Government Shutdown, Health Care reform, and puppet strings

And here we sit, the Government still in a shutdown, the Republican Party still acting like a bunch of spoiled brats. It is amusing to hear them say that no one in America wants the Affordable Healthcare Act (though Americans are signing up by the thousands). Now we are staring at the debt ceiling issue, and will the Republican party actually risk destroying the value of the American dollar simply over Americans being allowed to have health care.

Now, before anyone goes on a rant saying it’s not fair to blame the GOP for the shutdown, well, you’re wrong. Here’s the deal. The Republican’s ran on a platform that included a different health care plan, one that would allow Americans to have vouchers. That plan, along with many Republicans, was defeated, most notably, in the bid for the White House, in which the voters overwhelming rejected the Paul Ryan/Mitt Rommney plan.

So, now that the voters rejected them, the GOP decided they were going to go the route of the Supreme Court. The court, upheld the law. Now the GOP was left with very little choice. They get either go along with the law for now, hope it fizzled, and use that to regain the White House, or they could take more drastic measures. Now, twenty years ago, they would have gone for option A. That was then, this is now. Now the GOP has been corrupted by the Tea Party Extremist. The Tea Party folk want to roll back women’s rights, such as control over their own reproductive organs. They want to roll back civil rights, as they have done everything but get the amendment that bans poll taxes (Amendment XXIV for those playing at home) repealed.  The Tea Party extremist have also said that the want to get rid of certain parts of the Federal Government, such as FEMA, the FDA, EPA, BOE, FBI, and the CIA. All very vital, if sometimes flawed parts of the Federal Government.  And these are the same ones that are actually looking forward to America to be unable able to pay her bills for the first time in history, thus throwing the world market into a spiral, and perhaps, devaluing the US currency to a point with it would carry little value worldwide.

Now, for those watching Fox News, you’d think that raising the debt ceiling allows the federal government to spend more money. That is 100 % incorrect. It’s a flat out falsehood, and it used to be that if a news agency with intent ran a false story like Fox is doing with the Debt Ceiling, there would be serious repercussions.

“From the Treasury dept. official website:
The debt limit is the total amount of money that the United States government is authorized to borrow to meet its existing legal obligations, including Social Security and Medicare benefits, military salaries, interest on the national debt, tax refunds, and other payments. The debt limit does not authorize new spending commitments. It simply allows the government to finance existing legal obligations that Congresses and presidents of both parties have made in the past.   

Failing to increase the debt limit would have catastrophic economic consequences. It would cause the government to default on its legal obligations – an unprecedented event in American history. That would precipitate another financial crisis and threaten the jobs and savings of everyday Americans – putting the United States right back in a deep economic hole, just as the country is recovering from the recent recession.   

Congress has always acted when called upon to raise the debt limit. Since 1960, Congress has acted 78 separate times to permanently raise, temporarily extend, or revise the definition of the debt limit – 49 times under Republican presidents and 29 times under Democratic presidents.  In the coming weeks, Congress must act to increase the debt limit. Congressional leaders in both parties have recognized that this is necessary. Recently, however, a number of myths about this issue have begun to surface”

Need more proof:

http://www.treasury.gov/initiatives/Documents/Debt%20Limit%20Myth%20v%20Fact%20FINAL.pdf

As you can clearly see, the raising of the debt limit does not give the federal government the power to spend more money and raise more debt.

I still remain fully confident that an agreement will be reached, and that all of the furloughed workers will be back to work. However, with approval ratings at an all-time low, the Republican Party may never recover from this. They could very well join such political parties such as the Whigs and the Know-Nothings in the history dust bin. Just another political party that after years of glory, faded away because it refused and was inflexible when it came to changing with the times. We are seeing perhaps, the splitting in two of the party, and from the ashes, out comes the Tea Party. Then again, considering that it is mainly tea party supported government shutdown, which has led to the mess we are in, maybe they will fade away as a fringe group, not unlike the Bull-Moose party from over a hundred years ago. I’m not sure, but we could see a major shift in the balance of power in the political landscape of America.

As I type this blog, the powers in Washington continue to have meetings, and the give and take game continues to be played. Some people get upset when the GOP is blamed for the inaction in Washington. Well, simply put, it is the truth. Maybe it’s because I watch a lot of C-Span and I get to see it live, that I don’t fall under the spell of what CNN and Fox News “Report”. The GOP was told countless times to table the issue of the Affordable Health Care Act, and put forth a budget. They refused to listen, and that’s how we ended up here. The GOP has spoken of website crashes as a ploy to keep people from signing up or thinking they won’t be able to at all. Here’s a little news flash: All websites crash.  A website is like a highway. Once the highway is jammed up with traffic, no one else can use it. The system simply can’t take any more users until someone gets off. How many times has Twitter or Facebook been unavailable because of high usage? Plenty and that is all that happened to the Affordable Healthcare Act URL. So next time you hear Louie Gormert, or John Boehner talk about website crashes, see through the BS and know they are grasping at straws.

By the way, there is a very simple cure for what is going on in Washington. Do not vote for anyone with ties to the Koch Brothers or the Tea Party.  They are the true cause for what is going on, they are the ones pulling the strings of the GOP, causing the party to have a fall from grace. It’s that simple.