t want to end the way the government does business, they simply want something out of the government. They want what belongs to them. They want,as Americans, security from terror.

For those of us inside today’s America, this terror (and what terror produces, i.e.  fear) is represented in many forms. The terror of abandonment by corporate America, the terror of losing unfunded pensions promised by the US government, and the terror of there being no “real” future for the coming generations. Much of this terror is shared by members in both groups.

For the second group, this terror comes from, in part, by the war on terror America has been waging for over a decade. The fear in this case is the result of the general feeling that America isn’t really winning the war. Trillions gone and thousands of our soldiers dead and for what?  The last sentence could be the Tea Party’s battle cry.

At least I can understand the feelings of the second group. Terror is not a rational emotion, and it is hard for a person and for a nation to think rationally when under terror’s threat. And that threat comes in the form of fear for the continuation of our nation and way of life. The fear is that neither of these things will continue. The fear is that the interest in the values our nation represents in its economy will no longer be relevant, and the honor we feel being Americans holding those values will be lost.

On the other hand, I have no idea what the first group (Boehner’s group) is talking about.

All I know is that it is enough to make a person cry.

via Boehner takes on critics on his right – The Washington Post.

House cancels vote on plan to reopen government

The Republican-controlled House canceled a vote Tuesday night on a plan to reopen the federal government and raise the debt ceiling after support from conservatives for the deal crumbled, leaving Washington without a clear path forward for avoiding a first-ever default on the nation’s debt.

The Republican-controlled House does have a clear path forward, it’s just that the path is so insane that no body in Washington understands its simplicity.

The Republican-controlled House plans, because the House Conservatives are such “doers“, to piecemeal the handling of the U.S. debt. This path is similar to the piecemeal starting of the government that the same House Republicans favored during the shutdown of the government.

To understand the Republican-controlled House one needs to understand that, in the minds of the now Republican-controlled House, Hurricane Katrina was not a failure of small government.

To the House Republicans (they can be now called a George W. Bush Republican majority held House) Hurricane Katrina was a failure of the people to adapt to small government.

As such, Hurricane Katrina now represents how the House Republicans plan to govern the U.S. budget, in this time of crisis.

For the Democrats, I suggest they find higher ground that is not located in Washington D.C..

via House cancels vote on plan to reopen government – The Washington Post.

Obama and Democrats, united by shutdown, looking for gains beyond it

The Democrats’ strategy has been made easier by the fact that the GOP went into the shutdown with no prospect of succeeding in its demand to gut the Affordable Care Act and with no fallback plan.

There is winning and losing strategy, but, because of its nature, all strategy has a flaw.

The flaw in the GOP’s strategy was in the means it actually had in re-opening the government. It turned out, when it came to doing something instead of being something (a Congressman in the House of Representatives) the GOP had nothing to “do”.

The GOP had wanted to open only those parts of the government that was needed, but ended up wanting to open all parts of the government.

You may ask, why did they want to open all parts of the government? Because, like faith-based domestic programs, they need all parts of the government to make it work.

I grant you it is a minor flaw, but devastating if you are a member of the House Republicans.

There is another Wingnut, waiting to take your seat, even nuttier than you, and you just gave him/her your seat.

Thanks

Signed, The People

via Obama and Democrats, united by shutdown, looking for gains beyond it – The Washington Post.

Romney and Ryan would target federal worker pay – Aug. 13, 2012

In stump speeches, Romney says he wants to cut the federal workforce to “stop the unfairness of government workers getting better pay and benefits than the taxpayers they serve.” Ryan, a House Republican picked this weekend to be Romney’s running mate, has a detailed budget plan that targets federal workers.

via Romney and Ryan would target federal worker pay – Aug. 13, 2012.

I think what Ryan and Romney meant is that the U.S. standard of living is too high, and we all need to be taken down a notch or two.

Except those in the higher tax brackets who, if given the incentive of lower taxes, will pull this country back (minus the middle class) from a country with a too high standard of living, to where it was before all those federal employees started making all that money, pre-1776.

I mean, by their logic, right now it is only the federal employees making all that money, who are keeping the standard of living for the middle class,  middle class.

Without the wages of federal employees, we are looking at a country similar to Mexico, where the poor pay taxes to the government, and the rich buy the government for their own use.

I am thinking that Mitt should go back to where his family started out, Mexico, instead of bringing Mexico’s standard of living to the U.S..

Mitt Romney: Federal Reserve Should Avoid Stimulus

The Republican presidential hopeful says he doesn’t think another round of stimulus would help the economy, arguing that previous measures didn’t work.

via Mitt Romney: Federal Reserve Should Avoid Stimulus.

The first rounds of stimulus were a “Cheap Trick”, which is a strategy instead of a process. Like all strategy it is flawed, but for Romney to say it didn’t work is a lie.

And Romney knows strategy, so it was a deliberate lie.

Romney knows strategy. Otherwise he would never have been able to pull the Olympics off in Utah.

He used one strategy in Utah (throw money at it and it will somehow work itself out), and that strategy was flawed, but it worked.

The stimulus used a similar strategy (get money into people’s hands and they will know what to do with it), and like Romney’s strategy in Utah  it was flawed, but it worked. Perhaps it didn’t work like it should have, because most Americans  would complain, even if they are hanged by a new rope. Perhaps that is a poor metaphor, when talking stimulus.

Unlike Romney’s strategy in Utah, the Fed’s strategy of the stimulus may or may not be over with. The Olympics in Utah are over, and the American taxpayers are still paying for it. As for the stimulus, it is not clear yet if it’s over, because there is a year lag in the process when reporting on the economy, and the American taxpayers are still paying for it.

If Romney wins, he had better hope the stimulus has worked, because he hasn’t given the country any hints as to what his strategy is, going forward, other than he is an anti-Obama. This strategy (anti-Bush) worked for Obama, but then there was a strategy in-place when Obama took over. Romney’s apparent strategy is that he wants to wipe the slate clean of strategy and start over.

As Romney is a strategist, I am sure he has some idea (strategy) as to where he wants to take us.

It is probably better for him to wait and tell us directions after he’s elected, than now. There is a good chance not many of us are going to buy into where he’s going, until he Acts.

Once he Acts as POTUS it is going to be too late to worry about strategy, because it will be all process, as our economy gets another work-out.