Become this?
When a Democrat became President?
Of course, Boner's capitulation to crazy teabaggers died in The Senate last night... And Boner is looking increasingly irrelevant in this whole debt ceiling fiasco.
The events of the past 24 hours have been beyond bizarre. We have, in effect, been conducting a legislative thought experiment around the question, “What is the least conservative debt-ceiling bill that can pass without Democratic votes in the House?” A few minutes ago, we learned the answer. But the answer doesn’t matter.
There is exactly one question worth asking now: What is the debt-ceiling compromise that can win the support of the House, Senate and the White House? That means winning the support of Democrats as well as Republicans. That’s what every effort in every chamber should be oriented toward. Instead, Boehner has spent the past two days wasting his political capital assembling an irrelevant coalition of conservatives. [...]
To govern is to compromise. And when you’re in charge, you have to govern. [Emphasis mine.] [...]
Lately, Boehner has not been governing. After he failed to pass a conservative resolution to the debt crisis without Democratic votes, he should have begun cutting the deals and making the concessions necessary to gain Democratic votes. That, after all, is what he will ultimately have to do. It’s what all this is supposed to be leading up to.
But Boehner went in the opposite direction. He made his bill more conservative. He indulged his members in the fantasy that they wouldn’t have to make compromises. It’s as if Pelosi, facing criticism for dropping the public option, had tried to shore up her support by bringing a single-payer health-care bill to the floor. Even if that would have pleased her left wing, what good would it have done her? Her job was to prepare her members to take a vote that could lead to a successful outcome.
This is what a few crazed Congressional Republicans have caused.
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So what are we supposed to do? Throw ourselves into a likely Constitutional Crisis? Play with platinum coins? How on earth can the supposedly greatest nation on earth conduct its official business like this? Now wonder why the rest of the world is either laughing at us and looking at us with total disgust and disdain.
So why didn't teabaggers object to George Bush's reckless spending on billionaire (tax cut) bailouts, bank bailouts, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and pharmaceutical industry bailouts (Medicare Part D as passed in 2003)? And why didn't teabaggers object to Ronald Reagan raising the debt ceiling twice as fast as Barack Obama has? And why didn't teabaggers demand an illogical and irrational "Balanced Budget Amendment" (that never accounts for recessions, natural disasters, wars, etc.) during any Republican Presidency?
So get ready for it. I'll have to repeat myself again. This is madness!
And get ready to do it again.
Joe Heck: Email, Phone (202) 225-3252
Dean Heller: Email, Phone (202) 224-6244
These Republicans need to stop flip-flopping on their own fiscal policy and stop letting crazed teabaggers hold America hostage. They need to raise the debt ceiling and do so without threatening Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and/or any other cuts to the vulnerable who can least afford it.
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