On Saturday night, House Republicans
voted to shut down government. They passed a continuing resolution that would delay Obamacare's implementation for year, allow bosses to take insurance coverage for birth control away from their women employees, and repeal the medical device tax (adding
$29 billion to the deficit over the next ten years) all in exchange for allowing the government to stay open until December 15. That's in the face of certain defeat in the Senate and a presidential veto. But according to Rump Speaker Ted Cruz (R-Neverneverland) that's compromise.
On @meetthepress, Cruz says asking for a delay instead of defund of Obamacare is "the essence of compromise."
— @CHueyBurnsRCP
As proof of how insane that definition of compromise is, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Aquabuddha)
repeated it, saying the GOP is "the party that is willing to compromise." If the government shuts down, these (ahem) statesmen insist, it'll be
the fault of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
For his part, Reid has once again said "enough."
“To be absolutely clear, the Senate will reject both the one-year delay of the Affordable Care Act and the repeal of the medical device tax,” Reid said in a statement. “After weeks of futile political games from Republicans, we are still at square one: Republicans must decide whether to pass the Senate’s clean CR, or force a Republican government shutdown.”
When the Senate convenes Monday, Reid could just move to table the House bill, a motion that would only require a simple majority vote of Democrats, and send the same "clean" continuing resolution they already passed back to the House sometime Monday afternoon. That would give the House until midnight to pass it and avert the shutdown. But the
nutjob House are insisting they will reject it again, and that they have other options for torpedoing the bill, messing with Obamacare, and shutting down government. At least one option under consideration is the crazy
Vitter amendment that would strip insurance subsides from federal officials and their staff.
Shutting down government is what Ted Cruz wants to happen, and what the Rump Speaker of the House wants, he gets.
Join Daily Kos and the DCCC and tell John Boehner: It’s time to cut the Tea Party loose and work with Democrats to keep the government funded and avoid a disastrous default.
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