Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) Outs the Koch Brothers Behind the Shutdown of Government

We need more people like Senator Sanders (I-VT) in the Senate!

Defunding Obamacare Project Through Holding CR Hostage by Coalition of Conservative Groups Started in January

Where I disagree with [fellow Republican] Tom [Graves of Georgia] is we are the ones who did shut the government down. Charles Krauthammer called it the “suicide caucus,” and the Wall Street Journal said we’re “Kamikazes.” Cong Peter King (R-NY)

This defunding of Obamacare through the use of the continuing resolutions was referenced in a NY Times article, A Federal Budget Crisis Months in the Planning which details what the Koch Bros have been doing as well as the risk they all are willing to take to destroy our Government in order to defund the Affordable Care Act.  This is why 18 times when Senator Reid (D-NV) asked for representatives, Republicans have refused to appoint Representatives and Senators to a Joint Budget Conference Committee.  

The underhanded Republicans in the House and Senate had this planned all along with their willing accomplices the Koch Bros and other groups to extract destruction of Obamacare in exchange for approving the CR and now debt ceiling hike.  This group of people along with some Senators and Representatives have been plotting this since the reelection of President Obama and the Senate stayed in Democrat control which means they have no intention of honoring the outcome of the election.  That is Third World way of doing things not in our Republic but some of the hard right cannot be bothered by the Constitution and over 200 years of history because they have become convinced they can do what they want and the Democrats will fold.  News to the hard right Republican Party -- Democrats are not folding and a lot of your former supporters are standing with the President and the Democrats. 

Read this and understand that these Conservatives will do anything to defund Obamacare even if it means defaulting on the debts of the United States.  The votes are there for a clean CR and debt ceiling, but Speaker Boehner refuses to bring a clean CR bill to the floor.  Boehner and his like minded caucus minus about 30 Republicans need to be stopped like yesterday from taking the Country over the debt ceiling cliff.  It is time we stood united to back President Obama from these hostage takers and demand the media start telling the truth like Representative Peter King (R-NY) has said that it is the House Republican Caucus that is responsible for this shutdown of Government.  

Their original target of March 27 to shutdown Government was switched to the end of the fiscal year with the debt ceiling hike looming right after on October 17th.  These conservatives call themselves 'patriots' but this group is willing to see the US default and by any conventional standard it makes them a anarchist not a patriot.  Read this and then look at the names on the bottom of the Freedom Works Memo to see the people and groups who are willing to default in order to destroy Obamacare.  

No one makes a threat like this and can still be considered supporters of the United States Government. IMHO they are traitors who refuse to acknowledge that President Obama won the last election, Democrats kept the Senate, and picked up seats in the House.  Affordable Health Care aka Obamacare was passed by Congress, signed into law by the President and ruled Constitutional by SCOTUS but yet conservative Republicans want to destroy the bill with nothing to replace.

This is absolute insanity that a group of John Birch type Republicans would do this to the Nation and all of us:

Coalition Letter: Congress Must Honor Sequester Savings and Defund ObamaCare Before It Is Too Late

By Matt Kibbe on February 14, 2013

FreedomWorks has signed on to the following Memo to the Movement by the Conservative Action Project:

Current Event:

The current continuing resolution (CR) funding the government expires on March 27, setting up an opportunity for Congress and President Obama to honor the bi-partisan sequester savings already agreed upon.  It also presents an opportunity to achieve even more savings by defunding and stopping the implementation of Obamacare, which the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently reported will force 7 million Americans out of their existing health insurance.

Action:

• Conservatives cannot support a CR that is above the sequester level of $974 billion annually.  While many conservatives would prefer reprogramming defense cuts to other areas of discretionary spending (dollar for dollar cuts in the same year), the current sequester savings are better than none at all.

• Conservatives should not approve a CR unless it defunds Obamacare.  This includes Obamacare’s unworkable exchanges, unsustainable Medicaid expansion, and attack on life and religious liberty.

A mere “date-change CR” is unacceptable.  Although the Obama administration and others will argue the CR is not the appropriate legislative vehicle to defund Obamacare, it is easily done through a series of appropriation riders.  Because the CR represents one of the best vehicles possible to delay the implementation of Obamacare, it must not be used to bargain on the upcoming sequester.

Issue in Brief:
On October 1, 2013, open enrollment begins for the federally backed health care exchanges. On January 1, 2014, new money from Washington will begin flowing to states and individuals, all but ensuring that these new entitlements will become a permanent fixture of life in America. The window of opportunity to stop the implementation of these massive new subsidies is closing.
Although many of Obamacare's provisions are now the law of the land, many of the law's most damaging and irreversible provisions do not take effect until 2014.

Once implemented, the new spending contained within Obamacare, primarily the Medicaid expansion and exchange subsidies, will cost taxpayers more than $1.6 trillion over the next decade, according to the latest CBO estimates.  Given the history of federal entitlement programs and the back-loaded nature of Obamacare spending, some estimate the full implementation cost could reach  $2.6 trillion over ten years. It will increase the federal government's health spending by 15 percent.

The issue is far from settled in the states, which are tasked with either implementing the wide-ranging mandates and invasive requirements put forth by Obamacare, or deferring such choices to the bureaucrats in Washington.

The fractured opinion amongst the states is one reason the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has continually pushed back the deadline for states to make a decision on the exchanges and Medicaid expansion.

The invasive elements of Obamacare are not set in stone; in fact, elements of the law are already under assault from Republicans and Democrats alike. The CLASS Act was repealed and there is bipartisan support for eliminating the devastating Medical Device Tax.

Blueprint to Defunding Obamacare

Obamacare’s funding mechanisms are as complicated as the law itself, but they can be stopped through the appropriation process, which includes the upcoming continuing resolution.

• Federally Backed Exchanges.  An appropriations rider must eliminate the refundable tax credits for premiums and the cost sharing subsidies that are essentially used to support insurance purchased in the Obamacare exchanges, which starts January 1, 2014.

• Medicaid Expansion.  An appropriations rider must eliminate the enhance match funding for the Medicaid expansion, which takes effect January 1, 2014.

• Permanent Appropriations.  Obamacare contains items called “permanent appropriations” which guarantee funding for the Community Health Center Fund (CHCF) and Prevention and Public Health Fund (PPHF).  An appropriations rider turns off funds for these so-called permanent appropriations, which are already in effect.

• Implementation.  An appropriations rider must block the implementation of Obamacare, covering salaries, rulemaking, enforcement, etc.

• Life and Religious Liberty. Obamacare is an unprecedented attack on life and religious liberty. An appropriations rider must repeal the HHS mandate that attacks the religious values and principles of countless Americans.

• Miscellaneous Programs.  An appropriations rider must block all funding for newly authorized discretionary programs contained in Obamacare and return reauthorized programs back to their pre-Obamacare levels.

Signed:

Edwin Meese III
Former Attorney General
President Ronald Reagan

Chris Chocola
President
Club for Growth

Jenny Beth Martin
Co-Founder
Tea Party Patriots

Penny Nance
President
Concerned Women for America

The Honorable J. Kenneth Blackwell
President
Constitutional Congress, Inc.

William Wilson
President
Americans for Limited Government

Duane Parde
President
National Taxpayers Union

Susan Carleson
President
American Civil Rights Union

Andrea Lafferty
President
Traditional Values Coalition

Alfred S. Regnery
President
The Paul Revere Project

Lewis Uhler
President
National Tax Limitation Committee

Brent Bozell
President
ForAmerica

Matt Kibbe
President
FreedomWorks

Marjorie Dannenfelser
President
Susan B. Anthony List

David Williams
President
Taxpayers Protection Alliance

The Honorable David McIntosh
Former U.S. Representative
Indiana

David Bozell
Executive Director
ForAmerica

Colin Hanna
President
Let Freedom Ring

Stuart Epperson
President
Council for National Policy

Heather Higgins
President
Independent Women's Forum

Cindy Chafian
President
The Mommy Lobby

Gary Bauer
President
American Values

Mike Needham
CEO
Heritage Action for America

David Bossie
President
Citizens United

Mathew D. Staver
Chairman
Liberty Counsel Action

James Martin
Chairman
60 Plus Association

Erick Erickson
Editor
RedState.com

T. Kenneth Cribb
Former Domestic Advisor
President Ronald Reagan

Becky Norton Dunlop
Former White House Advisor
President Ronald Reagan

Grace-Marie Turner
President
The Galen Institutue

Myron Ebell
President
Freedom Action

Craig Shirley
Reagan Campaign Biographer

Rev. Lou Sheldon
Chairman
Traditional Values Coalition

Richard Rahn
President
Inst. for Global Economic Growth

Lee Beaman
Businessman
Nashville, TN

Bob Reccord
Executive Director
Council for National Policy

Angelo M. Codevilla
Professor Emeritus
Boston University

Tom Donelson
Chairman
America's PAC

Brian Baker
President
Ending Spending

Kay R. Daly
President
Coalition for a Fair Judiciary

Don Devine
Senior Scholar
The Fund for American Studies

Gary Aldrich
President
Patrick Henry Center for Individual Liberty

Ralph Benko
President
Center for Civic Virtue

Andresen Blom
Senior Strategist
Center for Civic Virtue

Joe Gregory
CEO
Gregory Management Co.

Rebecca Hagelin

(All organizations listed for Identification purposes only)

Are Koch Bros GOP TP Threatening the Stability of our Government with GOP Shutdown to Stage a Takeover?

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

Message to House GOP/TP Obstructionists and their supporters:  We are not going away, and we will not be defeated as many of us who joined Republicans for Obama stand firmly with Democrats and Independents who are standing with President Obama and for Obamacare.

We will be working 24/7 to defeat all Republicans in 2013/2014 who do not stand up for a clean Continuing Resolution Bill and Raising the Debt Ceiling with no strings attached.  The Koch Bros may have the dollars but we have the boots on the ground as more and more people are willing to work to take this Country back from the crazies.  Since so many what used to be normal GOP Congressmen have joined in with the Koch Bros Tea Party, they have lost our respect and our vote for Congressman/woman.  House GOP TP was giddy Saturday night coming out of the Conference to go to the floor to vote to shutdown government even know they knew their bill was DOA in the Senate which it was.

If you spend some time at the media outlets of the “true conservatives” you will realize that they are “giddy” celebrating the shutdown, and “ideally” want to keep the government shut down “through the 2014 elections” because people in government are “terrified that you might discover you don’t need them.”

I am proud I cast my vote for President Barack Obama and now stand firmly behind him in his demand for clean bills which doesn't seem to penetrate the brains of most of the GOP Conference.  Maybe it cannot get past the alcohol they have been drinking since according to reporters the alcohol stench is overwhelming.  There are votes in the House to pass a clean bill but Speaker Boehner refuses to bring it to the floor for fear of losing his job.  Putting your job over the Country means you are the biggest sell-out in history.  President Lincoln had to arrest people including the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court on his goal of ending slavery.

Now we have a bunch of people led by the Koch Bros who want an overthrow of our Government and want the Government to stay shutdown until after the 2014 election which they are stating openly. That is truly frightening but this Nation cannot give into the hard right demands no more then Lincoln could give into the southern states demand they leave the Union.  This is what today's hard right GOP TP conservatives are all about:

Suicide Pact
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.

Reading these comments from the hard right Tea Party Republicans some of who are members of Congress and then watching this video of the President is quite a contrast.  You have a leader in President Obama who wants to do what is best for all Americans versus a bunch of hard right who are willing to see the Government fail to get their way and take over something they couldn't do at the ballot box in November 2012.  They are traitors to the United States in my book.


I am ready to go to the Board of Elections to change my registration to Democrat as I refuse to be a part of the Party of photo ops and stunts.  This shutdown of government over Republicans not getting the way has totally lost me.  I was already going to work for Democrats in 2014 but now I am going to become one next week.  Been a part of Republican politics most of my adult life except when I worked for the Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB.

Over the years I have worked various campaigns from national to local races.  I have been the Vice Chair of my County, President of the oldest women's club in Oklahoma, and precinct chair more times then I can count.  I was part of Bush-Cheney and was in charge of a rally at the Capitol in OKC during the Florida fiasco.  If anyone asks what started my eventual break-up with the Republican Party would say it was the transfer to Oklahoma as part of the closure of Kelly AFB.  Was given a choice by my husband - Georgia or Oklahoma.  There was not enough money to make me move to Warner Robins, GA, in the heart of south so we choice Oklahoma and the kids and I chose Norman, the home of the University of Oklahoma.  My husband moved first and then we joined him in January 1997 after a move from the San Antonio area.  With the depot closing at Kelly AFB, we moved north.

There was one request on the move from me and that was season tickets to Sooner football which we were able to get and still have today.  Will be at Owen Field tonight yelling for the Sooners against TCU.

Norman is a progressive town and home to The University of Oklahoma so we have people from all the world living here in Norman.  We are also home to the USPS Training Center and the National Weather and Storms Prediction Center.  The research at OU under President Boren has been climbing every year in various fields.  OU has some of the oldest manuscripts in the world by authors in the earlier centuries.  It is an amazing place to live as academics, sports, culture, and saving the environment all are joined.

I had a bad feeling about the Tea Party and NEVER supported them from the beginning.  When AFP became a big supporter of their cause in 2010 I knew something was wrong because a lot of their people have no clue how Government works which I have seen up close and personal.  Never liked the Paulbots either and why I quit as a Republican precinct chair when our inept County Chair assigned a Paulbot to me.  BTW, when he was elected, two of his slate were not qualified -- one was still a Democrat and the other not registered in our County but that was okay because he was a social conservative.  (sarcasm)

Then my blog, DemocratsforSale, which was taking on Republicans more then Democrats kept getting taken off line by attacks.  It is still off line and will never reappear because in doing the research for the blog discovered that the people for sale were not the Democrats but Republicans who had sold out to the big donors.  After hearing all the rhetoric out of the GOP candidates and know I could never support Romney under any circumstance, I joined Republicans for Obama and found a home.  After that, I joined Obama for America which has morphed into Organizing for Action of which I am a charter member as I moved over with others right away to take up the fight on issues.

That puts me here today and I am still fighting for the President's issues against a group of cowards who are afraid to admit that Affordable Care Act aka Obamacare is the LAW of the land not a bill.  After 44 votes to destroy ACA, you would think GOP TP would get a hint that they have lost the battle and the war especially since so many Americans have already signed up.  They are finding their healthcare costs will go down and now Disney is moving people from part-time to full time so they can get ACA. Walmart is now changing their tune and going to do the same thing according to Forbes which is a huge shocker.  Walmart is learning the hard way that hiring a bunch of part-time workers with no benefits doesn't work as their shelves are empty in a lot of stores because there is no one to stock them.

There are changes that could be made to ACA to strengthen it but from Day One the GOP has been about killing ACA not working with Democrats.  Eighteen times, Majority Leader Reid in the Senate has asked Republicans to come to a conference committee on the budget but it has been blocked by Senate/House Republicans.  The biggest hypocrisy came when the House GOP attached a conference request to the CR when the President has said pass a clean CR.  Already the Democrats have agreed to budget numbers of the Republicans but that is not good enough, they now want more.  That is why you don't negotiate with hostage takers.

Can no longer be a member of a Party that puts their re-election over the American people and the economic health of our Country.  To the sellouts in Republican Party -- you can all sink together in the dustbin of history because the historians are not going to be kind for the crap you have pulled on America.  You have forgotten your oaths to preserve and protect the Constitution of the United States of America in order to appease the Koch Bros.  Some conservatives are calling for the shutdown to last until the 2014 elections:

Although many Republicans claim Americans will not notice the effects of the shutdown and intend keeping it in place until the 2014 midterms to prove government is unnecessary, real Americans are already feeling the shutdown’s consequences. For example, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) halted its flu program just as flu season gets underway, over 2 million federal employees will have paychecks delayed and 800,000 may never be repaid, and food safety operations will grind to a halt. For disabled Americans their benefits could be interrupted, the Women’s, Infants, and Children (WIC) program serving 9 million poor women and children is suspended, and Head Start programs start closing soon. Millions of Veterans may miss the benefits if the shutdown lasts more than two weeks because the Department of Veterans Affairs said it may not have money to pay disability claims and pension payments. The shutdown could affect 3.6 million Veterans, so they had better start making poverty plans today because Republicans plan to keep government closed at least until the deadline to raise the debt ceiling in two weeks. The shutdown may last until the 2014 midterm elections when they hope to make it permanent because they claim the people will realize they do not need, or want, a federal government; even for national security. 

Republicans exposed themselves as the traitors they are because about 70% of the 86,000 civilians employed at 16 U.S. intelligence agencies have been furloughed prompting the spokesman for the director of national intelligence to warn that “the intelligence community’s ability to identify threats and provide information for a broad set of national security decisions will be diminished for the duration.” It seems reasonable that the intelligence community would identify the Republican shutdown as a threat to national security, but without 70% of its workforce, it is likely many threats, including those posed by teabaggers and Republicans, will go unidentified “for the duration.”

It cannot be stressed strongly enough that the shutdown’s duration, according to many Republicans, is going to be at least through the Republican debt ceiling crisis at which time the solvency, or lack thereof, of the government may inform that Republicans succeeded in their goal of a permanent government shutdown. Americans need to comprehend that this shutdown tactic was not just about preventing 30-million uninsured citizens gaining access to affordable healthcare insurance; it was also about Republicans gaining leverage in the impending crisis over the debt ceiling and beyond. According to the National Review, “Boehner called groups of members to his Capitol office, and it became clear, members say, that Boehner’s chief goal is conference unity as the debt limit nears.” The Republican message has shifted away from defunding the Affordable Care Act to items Boehner talked about slashing last month including discretionary spending cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and concentrating on tax reform (cuts) for the rich and corporations. 

From the Chamber and its groups to Wall Street and CEO's and the American people who have asked you Republicans in the House to pass a clean CR bill and raise the debt ceiling with no strings attached, you have ignored all of us to support the Koch Bros agenda.  After the House GOP is ignoring all the pleas, now they are not sure what they want but they want something in exchange for their vote on a clean CR.  You don't negotiate with terrorists and these Republican House GOP TP members led by Senator Ted Cruz of TX who is plotting with the House GOP have turned into domestic terrorists as they want to destroy the Government because they lost the White House and Senate.

One huge voice is missing from the calls for a clean CR -- the Libertarian Koch Bros who want to go back to the gold standard and turn this Country into a Libertarian Utopia where the middle class and poor are there to do their bidding.  Koch's want to do away with healthcare, minimum wage, social security, medicare, anything for the poor, unemployment insurance, OSHA rules, EPA, Department of Education and turn us into a 3rd World Country.

IMHO this is treasonous to try and take down the Government through allowing the United States to default on its monetary obligations.  If I had my way, the Koch Bros and others like Glenn Beck, Rush, et al who want a takeover of Government would all be in jail for trying to destroy America.  Their hatred for President Obama is so racist in nature that I cannot comprehend there are people who think that way but they are on full display during this CR and debt ceiling fight.

This contrast of the two parties says it all:

Republican House GOP/TP Own the Shutdown of the Government

“Speaker John Boehner won’t even let the bill get a yes-or-no vote because he doesn’t want to anger the extremists in his party,” the president said. If the speaker allows a vote, Mr. Obama added, within minutes “we can get back to the business of helping the American people.” President Obama, 10/03/2012

I am so proud of my vote for Barack Obama for President last November as I have watched him stand up to the hostage takers in the Republican Party and not budge.  This was my first vote for a Democrat for President.  Today I feel like I hit the jackpot in getting the kind of President I have wanted for years who puts the people of America first.  I have been privileged to be on conference calls with OFA and have listened to some of the most articulate and knowledgeable people I have ever heard on a conference call.  It is a 180 from previous times on conference calls with the GOP.

This just in from Politicususa.com:

An open mic and camera caught Rand Paul discussing shutdown strategy with Mitch McConnell. Paul admitted that Republicans don’t want to be there, and their only hope is to look reasonable.

(snip) 

Rand Paul admitted to the world the Republicans only hope of getting out of the government shutdown is if Democrats didn’t focus group test their talking points enough. It is nice to see Mitch McConnell confirm that there isn’t going to be a secret deal. Obama is telling Republicans privately the exact same thing that he is saying publicly. They are going to get nothing. 

However, Republicans are saying something publicly that they don’t believe privately. Publicly, the Republicans are talking tough. Privately, they are desperate for a way out of the shutdown that allows them to claim some little symbolic or token victory. 

After saying no to everything since Obama took office, Republicans aren’t going to be able to fool people into thinking that they are the party of compromise with a few well tested shutdown talking points. Paul has the mood of the country wrong. The American people want these games to stop. The Democratic message is a call for the American people to take a stand against these partisan games. Republicans don’t have a counter message to the actual mood of the country. 

Rand Paul is delusional if he thinks that Republicans are going to win this. They’ve already lost. The only things left to be determined are the size of the loss, and whether or not this will cost them control of the House in 2014. 

Rand Paul basically admitted that the Republican tough talk is empty. Paul probably thought he was being clever by speaking to McConnell in front of the camera and mic, but all he did was dig the hole a little deeper for the Republican Party.

Even now GOP are looking for words to dig them out of this hole they are in thanks to the hard right of which Rand Paul is a member.  Senate GOP wants to put pressure on the House GOP/TP, then vote unanimously in the Senate for a clean CR which the GOP Senators are refusing to do.  Backbones missing in today's Koch funded GOP.

My email today to my Congressman about this GOP/TP House Shutdown of the Government:

Tom
"Seventy-two percent of respondents overall disapprove, including 76 percent of independents and 49 percent of Republicans. Even among respondents who disapprove of the president's health care law, 59 percent disapprove of shutting down the government to force changes to it. More Americans blame Republicans for the shutdown than blame President Barack Obama and the Democrats, by a margin of 44 to 35 percent. Seventeen percent blame both parties." 

Would love to have seen the breakout of Republican women because most women I know believe there is a Republican War on Women.  You are the ONLY member of the OK delegation who voted for the VAWA so it shows you are not afraid to break ranks. 

The very fact that Boehner won't bring the clean CR to the floor for a vote to end the shutdown makes zero sense to the people who I know who have been around politics.  It also makes no sense that the GOP is lying when they say only 30-40 are keeping this from happening.  Even with the Hastert Rule  they could not keep it from coming to the floor.  I watch the video of the Saturday night GOP Conference going out in the hall and you were all giddy knowing you were going to be on the losing end by shutting down the government unless all the drinking made you all delusional and refusing to face reality.  I didn't see one Republican face that was sad but I saw you with thumbs up and talking about a good bill. 

ACA is NOT a bill, it is a law which some Neanderthal Republicans cannot seem to get through their heads.  Because you don't like a like law, you cannot pick and choose.   

Anyone with a brain knew the GOP tactics were going to fail and polls are starting to show that.  You and your buddies are putting our Nation's economy at risk for what? Trying to hold the debt ceiling hostage on October 17 since you have held the budget hostage.

When you attached a conference committee on the budget to the clean CR, you looked like fools as you have refused 18 times to send GOP Reps to a Conference Committee on the Budget.  I hear your members talking about the Senate didn't pass a budget but they passed one in March.  American people should be asked why the GOP stalled until the end of the fiscal year when the Democrats agreed to take your numbers.  It doesn't take a genius to know you did this on purpose thinking the President would cave but he didn't because he has the support of the American people like me to stand up to hostage takers. 

Over 10,000,000 Americans hit the site for ACA which crashed the site including a lot of them from red states which is ignored.  The very idea the GOP supports uninsured going to emergency rooms for care is stupid but then your lack of caring about the poor is even worse.  Talk farm and oil subsidies and the GOP/TP House is right there voting to keep which destroying food stamps.  Now in OK if you don't have a job, are single, and cannot find work, you cannot get any food stamps.  I would rather see one instance of fraud and feed thousands then be the judge and jury to make someone go hungry.

Passing a Veterans budget bill that calls for less funding then agreed to is nothing but a PR stunt and thankfully the Democrats have woken up to how underhanded the GOP has become over the years.  GOP/TP House is not dealing with a full deck and as the hours tick by you have lost the Chamber plus 251 organizations, Wall Street, and now CEO's but somewhere missing is the Koch Brothers and their vast minions of wanting to take down the Government. 

When I heard the voices of the hard right in the media and see them on line talking about an overthrow of the President, it is scary.  We elected him -- it wasn't any fraud and it wasn't ACORN which is out of business even if some members of Congress try to defund -- it was the American people.  Now the hard right refuses to acknowledge the results of the election and acknowledge without gerrymandering this would not have happened as votes for Democrats for the House were over one million more for the Democrats.  Yet your Conference decided to play with the continuing resolution for what?  It makes no sense to go down this path against the American people.  What is there to gain?  More money from the Koch's?

You have some of the dumbest people in the House I have ever heard talk but they follow instructions well as they came to DC to shutdown Government and that is what the members of the GOP in the House have allowed to happen.  You let Freshman takeover knowing full well they were loyal to Bachmann who is one of the worst members of Congress ever and right down there with stupidity and instead of working pulling stunts like the WWII Memorial.

Stop the stunts and pass a clean CR and a clean debt ceiling.  Start helping mold the ACA instead of acting like spoiled brats who lost the game.  As one person said on Twitter maybe Notre Dame should have asked for a redo so they could add 15 points to the score after they lost (to OU). 

One group is thanking you, the fundraisers of the Democrats because the GOP/TP House has handed them a bonanza of donations from small donors who all have votes something the GOP has forgotten while going after big donors. 

Pass a clean continuing resolution and debt ceiling or that number of 72% is going to continue to climb as ordinary people (those ones that the GOP ignores today) are starting to lose money and resources they count on to live.

Regards,
Sharon

Republican big donors have shut up their checkbooks to the GOP yet the House GOP continues down this road and ignore many of the big donors who have underwritten GOP campaigns -- makes no sense:

“I have been in politics for 45 years,” said Georgette Mosbacher, a cosmetics CEO in New York whom The Washington Post once called “the eccentric grande dame of GOP fundraising.” “Every time something does not work, it has to be blamed on an entity ‘out there.’ Well, I am sorry, but the Tea Party isn’t that powerful, and anybody who stopped to think about it long enough would know that.”

House GOP/TP could end the shutdown right now by bringing to the floor and passing a CLEAN CR but Boehner refuses to do that so the shutdown continues while spin that it is the Democrats fault for negotiating wears thin.  There never should have been any negotiation on the continuing resolution. Pass a CLEAN CR -- no negotiation.

Right now, Democrats and Republicans remain at loggerheads over financing the federal government. Some Republicans have suggested that a broader bargain, including changes to entitlement programs, might be one path forward. But the White House has insisted that Republicans not include the debt ceiling in any negotiations. 

Nearly 190 Democrats, including all members of the party’s House leadership team, have signed a letter circulated by Representative Peter Welch of Vermont supporting a “clean” debt-ceiling extension. 

Republicans “view the health care bill as an existential threat to the country, and they are willing to use all tactics, including blowing up the economy, to get rid of Obamacare,” Mr. Welch said in an interview. “If shutdown and default become legitimate tactics, any Congress in the future could use those tactics to get their way.” 

Wall Street “should be concerned,” President Obama told CNBC on Wednesday. “When you have a situation in which a faction is willing to potentially default on U.S. government obligations, then we’re in trouble.” 

He added that it was “important” for Wall Street “to recognize that this is going to have a profound impact on our economy and their bottom lines, their employees and their shareholders.”

After the meeting late yesterday at the White House, it is obvious that the Republicans are not budging from their hard right stance in shutting down the Government.  We were warned when the GOP came to Congress they wanted to shut down the Government.  What did the House GOP leadership do, bow down to the new Tea Party Representatives and put them on leadership and major committees.  They are now reaping the results of the stupid move and because of their lack of backbones, they have shutdown the government costing 800,000+ their jobs and income.  

WASHINGTON — An impassioned President Obama on Thursday kept up the pressure on House Republicans to end the three-day-old government shutdown, appearing at a small construction company outside the capital to challenge Speaker John A. Boehner to quit blocking a vote on federal spending. 

“This isn’t happening because of some financial crisis. It’s happening because of a reckless Republican shutdown in Washington,” he said, to cheers and calls of “That’s right!” from the assembled construction workers at M. Luis Construction, a company formed by Portuguese immigrants in Rockville, Md., a suburb north of Washington. 

“Remember, it was just five years ago that our economy was in a free fall,” Mr. Obama said, speaking on the fifth anniversary of Congress’s vote to bail out the nearly collapsed financial system. Since then, he said, businesses have added more than 7.5 million jobs, an improving housing market has helped construction companies recover, and auto sales have continued to grow. “We can’t afford to threaten that progress right now.” 

Mr. Obama’s appearance came just after the Treasury Department released a report arguing that a default could provoke a recession “comparable to or worse” than the one deepened by the financial crisis of 2008, which was the worst since the Depression.
Besides the well-publicized disruption of the shutdown for tourists, veterans, older people and children in Head Start, Mr. Obama added, “Companies like this one worry that their businesses are going to be disrupted.” The federal government provides $1 billion a month in loans to small businesses that now cannot be processed, he said.

Time for the Republican Party to stop all the hate rhetoric as anything that goes down is not going to be good if the chatter on line is any indication.

GOP/Tea Party House Stood United in Refusing to Pass Clean CR Bill Submitted by Democrats Today!

The president didn’t target all House Republicans, just the faction of 80 that are insisting on getting rid of the ACA.  Politicususa.com

The meeting at the White House with leadership of the Congress accomplished nothing this afternoon as Speaker Boehner remains entrenched on trying to negotiate defunding/delaying Obamacare and refusing to pass a clean bill.  Look at this picture and notice there is only one person acting like he is happy while the other three are disgusted.  

Speaker Boehner saying he didn't want the shutdown is garbage.  Now he won't even listen to the Chamber or Wall Street.  GOP/TP Speaker and his Leadership team are drunk on power if not on Jack Daniels as more reports of drinking have surfaced. This picture says it all about who is serious about the shutdown of Government and it is sure not Speaker Boehner but then he has the Tea Party and Ted Cruz backing the shutdown along with all the entities of the Koch Bros so he is riding high. Despicable.    

You may have heard some Republicans out in the media saying they are opposed to the shutdown.  Bet me!  They all voted together against a clean CR bill which would open Government back up:

An attempt by Democrats to force shutdown-ending legislation to the House floor failed on a 227-197 vote, with all Republicans in opposition. That left intact the tea party-driven strategy of demanding changes to the nation's health care overhaul as the price for essential federal financing, Despite grumbling from Republican moderates.

The stock market ended lower as Wall Street CEOs, Europe's central banker and traders pressed for a solution before serious damage is done to the economy. Chief executives from the nation's biggest financial firms met Obama for more than an hour Wednesday, some of them plainly frustrated with the tactics at play in Congress and with the potential showdown coming over the debt limit. 

This vote shows the Republicans have been lying to the media that only 30-40 House members are responsible for the shutdown.  House GOP/Tea Party Leadership had a chance to vote for a clean bill to end the shutdown and voted against the bill because it came from Democrats?  Any Republican still supporting these group of Neanderthals in the GOP/Tea Party House is either one of them or refuses to see the truth right before their eyes.

BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

WASHINGTON — The Republican-run House has rejected an effort by Democrats to force a quick end to the partial government shutdown. 

By a 227-197 vote Wednesday, the House rejected a move by Democrats aimed at forcing the House to vote on immediately reopening the government without clamping any restrictions on President Barack Obama's health care law. 

The Democratic-run Senate has already approved such legislation. 

House Republican leaders have refused to allow their chamber to vote on that plan. They have approved legislation that would reopen government, but only with a one-year delay in the health care law's requirement that individuals purchase health insurance.
The partial shutdown began Tuesday.

Even Grover Norquist is blaming Cruz for the shutdown after convincing the House Members to stand against Obamacare or shut down government and then wandered away after the shutdown like Cruz had nothing to do with it.  Do you know how bad it is when the guy that twisted arms and threatened Republicans to sign his 'no tax pledge' or else is blaming Cruz.  You cannot make this stuff up although it reads like a work of fiction.

That's like the House passing piecemeal budget resolutions for three agencies, one of them being Veterans Affairs.  Then you discover they cut their funding to a much lower level then they had agreed to earlier when the Democrats agreed to use Republican numbers.  Did the GOP/TP House think people wouldn't notice?  Are they that dumb?

You cannot deal with hostage takers as the President has learned.  The GOP/TP House has the integrity and ethics of a gnat.  You deal with them at your own risk because they would rather bite off your hand.  Obama had this to say on CNBC today:

On a macro level, the president stressed that one of the reasons he could not bend much further was that it would forever institutionalize the concept of governing by hostage taking:

What we're debating right now is keeping the government open for two months. We would then be going through this exact same thing in the middle of Christmas shopping season, which I don't think many businesses would be interested in. We saw what happened in 2011. And then we'd have to go through it again six months from now and six months after that. And one thing that I know the American people are tired of, and I have to assume the vast majority of businesses are tired of, is this constant governing from crisis to crisis. So in that sense, do we need to break that fever? Absolutely. We have to stop doing that. Let's get a budget that allows people to plan over the long term that allows us to deal with our fiscal problems in a sensible, reasonable way. Even on an issue like health care, if they want to give me specific suggestions around how we can improve delivery of health insurance to people who need it, people with preexisting conditions, I'm happy to talk to them about it. But I'm not going to do it subject to the threat that somehow America defaults on its obligations.

From Politicususa.com from the President's appearance on CNBC today:

President Obama wasn’t trying to scare Wall Street, but he did let them know what Republican behavior is going to cost them. Obama went on CNBC for a reason. He was intentionally reaching out to the financial sector to put heat on the House Republicans. The president didn’t target all House Republicans, just the faction of 80 that are insisting on getting rid of the ACA. 

The walls are closing in on Boehner and the tea party. Obama knows that Boehner may not listen or care about anyone else, but he jumps when corporate America snaps their fingers. The president has made it very clear that he will not negotiate over the CR or the debt limit. The president’s message hasn’t changed. Republicans will get nothing in exchange for reopening the government. 

President Obama and the Democrats are surgically cutting off the base of support for Republican Party. Obama has boxed Boehner and the tea party in. Speaker Boehner only has one option to get out of this. He has got to pass a clean CR and reopen the government.

If you want to contact your member of Congress to complain about the shutdown, it may take awhile because it seems the GOP/TP House members are not taking a lot of calls.

This whole scenario is deplorable especially when you realize they have taken 44 votes to defund Obamacare and still call it a bill when it was signed into law and declared constitutional by the SCOTUS which means it is the Law.  What more does it take but then they have people still saying Romney really won Ohio and cite Rove talking about Cleveland.  That is Bravo Sierra which made my brother and I laugh on election night as we grew up in Ohio and any Republican waiting for Cleveland area to come to give the GOP a win has to be drinking as it is heavily Democrat.

Epic fail once again on the part of the GOP/TP House starting with Speaker Boehner.

GOP House Republicans are Fully Responsible for Government Shutdown - Overnight Polling Agrees

GOP Members giddy over shutdown possibility Saturday night and now trying to blame Senate Democrats and the President. They won't even take responsibility for their own actions.

The GOP rhetoric is not selling well with the American people no matter how the GOP and their hard right allies try to spin:

From Business Insider:

Six hours after the federal government shut down for the first time in 17 years, a new Quinnipiac poll delivered the first warning sign for a Republican Party that stands to take the brunt of the blame.  

According to the poll, American voters oppose shutting down the federal government to block implementation of the Affordable Care Act by a significant, 72-22 margin. And on another upcoming fight — raising the debt ceiling — Americans oppose using it to stop the health-care law's implementation by a 64-27 margin.  

And in general, 58% of Americans oppose cutting off funding for Obamacare to tinker with its implementation.  

All of these should be significant red flags for the Republican Party, which polls have shown will take the bulk of the public's blame for the shutdown. 

According to the Quinnipiac poll, Democrats now hold a 9-point advantage in the general Congressional ballot — that is, Americans said they would vote for the Democratic candidate in their district over the Republican candidate by a 43-34 margin. That's the highest it's been all year. 

And approval of Congressional Republicans is at its lowest point in the poll's history. Only 17% of respondents said approve of the job Congressional Republicans are doing, compared with 74% who disapprove. That compares to a 32/60 approval-to-disapproval rating for Congressional Democrats and a 45/49 score for President Barack Obama.
55% of voters think gridlock is occurring in Washington because Republicans are "determined to block any Obama initiative," while only 33% said it's because of Obama's lack of skill to convince Congress to work together. 

"Americans are certainly not in love with Obamacare, but they reject decisively the claim by Congressional Republicans that it is so bad that it's worth closing down the government to stop it," said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.  

"President Barack Obama enters this standoff over the budget with an edge over Congressional Republicans in the voters' eyes." 

Now we know that Speaker Boehner and his leadership team were pressuring Representatives not to stand with Rep King.  It is absolutely despicable.  

Peter King: I Did My Best to Fight the Cruz Craziesby Michael Daly Oct 1, 2013 6:23 AM EDT 

Peter King attempted to lead a moderate coup against the Republican leadership. He tells Michael Daly why he could no longer stand by and watch the crazies in his party damage the country. 

But every time he spoke to a fellow Republican representative who seemed ready to join him in averting a government shutdown, House Speaker John Boehner would have a quiet word with the waverer. 

“I did my bit, and then I saw Boehner talking to them,” King says. 

King was by one of the 20 locations where a member can vote. He saw a possible supporter who was standing nearby instead go to a more distant voting station. 

“When you see a guy walk away to vote someplace else, you know how he’s going,” King says. 

King felt sure that if Boehner had just told everybody to vote their conscience, then the measure that threatened to trigger a government shutdown would have been resoundingly defeated. But Boehner apparently did not want to risk a revolt by the extremists who are ideologically aligned with Sen. Ted Cruz, the ones who King says live in “echo chambers” where they hear only their own voices. Boehner would rather risk this challenge by King, who was not an imminent threat to the speaker’s rule and had been consistently loyal in all the big recent votes. 

At the same time, the “Ted Cruz Republicans,” as King called them, had been consistently disloyal. The present crisis had only come about because the Cruz crazies had refused to go along with Boehner’s original plan. Boehner had figured on sending legislation to the Senate that would allow it to fund the government even as it refused to pass an essentially symbolic measure defunding Obamacare.   

Excerpt:  Read More at The Daily Beast

Speaker Boehner seems to be out of it most of the time he speaks including his attacks on the President on the floor of the House.  All the Speaker has  to do is bring up a clean CR bill, it will pass, and the Government goes back to work which the House GOP refuses to pass.  Why won't Boehner bring up a clean CR bill?

The fault for the shutdown lies at the feet of John Boehner, his Leadership Team, and the Cruz Tea Party Caucus in the House who have been acting on Cruz's recommendations.  Last week Cruz on video told the House if they shutdown Government then they should start passing piece meal funding bills which is exactly what they are doing today.  Shows Cruz is running the House and the Speaker. When is the last time you have seen a Senator run the House?  I never have.

After the Continuing Resolution battle, the Debt Ceiling is up next this month.  Look at the demands above from the Republican Tea Party House and ask yourself who is responsible for the shutdown of Government. President and Senate request two clean bills and all they get is garbage add ons by House Tea Party Republicans who refuse to acknowledge that Obamacare is the law not a bill and the American people spoke in reelecting President by a large margin.

House GOP has now become totally delusional and are in the process of destroying the GOP to do what the Koch Bros want.  Why?  Where are GOP backbones?  Why people would support the GOP today is beyond me.  Send them to the unemployment line in November 2014.

Refusing to Face Reality, GOP Tea Party House Acts Like Spoiled Brats on Continuing Resolution on Way to Shutdown Government

Most Americans would blame congressional Republicans rather than President Barack Obama for a shutdown, and many Americans view the GOP as acting like "spoiled children," according to a CNN/ORC International poll released Monday.

Six in 10 respondents reject the GOP's approach and think it is more important to avoid a shutdown than to make major changes to the Affordable Care Act. 

The poll is an indication that the Republicans' hard-line approach does not resonate with many Americans, and could have consequences in future elections. Nevertheless, the GOP has touted the tactic of using the continuing resolution to fund the government to demand changes to Obamacare, crafting the populist slogan "Make DC Listen."

Breaking News from Huffington Post is that the House GOP's Third Shutdown Offer Would Delay Individual Mandate By One Year which the Senate will strip from the bill as they have asked for a clean bill with no riders.  The House GOP Members of Leadership and the House are stubborn morons who have convinced themselves the President and Democrats would cave to their demands.  They refuse to acknowledge that Obama won by a hefty margin and that ACA was found Constitutional including the mandate clause.  If they think this President and the Democrats are going to cave to their wishes, they are definitely on something.  How dare the GOP not to just pass a clean bill for a continuing resolution and go to conference committee on the Budget.  

Democrats were perplexed by the House's insistence on pushing its riders, since Democrats have already agreed to the GOP's spending levels in the short-term bill. 

"It's the numbers they want," said Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.). "We are taking their numbers. We're not happy about that. We're willing to compromise and take their numbers for the six-week period -- we want it clean." 

"This is about six weeks of supporting our troops, our veterans, our seniors, our children, the economy," said Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.).

Senate has already agreed to the numbers for a continuing resolution for six weeks but the GOP is insisting on attaching riders which makes the House Tea Party GOP look really bad as they refuse to pass a clean bill.  Shows how the GOP House Leadership has totally sold out to the Tea Party who want to shut Government down.

For the last few years we have heard Republicans slam the Senate for not passing a budget.  This spring the Senate passed a budget and House Leadership bowing to the Tea Party refused to send any representatives to the Conference Committee to work out the details.  That is why once again we have a continuing resolution. It is obvious that the Tea Party in the House planned to shutdown the Government all along if their demands were not met.  

Holding the Government hostage to fulfill their Tea Party pipe dream of defunding and destroying Obamacare should get them removed from office.  Is is treason to destroy the Nation's economy because as a party they didn't get their way in the last election?  We are in a time of war and sure sounds like the Tea Party anarchists running the House are pretty close to treason and should be forced to resign from office. Aren't there Republicans left with any common sense in the House to stand up to these thugs or have they all sold out to the Koch Bros Tea Party?

Another poll the House GOP Tea Party leadership and members will ignore as they have convinced themselves the Country is with them after fielding calls to their offices telling them to shut down Government -- all the callers are reading a script and yet their bosses think the vast majority of the American people support their temper tantrum of shutting down the Government?  Talk about not facing reality.  When 87% of all Americans are against this Congress and many think the House GOP are acting like spoiled brats, yet they stay on the course to shut down Government shows an arrogance and refusal to face reality that most of us have not seen in our lifetime.

The story that broke yesterday about some members of the House Republicans being drunk on the House floor is despicable and every last Republican drinking before the vote should be resigning from the House but that will never happen as they only care about their re-election and celebrating their victory after the vote they know will shutdown government.  Did leadership have to get drunk to push the garbage of a bill through the House since they all lack backbones?  Are they ever going to admit that President Obama won the election, the Democrats picked up seats in the Senate and House, and that more people voted for Dems in House districts then GOP.  Only through gerrymandering do the Tea Party GOP still control the House.

Excerpts from Politicususa.com: 

According to Article III, Section 3 of the United States Constitution, “any person who levies war against the United States or adheres to its enemies by giving them Aid and Comfort has committed treason within the meaning of the Constitution. The term aid and comfort refers to any act that manifests a betrayal of allegiance to the United States, such as furnishing enemies with arms, troops, transportation, shelter, or classified information.” Republicans deliberately harmed the U.S. economy in the 2011 debt ceiling crisis, and the resulting sequestration cuts began affecting the defense industry on March 1 2013. Coupled with using extortion for political gain, the Republican plot to shut down the government must be regarded as one part of several subversive acts to weaken the power of the United States to attack or resist its enemies. The Treason Clause is particularly applicable to Republicans because they were, and are, weakening the United States during a time America is at war in Afghanistan. 

Republicans know the health law is good for Americans, and although esteemed economic expert Paul Krugman contends conservatives “don’t understand” the policy behind the ACA, that is just not true. They understand it perfectly and know it is already succeeding or they would not take extraordinary measures to see it eliminated; including shutting down the government and harming the economy in a time of war. With national security agencies preparing to lay off personnel when the shutdown occurs, hundreds-of-thousands of defense industry employees already facing furloughs and job losses, and economic recovery hanging in the balance, it is time for Americans to face the reality that the Republican Party is deliberately jeopardizing this nation’s security and for that they are guilty of treason.

Sure sounds like Treason to me as we at war and this Government shutdown is going to affect getting supplies to our troops.  This is showing how the GOP talking about being the party that supports the military is rhetoric.  They don't care about the troops or they wouldn't be shutting down Government risking our national security.

Couldn't agree more with Michael Tomasky's depiction of Speaker Boehner last week on The Daily Beast.  Boehner is by far the worst Speaker in my lifetime and would hazard to guess probably in the history of this Country.  The very idea that Boehner and other leadership sold out to newly elected Tea Party members when they took control of the House in 2010 says all you need to know about this spineless, unethical Speaker who by all accounts loves his alcohol and his leadership team.  World 'leader' should be removed because the whole group are followers not 'leaders!'

We’ve come to expect the Big Crazy from these Republicans, so we all kind of accepted the idea Friday that the House attached the defund-Obamacare provisions to its resolution to keep funding the government. But really. Stop and think about it. It’s totally outrageous that a speaker of the House of Representatives would even allow such a measure to get to the floor. The speaker is the second–most important person in the country in terms of making the country work. He’s more important than the Senate leader because spending bills must originate in the House, and the House, which in theory is closer to the people, was always envisioned as the body that would do more to drive the nation’s legislative agenda. It’s not for nothing that the speaker of the House is third in the line of presidential succession. He’s not supposed to agree with the president, but he is supposed to agree that the government should exist and do affirmative things. 

Here are the two questions that really matter this week as we head toward a possible government shutdown. How many Republicans in the House really would consider a shutdown as some kind of victory? And what is John Boehner prepared to do about them? Whatever the answer to the first question, the answer to the second is almost sure to be “not much.” Boehner is easily the worst House speaker in modern history. Far from being the figure of perverse sympathy that some suggest, he embodies exactly what’s wrong with the GOP—mainstream conservatism’s total capitulation to the extremists. He’s a disgrace. 

And what do we have? A speaker who has permitted 40 votes repealing a duly passed law and who then agreed to let his extremists hold the operation of the entire government hostage to its fantasies. And fantasies they are. Everyone knows that. Obamacare is not being defunded. Even Ted Cruz knows it deep down.

Of course, there is a different between Pelosi’s and Boehner’s caucuses. The most left-wing Democrats in Pelosi’s caucus aren’t nearly as left wing as Boehner’s right wingers are right wing, and the House lefties didn’t come to Washington to burn anything down. So in this sense Boehner’s job has been harder. But he hasn’t even tried to stand up to the hostage takers. And that’s how extremists take over. Everyone who knows better cowers before them. Boehner has at every turn. He talks out of both sides of his mouth, making one statement to assuage mainstream opinion for every two or three he makes to placate the hard right, which just adds to the rudderlessness and weakness he conveys.

Excerpts:  Read More at The Daily Beast 

Time to elect people to Congress in 2014 who will put America first not their jobs or their wealthy donors.  Vote out these obstructionists GOP Tea Party from the halls of Congress and return sanity to Congress.  This longtime Republican is voting, working, and donating to Democrats to take back the Congress and States to common sense and sanity -- send the Tea Party to the trash bin of history along with the Koch Brothers and all their various affiliated organizations.