The “Fund One Part of the Government at a Time” Strategy Will Work
I know this, because their messaging on this is so bad:
The Republican leadership adopted a new plan to at least buy time — offering three measures that would reopen specific, popular parts of the government, including parks and veterans services.
Democrats quickly circled the wagons against the idea, and the White House threatened a veto.
“This shutdown isn’t about spending or deficit or budgets,” the president said at the White House. “This shutdown is about rolling back our efforts to provide health insurance to folks who don’t have it. This, more than anything else, seems to be what the Republican Party stands for these days.”
“People shouldn’t have to choose between help for our veterans and cancer research,” said Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.). “And we shouldn’t have to choose between visiting our national parks or enrolling kids in Head Start.”
We’re not forcing anyone to choose right now, chump. We’re offering to fund national parks. And you’re turning down the offer?!?!?!
Apparently this all went nowhere yesterday because House Republicans used some procedure other than “regular order” and the votes needed a 2/3 majority as a result. Bad idea. It seems they have recognized their mistake and will bring up these bills again today and likely pass them:
House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) told TPM that the House would bring the legislation up Wednesday under regular order, which would only require a majority vote.
It’s likely to pass then, but it isn’t going anywhere. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (R-NV) has already rejected a piecemeal approach to funding the government, and the White House has threatened to veto any piecemeal legislation.
Another House Democratic aide told TPM that Tuesday’s vote and the one coming Wednesday are therefore effectively stall tactics.
Imagine a conversation between a non-lapdog Big Media Member and Harry Reid after an Obama veto, or Democrats knocking down one of these bills in the Senate:
HARRY REID: Republicans are shutting down national parks!
NON=LAPDOG BIG MEDIA MEMBER: But they passed a bill to fund the national parks. You argued against it. Obama vetoed it.
HARRY REID: They’re playing games! It’s a stall tactic! The public shouldn’t have to choose!
NON=LAPDOG BIG MEDIA MEMBER: How can you blame Republicans for not funding something when they specifically voted to fund it?
HARRY REID:
HARRY REID: They’re releasing one hostage at a time!
That last is Nancy P’s analogy. Let’s go with that for a second. We are not asking for any concessions to fund these programs, so it’s like offering to release a hostage without conditions. Maybe the cops like the fact that the terrorists are holding Aunt Rosie, because people like Aunt Rosie. So the terrorists figure that out and say they will release Aunt Rosie, as long as the cops agree.
If the cops don’t agree, whose fault is it now that Aunt Rosie is still being held hostage?
The cops are worried about the other hostages, like Uncle Fester the baby raper. He gives the cops bribe money, and they want to make sure he gets released. If the terrorists release Aunt Rosie, maybe the public won’t care about Uncle Fester. And the bribe money goes away.
If that was hard to follow, this isn’t: you can’t blame us for not funding something if we voted to fund it.
Sooner or later, even the aggressive Big Media filter will not be able to screen this out.
Stay strong.
i decided today I’m a let Peter King have my government shutdown therapy dog time
poor lil wizzer he’s not doing well at all
we’re all pulling for you Peter
happyfeet (8ce051) — 10/2/2013 @ 8:15 amOr the senate votes to fund parks, veterans benefits, and the military. Than Harry Reid turn around and ask why there isn’t a CR bill to fund federal prisons, the Border Patrol, the FBI, the CDC and transportation construction projects that have already been approved. Now everyone that likes federal money wants to know why they GOP hasn’t voted to fund whatever pet project is important to them. Lots of lobbyists call lots of representatives to push their issue. Eventually they work down the list of things that the GOP wants to fund and Harry Reid picks something easy to defend in the media and tells the press that he won’t allow a vote on specific functions unless other, equally worthy functions are also funded. My guess is that he’ll pick some social spending for kids and compare to spending for a defense contractor.
time123 (bec298) — 10/2/2013 @ 8:33 amI don’ think the GOP will do this.
if fascist vegas trash like Harry could pick and choose what to fund
wouldn’t he have led his happy little team of obamasluts in passing a budget in the first place?
happyfeet (8ce051) — 10/2/2013 @ 9:14 amI’m surprised the Democrats took this route. My fear was that they would start their own attempts at piecemealing only to blame Republicans when certain agencies were voted against. Something like See! The Republicans voted against funding the Department of Education! Why do they hate the children?! The media would only have been happy to oblige.
ratbeach (f5aad4) — 10/2/2013 @ 9:47 amThe reason this isn’t working is because Schmuckey is going STRAIGHT to the media and the R’s aren’t calling him out and making him the bad guy. R’s should be in the media right behind him saying that “we’re trying to fund the government while getting answers as to why big business and big union gets Owebamacare delays while the American taxpayer does not……”
Seems so simple to me. They are losing the game because they REFUSE to learn how to play it.
© Sponge (8110ec) — 10/2/2013 @ 10:17 amUsing ratbeach’s example…. maybe the Dems, down inside, realize that NOT funding the DofE is actually good for the children. From where this codger sits it appears that quality in education is inversely proportional to the Federal gub’mint’s involvement in education.
[How about that? 2, count ’em, apostrophes in the same word. Awesome.]
gramps (372808) — 10/2/2013 @ 10:19 amWhile no expert on mob psychology I’m thinking the total failure of Ocare to be anything but a chancre on Il Douche combined with the utter invisibility of the scourge that is ‘Shutdown’ is a killing blow to the Dhimmis.
I’m sure Boehner will feel like the Lone Ranger in this WH Shutdown coffee clutch but Dog can’t have more than 15 minutes for such trivia, 20 tops.
gary gulrud (dd7d4e) — 10/2/2013 @ 10:37 amhttp://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/03/us/politics/congress-budget-battle.html?hp&_r=0
Sammy Finkelman (f79992) — 10/2/2013 @ 10:50 amGramps, we can only hope they feel this way deep down inside. However, their urge to score political points is too strong. Dems complaining about Republicans is really the only thing they have going for them at this point.
In other news, my favorite part of Obama’s speech was when he said Congress should pass a budget. Lulz, why didn’t his supermajority do that?
ratbeach (f5aad4) — 10/2/2013 @ 10:57 am9. Oh, Lamar, is there a reason you choose as a hypothetical scenario one you’ve no hope of suffering during your remaining span?
Just wondering.
gary gulrud (dd7d4e) — 10/2/2013 @ 11:00 am8. So what does the WH Budget Orifice think about spending months negotiating a nuclear non-proliferation treaty with Iran while they continue to refine?
Kerry finishes his signature with a flourish and the Iranian Foreign Secretary sez ‘Not Today’ and lights his hookah.
gary gulrud (dd7d4e) — 10/2/2013 @ 11:05 am@ ratbeach- I’ve wondered this from the start. BHO sent in a budget and it was shot down by unanimous vote in the Senate, where his party held (holds) the majority. Nary a word from him on the subject until now.
Could it be that they don’t want a budget because they like the opportunity to demagog the Repubs every few months over the CR issue? That would be holding party dominance over the good of the country and they would never do that. Would they?
gramps (372808) — 10/2/2013 @ 11:07 am“This shutdown is about rolling back our efforts to
Smock Puppet, Gadfy, Racist-Sexist Thug, and Bon Vivant All In One Package (afdedb) — 10/2/2013 @ 12:32 pmprovide health insurance to folks who don’t have it. ram paying for health insurance down everyone’s throats even if they don’t find it necessary due to youth and good health.Wall styreet Journal editorial today: A GOP Shutdown Strategy How to navigate between the ‘defunders’ and Barack Obama.
They say they saw this coming, and you could get a long shutdown followed by surrender, which would be the worst possible result.
They think maybe they can one or more of 3 small changes in Obamacare: postponing the individual mandate for a year, repealing the medical devices tax (which actually passed the Senate) or the Vitter rule.
Sammy Finkelman (d22d64) — 10/2/2013 @ 12:46 pmHeh, Harry Reid is against funding the clinical trials for chil’rens cancer at the NIH? Delicious!
Bwhahahaha!
The limit of congressional approval as it approaches zero. lim x→0
Huitzilincuatec (f7d5ba) — 10/2/2013 @ 12:48 pmActually since we decided on delay, rather then defund, not really, the impact is the same.
narciso (3fec35) — 10/2/2013 @ 1:01 pmKrautscheisster without a speech to analyze is all at sea.
http://hotair.com/archives/2013/10/01/krauthammer-this-shutdown-is-pretty-much-a-lifeline-for-a-drowning-administration/
Kristol finds an acorn:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/stand-pat_759021.html?nopager=1
gary gulrud (dd7d4e) — 10/2/2013 @ 1:08 pmBecause they would have focused on Obamacare’s failures exclusively, right.
narciso (3fec35) — 10/2/2013 @ 1:13 pm– Senator Claire McCaskill, Democrat of Missouri, on Monday, September 30, 2013, speaking on the Senate floor, as quoted by the New York Times on the front page of the Tuesday, October 1, 2013 New York Times..
Conservatives With a Cause: ‘We’re Right’
Sammy Finkelman (d22d64) — 10/2/2013 @ 1:13 pmWell they rammed a law through, without reading it,
narciso (3fec35) — 10/2/2013 @ 1:15 pmnow that we know what’s in it, we dissent,
Obama invites congressional leaders to White House USA Today 2:22 pm
Politico 44: White House: Obama meeting with lawmakers won’t be a negotiation
Sammy Finkelman (d22d64) — 10/2/2013 @ 1:17 pmI’m thinking the win goes to the side that’s not paying cops to keep WWII vets from the WWII memorial.
Steve57 (234b9e) — 10/2/2013 @ 1:21 pmPatterico: it’s like offering to release a hostage without conditions. Maybe the cops like the fact that the terrorists are holding Aunt Rosie, because people like Aunt Rosie. So the terrorists figure that out and say they will release Aunt Rosie, as long as the cops agree.
If the cops don’t agree, whose fault is it now that Aunt Rosie is still being held hostage?
Very true, but in this analogy, as Chris Matthews said, the terrorists are demanding that somebody be handed over to them. they are not holding the baby and demanding money, they are holding money and demanding the baby. (Obamacare)
Sammy Finkelman (d22d64) — 10/2/2013 @ 1:22 pmWell-el-el, Pissy Matthews didn’t seem to mind zippy unilaterally enacting the Dream Act when immigration legislation failed, or delaying the employer mandate of the ACA, or expanding background checks for online and gun show gun sales!
Huitzilincuatec (f7d5ba) — 10/2/2013 @ 1:30 pmWhy not just sign another EO to raise the debt ceiling and funding the government? Because, what difference, at this point, does it make?
Next up: (Thursday) Veterans programs and paying inactive National Guard members and reservists.
(I was wondering why they left that one out Wednesday, when they had tried to pass a bill on that Tuesday. I guess it is because they substituted the National Institutes of Health. Not clear why they could only pass 3 bills and why they couln’t put two subjects in one bill. I guess it is not important, since the Senate is not going to pass any of them so fast)
Sammy Finkelman (b0c537) — 10/3/2013 @ 12:17 amThis is almost exactly out of “Atlas Shrugged.”
“Why do we have to choose?”
“There isn’t enough money for both, choose.”
“Make it so we don’t have to choose.”
“How?”
“Somehow, you’re the expert, and if you don’t, we’ll kill you.”
iowaan (1f3c3e) — 10/3/2013 @ 12:38 pm