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.

Sarah Palin hits back at Martin Bashir for crude remarks

\”Our free stuff today is being paid for today by taking money from our children and borrowing from China,\” she said. \”When that money comes due and — this isn\’t racist, so try it, try it anyway, this isn\’t racist — but it\’s going to be like slavery when that note is due. Right? We are going to be beholden to a foreign master.\”

Our free stuff today? I suppose she is referring to Social Security, Medicare, Obamacare and all those other “free” programs. But then, as she goes on to say, they are not free. Which makes me wonder why she says they are free to begin with.

She should have said all those imperfect  programs designed to help people are being paid by our children and by borrowing from China.

Paid for by our children? really? So little Timmy over there in the corner eating paste is paying for all the “free stuff” we are getting today? Fine, I get it. Poor little Timmy, saddled with all those burdens.

But it isn’t really little Timmy and his generation that is going to pay for all that “free stuff”. It’s a 30-year old Timmy with a job that pays a living wage who is going to (and I would think gladly) pay for these programs

But ultimately it will be leaders like Sarah Palin that is going to enable Timmy and those of his generation to pay for all that “free stuff”. I think it should be noted, right or wrong, that this “free stuff” is designed to help people with needs that the greatest economy of the world should be able to pay for. It will be up to our leaders today to make security and the taking care of its citizens job one for their followers.

Hopefully our leaders today are forming some kind of strategy today that ensures future generations jobs that can pay for the needs of future generations. I am not sure that includes leaders such as Sarah Palin, who are mostly just spreading fear, dishonor and lack of interest for the future.

If that “free stuff” is not something these future generations are going to need or want, then our leaders need to have that conversation with honor, interest and lack of fear. At least they need to have that conversation if they are going to give future generations any chance at all.

And that is really all Timmy and future generations need is a chance. They don’t need war nor a revolution to tear the economies of the world apart. What they really need are for leaders like Sarah Palin to go away.

Future generations need leaders now who are willing to add to the conversation going on today without adding fear or a loss of honor and interest to future generations.

Future generations need leaders now who will give the world time for the fear, honor and interest of past generations to die off.

The world needs to give the newer generations time to deal with their own fears of a future not worth living, their own forms of honor and interests, which, scary as they are to today’s generation, will be fear, honor and interest unlike those of past generations.

Leaders who think globally say that the world is more connected now than it has ever been in the past. This also goes for those connects happening generationally.

Because of this more connecting world and the tools used in the connection, generations are now stacked one on top of the other, letting no freedom for future generation to make their own mistakes, but, because of leaders like Sarah Palin, only see a future full of fear, loss of honor, and, perhaps more importantly, loss of interest.

The “Global Brain” is becoming one Generational Brain that is letting ignorance, such as that displayed by Sarah Palin, create fear where there should be none, misdirect interest away from their generations, and reduce honor to talking points that don’t mean anything to generations trying to find their own way forward.

“Leaders”, such as Sarah Palin is truly making “freedom just another word for nothing left to lose.”

For the good of future generations we need to “lose” these kinds of leaders.

via Sarah Palin hits back at Martin Bashir for crude remarks – NY Daily News.

House approves bill to allow people to keep insurance

WASHINGTON — The U.S. House approved, in a 261-157 vote Friday, a GOP proposal to allow insurers to continue offering health care plans to new and existing customers through next year, even if the plans do not meet new federal requirements.

So the Republican held House has decided to pay for the improvements to Obamacare.

Now I wonder how they are going to pay for the “improvements” a lower quality care system is going to cost.

Like always, the MSM is clueless to the questions to ask and  that need to be answered, in order for Obamacare to work.

via House approves bill to allow people to keep insurance.

Pay-Go?

The Republican held House has a decision to make. It can say that Obamacare is not as bad as House Republicans now claim, pay to have it fixed as they have done in the past, or take some of the wealth of a future generation and pay for Obamacare.

Of course there is always the option of revolution. Like the Tea Party of old, the new Tea Party knows revolutions.

You take the junk out of the holds of the ships and throw it into the sea.

Of course those “holds” are now in the ships of past honor residing in the House, the fear now in Republicans who don’t want to pay for it, and the interest in the wealth that future generations hold.

The domains of war, which let’s face it that is what a revolution really needs, are honor, fear and interest.

What I am trying to say, that is just something to be “highlighted”   🙂

House panel delays meeting on GOP budget plan, leaders struggling to gather votes

House Republicans plan to vote Tuesday night on a revised budget proposal that would end the partial government shutdown, raise the debt ceiling and, in a challenge to Democrats, force government officials from President Obama on down to obtain health insurance through ObamaCare.

So the House Republicans want to expand Obamacare to include everyone. What a novel idea!

“To say, \’absolutely categorically not, we will not consider what the Republicans in the House of Representatives are doing,\’ in my view, is piling on,\” Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said on the Senate floor, as Democrats lined up against the House plan. \”Let\’s sit down and work this out.”

“Piling on”? I am not sure what John McCain is saying, but it does seem to me that the House Republicans are adding so much to the legislature in the process that it may make the bill meaningless, at least strategically, in its final version.

Or at least meaningless in that it doesn’t include any strategy to defeat the Democrats in the House.

Then again, maybe the Wingnuts in the House Republican leadership are grasping for anything to show to the people, ( the people who may run the next Republican Wingnut inline to replace non-Tea Party Rebulicans in their district) that they are still are a Wingnut (the emphasis should be on “nut”) and that the nutty Republican Party doesn’t need to replace those now in the House? 

What I am sure of is that McCain knows that adding more structure to Obamacare (in the form of the leaders of the U.S.A.) is not the way to defeat it.

Good luck with that Republican House leaders.

via House panel delays meeting on GOP budget plan, leaders struggling to gather votes | Fox News.

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.

Both sides grope for solutions to shutdown, debt ceiling

President Obama emphasized the stakes at an event at a construction company in Rockville, Md., Thursday, saying Washington’s inability to deal with the looming debt ceiling would be worse than the government shutdown

Tactically, Obama got it right when he went right for the workspace of both work and home.

The solution to this problem is simple.

What Obamacare really needs is help. If the Republicans manage to defund Obamacare, it will probably bring it down, but that is not really that much of a big deal for the POTUS. There is a possibility Obamacare may fail anyway. Defunding Obamacare (as the “way” to win in the Republican strategy) probably only makes a small difference in its chances of failure.

What Obama really needs is help from the few remaining patriots in the leadership of the Republican Party. With help from these true patriots (not really sure there are any left in Congress), Obama can insure the healthcare program for all the people of the U.S.A. doesn’t fail.

Seems like a worthy cause that would do, not only enough to make people not only feel good, but be satisfied in being a part of a job well done.

via Both sides grope for solutions to shutdown, debt ceiling.

Senate rejects latest House proposal as federal government grinds to a halt

President Obama, declaring that his signature health-care law is “here to stay,” urged House Republicans on Tuesday to stop trying to derail it and instead “reopen the government” following a shutdown that took effect at midnight.

If the shutting-down of the U.S. government was a game, then Obama and the Democratic Party wins. It comes down to whose “cheap trick” was the best in the strategy of the game.

The House Republican’s “cheap trick” was to defund Obamacare, or they would shut-down the government. Their plan was to start with defunding the whole program, and if that didn’t work, at least get some little token for their effort.

I am sure the Republicans knew how fragile Obamacare is, and defunding any part of Obamacare would pretty much assure a failure down the line.

And there is no doubt that Obamacare is fragile, at least as it is being implemented. Obama has had to get help from business in ways that would only make any good Republican giggle. The problem with the Republican strategy: they had no concept of their strategy failing.

Without the concept of failure (the Government would actually shutdown), they had no backup plan for keeping the government actually running, like the House Democrats did when the Democratic majority in the House last shut the government down.

It was different seventeen years ago when the government was last shut down. There was no animosity towards the POTUS, nor against the Senate, because the economy was running pretty good, and the Republicans could relate to the POTUS, if they actually didn’t like him.

Today, House Republicans don’t relate to this POTUS, nor do most actually like him or even know him. You really need to be able to relate to someone before you know someone.

So now the government is  shutting down, and the Republicans in the House past about 3 bills (which the President and Democrats voted for or signed) that will help keep things moving if the government actually shuts down.

I think the House Strategy, if this was a game, failed because those who have control of the Republican Party actually wanted to shut the government down, in the worst way possible, and they did.

I guess the Democrats will just have to see if their strategy gives them enough power to “win”, as the government shuts down.

via Senate rejects latest House proposal as federal government grinds to a halt – The Washington Post.

Time Is Short, but G.O.P. Leaders Say Shutdown Can Be Avoided

Specifically, Mr. McCarthy mentioned a tax on medical devices that pays for a part of the health care law. The House voted in the early hours of Sunday to rescind the tax and delay the health care law by a year as conditions for financing government operations and avoiding a shutdown.

The Republicans still believe in pork (business as usual).

Rescinding the tax on medical devices sends some pork to corporations that members of the House feed on. It’s Congress’s way of taking advantage of a really bad situation.

While giving in to Corporate America seems like a good way of defusing the situation that will happen when the government shuts down, it is only going to increase the “pork” going out to Corporations, when the situation of America not paying its bills comes around.

Not only that, as the Republican say, Obamacare, like Katrina, is going to need all the help it can get to keep a massive failure from happening, and not funding any part of Obamacare, pretty much leaves everyone (at least most Americans) in a giant Industrial Medical Congressional Complex, with no one coming to give you any help.

And, like Sandy and the affect the Tea Party Congress had on the relief effort, the Republicans are going to do all they can to make sure that help is not forthcoming.

via Time Is Short, but G.O.P. Leaders Say Shutdown Can Be Avoided – NYTimes.com.

“The Unwinding”™ by George Packer

It was only after Walton’s death, Mr. Packer says, “that the country began to understand what his company had done.” He writes: “Over the years, America had become more like Walmart. It had gotten cheap. Prices were lower, and wages were lower. There were fewer union factory jobs, and more part-time jobs as store greeters.” He adds: “The hollowing out of the heartland was good for the company’s bottom line.”

It was after watching part of this video and much of the Saturday debate in the House, on the CR to send back to the Senate and shut down the government, that I came to the conclusion that “America 3” (Our deeply rooted orientation toward personal and economic freedom will allow us to dismantle America 2.0 and build a better, freer, and more prosperous America 3.0 in its place.) isn’t going to happen.

Instead, America, as Mr. Packer says, has been “unwinding” and it is not going to transition into a better, freer, and more prosperous America 3.0 (although it could become all those things), but, instead of transitioning, it is about to rewind into something completely else.

And that “something” means that  America is never going to be the same.

On the House floor, one of the themes of the Republicans has been the tale of what corporations are doing to the American worker because of Obamacare. 

According to the House Republicans, corporations are no longer supporting their workforces.

The House Republicans say that businesses are throwing away healthcare plans, turning full time employees into a bunch of temporaries, moving more jobs overseas, and (although I didn’t hear this on the House floor) taking healthcare on the cheap by paying fines and scrapping healthcare for their workers all together.

Really? Most businesses in America has the worker by the short-hairs, do they really want to keep twisting.

I mean, I believe the House Republicans are truthful when they say that they have heard from both small and large businesses and worker who are terrorized by the thought that corporate America is abandoning them, but have they heard from the American worker–the men and women who are trying to keep their families together, as their wages stagnate and those at the top get more wealthy?

The King of England miscalculated the amount of control he had over his American subjects. It could be the House Republicans are miscalculating also. The only ones that believes our healthcare system isn’t broken are those who are supplying the money to the Republican Party, and it is the Republican Party who is refusing to form any kind of a fix to the Obamacare that will help small businesses and the American worker.

Ironically, it turns out the Republican Party has become the tool for revolution in America and it’s rewinding into something completely else.

The House Republicans better hope that Obama blinks, unless they really want another American Revolution and (unlike a peaceful transition) the violence that goes along with most unwindings of nations through revolutions.

via ‘The Unwinding,’ by George Packer – NYTimes.com.