Hard Right GOP in Congress Continue to Get Government Pay and Benefits While Shutting Down Government

“We’re very excited,” said Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.). “It’s exactly what we wanted, and we got it.”

The crazy Tea Party crowd has spoken from the hard right as symbolized by one of their leaders Michele Bachmann who makes some of the dumbest comments I have ever seen.  This time she means every word of what she is saying.  The hard right Koch Tea Party is giddy the Government is shutdown and don't believe there is a problem if the debt ceiling is not raised as we are not going to default.  These GOP TP Members of the Congress are truly delusional plus they are also hypocritical as their pay and benefits come from the US Government.  Their pay should have been stopped when the Government shut down.

Is Speaker Boehner afraid of Bachmann?  Sure looks like it as he refuses to bring a clean CR and debt ceiling rise to the floor.  Does he have the votes to pass a clean debt ceiling rise with just Republicans with no strings attached. No way IMHO!  Why hasn't Boehner and his leadership said anything to members about knocking off the attacks on Federal Employees?  Are they too chicken?

The attacks on Federal Employees and the Government by the so-called conservatives who are on the air is beyond pale.  As a former Civil Service employee of the Air Force I know how hard we worked. We spent hours working overtime with no pay because of the Vietnam War.  You had to be careful where you drove your car with a base decal because it would keyed by the protesters.  Today's hard right remind me of the Vietnam protestors who tried to shut down Wright-Patterson AFB but failed. They tried to destroy vehicles in line at the gates by jumping up and down on them so I know the hard left and the hard right share a similar hatred of the Government.

I have met Tea Party who also demonstrated against the Vietnam War starting with my neighbor.  The vast majority of Americans are not part of the hard right or hard left.  The difference is that the Republican Party has been taken over by the hard right while the vast majority of Democrats are not hard left.  These excepts from conservatives show a lack of reality to the current situation and are driving the GOP TP in Congress to think people are with them when the vast majority of people are against what they are doing.

That is what happens when you reside in a bubble and get all your news only from conservative talk radio, Fox News, and conservative sites.  They refuse to believe anyone who has facts if those facts go against what they are told.  My neighbor honestly believe that every Civil Service employee is a worthless worker who gets nothing but freebees and pays for nothing including health insurance or retirement.  When I told him my insurance is over $400 a month or the fact that 7.5% was taken out for CSRS funding so when you retired, you still had an income.  He said I was laying because it was all free.  You cannot deal reason with people like that and now some of them are in Congress which should frighten everyone.

Then you read what some conservatives have to say and realize that my neighbor is who these people are aiming their message -- people who are told what to think and are mad at the Government about everything that goes wrong in their life.

Excerpts from OurFuture. org:

American Thinker: “…the public is learning that most of the federal government employees are not essential, and that we can get along fine with a smaller government.” 

Along the same lines, Bob Owens, formerly of Confederate Yankee, now of Bearing Arms, tweeted that: “There is no government #shutdown. There are, however, a lot of people in govt terrified that you might discover you don’t need them.” 

Heritage Foundation: Guess How Many Education Department Employees Are “Essential” 

Have you ever wondered what is going through the head of a suicide bomber at the moment he or she hits the trigger button? Just spend some time reading conservative blogs and media as they encourage each other to blow up the government. Let’s hope this fever subsides before the debt ceiling is reached. 

With that said, why does the Mainstream Media spend so much time trying to say both parties are responsible when in this instance the shutdown is all the responsibility of the GOP TP House.  Even some members of the House like Rep Peter King (R-NY) say it is the fault of the GOP TP led by Senator Ted Cruz agrees it is the GOP fault, but that doesn't stop the conservative media led by Fox News and others from blaming Democrats and attacking Civil Service employees.

Then there are those on the right like Erick Erickson of Red State who want the Government shut down through the 2014 election.  Are they really that stupid to think a Government shutdown is going to help the economy when it is going to destroy not help?  

Many conservatives are hoping the shutdown will prove to Americans that they don’t need government at all. For example, Erick Erickson at RedState: 

The fight must be to either now keep government shut down till the Democrats blink or drive from office Republicans who vote to fund Obamacare.

In the meantime, life will go on. Americans will see they really can get along without Washington’s constant, daily interference in their lives.

We are not dealing with rational people here but people who have become convinced that the Government is evil or at least until the Republicans take charge.  GOP is who drove up the deficit with new programs and a phony war in Iraq.  Where were these so-called patriots then?  How about all those people not only in the Government but contractors who depend on federal contracts or those farmers who depend on subsidies, or mothers and babies who depend on WIC and the list goes on and on.

If you are a Government employee or retired Civil Service, I would like to know how you can listen or watch the likes of Fox News and hard right conservatives on the air like Laura Ingraham or Rush or Hannity:

Laura Ingraham on shutdown: ‘I’m just beginning to enjoy it’

“Do you like the government shutdown?” host Laura Ingraham asked a caller to her program Tuesday. “I’m beginning to enjoy it.” 

Courtside Entertainment Group’s The Laura Ingraham Show complained about freebies being given to furloughed federal employees by businesses, dismissing the giveaways as publicity stunts. 

“I think the freebies encourage entitlement mentality,” Ingraham said. 

The radio host said federal workers had made a choice to work for the government, which she described as being $16.9 trillion in debt and an inherently “unstable, unreliable organization.” 

“The largest employer in the United States is not to be trusted in the way it handles money, OK, (but) that was your decision,” Ingraham said. “You wanted to work for the federal government; that’s fine, but then we shouldn’t have to bail you out, we — private industry or the federal taxpayers — when the thing goes belly-up. That’s not our responsibility.”

From The Daily Caller -- are they that stupid to believe that the National Park shutdown was to turn the public against Congress aka Republican House?  They didn't need to shut down any Parks for anyone with a brain to turn against the GOP House Tea Party obstructions and their other members supporting the Tea Party.  The Daily Caller will never be known as anything but a conservative Koch TP shill site:

This isn’t an accident. Joan Anzelmo, a former spokeswoman for Grand Teton National Park told the San Jose Mercury News that shutting down the parks was a tactic used by the White House to turn public opinion against Congress.

The blogger community has been posting the nasty comments about Federal workers with the shutdown while the MSM keeps ignoring preferring to blame both sides for the shutdown when the blame rests squarely at the feet of the Cruz House GOP TP.  Twenty times the Democrats asked for a joint committee to be established on the budget and 20 times Cruz blocked it in the Senate and Boehner refused to nomination anyone from the House.  Explain to me why the shutdown has anything to do with Democrats as Majority Leader Reid accepted the Republican numbers for a budget to avoid a shutdown.  That didn't work because you cannot depend on the Republican House TP leadership of John Boehner to keep his word as he plays both sides.  

We've seen a lot of weird reactions on the right wing to the Government Shut down. These range from "it doesn't matter" to "its terrible" but one thing that really strikes me is the rage and antipathy that has been displayed towards Federal Workers themselves.  It doesn't strike me as unusual, but it does strike me as significant.  Yesterday's on air rant by Stuart Varney makes it pretty explicit: Federal Workers and, indeed, the entire Government are failing Stuart Varney. They cost too much and they do too little.  In fact: they are so awful they don't even deserve to be paid for the work they have already done. Contracts, agreements, and labor be damned. If Stuart Varney isn't happy then they deserve to be fired. Here's the quote if you haven't seen it:

HOWELL: Do you think that federal workers, when this ends, are deserving of their back pay or not?

VARNEY: That is a loaded question isn't it? You want my opinion? This is President Obama's shutdown. He is responsible for shutting this thing down; he's taken an entirely political decision here. No, I don't think they should get their back pay, frankly, I really don't. I'm sick and tired of a massive, bloated federal bureaucracy living on our backs, and taking money out of us, a lot more money than most of us earn in the private sector, then getting a furlough, and then getting their money back at the end of it. Sorry, I'm not for that. I want to punish these people. Sorry to say that, but that's what I want to do. 

JACOBSON: But it's not their fault. It's not the federal employees' fault. I mean, that's what I'm sick of, I hate and it makes me anxious, to see people who are victimized because of a political fight. 

VARNEY: I take your point Amy, it is not directly their fault, but I'm looking at the big picture here. I'm getting screwed. Here I am, a private citizen, paying an inordinate amount of money in tax. I've got a slow economy because it's all government, all the time. And these people are living on our backs, regulating us, telling us what to do, taxing us, taking our money, and living large. This is my chance to say "hey, I'm fed up with this and I don't miss you when you're on furlough." Sorry if that's a harsh tone, but that's the way I feel.

We need to thank President Obama for standing with federal employees:

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says long-standing views that federal workers are lazy or don't do important work have contributed to the government shutdown.Some 800,000 civilian government employees were idled when the shutdown began Oct. 1, but about 350,000 civilian Defense Department workers were recently called back to work.

Obama says federal employees work hard daily providing a range of services to veterans, business owners, potential homeowners and others. 

He says he's been distressed by anti-federal worker rhetoric he calls "damaging and destructive." He says a contributing factor in the shutdown is the attitude that civil service workers somehow aren't providing important services and value to the country. 

Obama says politicians who complain about federal workers are "dead wrong." 

He commented in an interview Wednesday with Washington TV station WRC-TV.

If you are a federal employee, think twice before ever voting for a Republican again because they don't have your back!  

Obama Stands Firm on No Negotiating on Debt Ceiling While Hard Right GOP House Plays Games

The modern day Republican party stands for economic uncertainty, chaos, refusal to pay its own bills, and radical nihilism. Not exactly big tent.  (Sarah Jones, Politicususa.com)

How is Speaker Boehner going to handle all the rhetoric he and other GOP have been spewing during their five-week recess about they are not going to cave on the debt ceiling unless Obamacare is defunded.  Are they that stupid?  Sure looks like they think they can back the President into a corner but it is going to backfire major league on Republicans as the vast majority of Americans are waking up to the fact the House Republicans along with some Republican hard right Senators are the reason our economy hasn't taken off as fast as it should have.  Most of us are in no mood for GOP games in September after their 5-week boondoggle with very few Town Halls.

A chaotic fall awaits Capitol Hill when lawmakers return to Washington in two weeks and face imminent fiscal deadlines to avoid sending the economy into a tailspin. 

The spotlight is on Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), who faces perhaps his toughest test yet as he tries to talk rebellious House Republicans out of risking a government shutdown or worse. Instead he’s floating a potentially riskier strategy: pass a short-term funding resolution, preserve sequestration and take the debt ceiling hostage to goals like unwinding Obamacare and cutting spending. 

On Oct. 1, funding for the federal government will expire. And later this fall, the U.S. will default on its obligations unless Congress raises the borrowing limit, or debt ceiling. Averting these two cliffs will be one of the more daunting tasks facing a wildly dysfunctional Congress and a fractured Republican Party. 

“It reinforces all the reasons why I thought it was a good time to retire at the beginning of the year,” former Rep. Steve LaTourette (R-OH), a friend and ally of Boehner, told TPM in a recent interview. “Because it looks like deja vu all over again. The same fights, the same cast of characters and the same unwillingness to find common ground.

When LaTourette announced his early retirement he did not hide the fact that it is almost impossible to get things done in the Congress unlike 25 years ago when he came into office.  The different IMHO is the Tea Party and shift to the hard right of the GOP with their no compromising attitude.  Thought this summed it up best:

"The Tea Party Republican Majority now has a sign outside their meeting room-- no moderates allowed," Jesse Ferguson spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said in a statement. 

A Democrat said it but I have heard the same thing from Republicans with the takeover by the Tea Party in the House that all they want to do is obstruct and only work for their base not their whole district like Congressman have in the past.  This is the most partisan group of malcontents I have witnessed in the House over the years.  Not sure Boehner can control them after they have been back in their districts listening to their hard right supporters.

This interview with Treasury Secretary Jack Lew is one of the best I have viewed about the debt ceiling and sequestion effects on the budget.  We are lucky to have Lew as our Treasury Secretary IMHO:

”Treasure Secretary Jack Lew was on CNBC Tuesday where he reiterated that not only will the President not negotiate over raising the debt limit, but, we do not need another self-inflicted wound (courtesy of the GOP). 

“I will reiterate. The President made clear he is not negotiating. Since ’1789,' every congress has acted to pay the bills of the United States. This Congress needs to do the same. What we need in our economy is certainty. We don’t need another self-inflicted wound.” 

CNBC’s John Harwood talked to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew on Tuesday, August 27th:

Just yesterday the Speaker was threatening a “whale of a fight” over raising the debt ceiling. With consumer confidence heading toward a five year high, Boehner threatened to crash the economy if Republicans don’t get to rule as if they won 2012.  

The Republican leader told a Boise lunch crowd, “But I’ll say this: It may be unfair but what I’m trying to do here is to leverage the political process to produce more change than what it would produce if left to its own devices. We’re going to have a whale of a fight."

(snip) 

The President also made sure the public knew that Congress tells him what to spend, and Congress is in charge of paying those bills (raising the debt ceiling): 

“This is a matter of Congress authorizes spending. They order me to spend. They tell me, you need to fund our Defense Department at such- and-such a level, you need to send out Social Security checks, you need to make sure that you are paying to care for our veterans. They lay all this out for me, and — because they have the spending power. And so I am required by law to go ahead and pay these bills. Separately, they also have to authorize a raising of the debt ceiling in order to make sure that those bills are paid. And so what Congress can’t do is tell me to spend X and then say, “But we’re not going to give you the authority to go ahead and pay the bills.” 

Very impressed with Treasury Secretary Lew and his explanations on the debt ceiling and making a deal on Sequestration and the budget.   Lew might be the most articulate Treasury Secretary we have had in years.  He laid out everything very succinctly and understandable to everyone.  He refused to take the bait on the Fed Chairman saying that decision is in the White House.  Gives me a lot of confidence we are on the right track.   Now if only the GOP would get their act together and throw out the Koch Bros Tea Party, they could negotiate in good faith to get this Country moving forward.  My reason for that statement comes from moderate Cong Sensenbrenner, R-WI, on the Voting Rights Act:

Republican Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner is vowing to reverse the recent Supreme Court ruling that made them possible. 

“The first thing we have to do is take the monkey wrench that the court threw in it, out of the Voting Rights Act, and then use that monkey wrench to be able to fix it so that it is alive, well, constitutional and impervious to another challenge that will be filed by the usual suspects,” Sensenbrenner said Monday at an RNC event held to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr.’s March on Washington. 

Sensenbrenner is a longtime advocate of the Voting Rights Act. As chair of the House Judiciary Committee when the law was reviewed in 2006, the Wisconsin legislator oversaw extensive deliberations which ultimately affirmed the VRA’s continuing necessity–and resulted in a 25-year reauthorization. So when the Supreme Court effectively gutted the VRA in June by voiding the requirement for certain states to get federal “preclearance” before changing their voting laws, Sensenbrenner was displeased. 

“Voter discrimination still exists,” he wrote in a June op-ed for USA Today, “and our progress toward equality should not be mistaken for a victory.”

Is it possible that someone like Sensenbrenner could be encouraged to join with other more moderate Republicans in the House (what few are left) along with Democrats to make sure the debt ceiling is passed.  Only need 18 to go with the Democrats to pass the debt ceiling increase with no strings.  If Republicans refuse to negotiate and compromise on the debt ceiling, they will bare the blame for the downgrade of American credit.  Even one of the GOP's budget guru's, Steve Bell, agrees:

The Republican government shutdown isn’t going to be blamed on the President.
Steve Bell, a longtime Senate Republican budget expert now at the Bipartisan Policy Center, told Talking Points Memo that Republicans are fooling themselves if they think that they can get the public to blame the President for a government shutdown.
“If Republican leaders are going to be all tied up again with the debt ceiling and government showdowns, that really is a big negative. We went through this with Clinton. I was in the room when we did this. And it isn’t going to be blamed on the President.”

“In the Republican caucus, there are significant internal divisions,” Bell said. “The House gets most of the attention because it’s pretty melodramatic. But the Senate Republican caucus is absolutely just as tough.”

When the Congress returns to town after their five week recess, the House has nine working days left according to their schedule to get continuing resolutions passed along with a debt ceiling increase. How they could have left town with this hanging is beyond me.  Most of the appropriation bills on how much money can be spent has not been passed so the American people are stuck once again with no timely budget and appropriations bills passed.  The House for several years blamed the Senate for not passing a budget but now that the Senate passed it in the Spring, the House has refused to name any people to a Joint Committee to iron out the differences.

Today's House run by Republicans is the worst in history with the most rhetoric and lies.  All they care about is voting to overturn Obamacare which was found Constitutional by the Supreme Court and is not on the table for any negotiation.  Time to send the GOP House to the unemployment line along with their Tea Party affiliation and staffs.  The GOP House's so-called Hastert rule where you have to have a majority of GOP support to bring up a bill is no way to run the House and is hurting the Country.  As long as their wealthy donors are happy, they don't seem to care about the average American so it is time we decided to elect people who care for all Americans not just the wealthy.