The “Williamsburg Accord” Shutdown Plan

Here is how to truly know if you are a bat-shit crazy Right-wing lunatic fringe headcase. Read this and then tell us that this shutdown is actually Obama's fault. Not that I think the outcome is really in doubt, after all, the bat-shit crazy Right-wing lunatics fringe headcases are in a good place with their alternate reality and see no reason to change just because the facts do not support their insanity.

The House GOP’s Legislative Strike

By Jonathan Chait



In January, demoralized House Republicans retreated to Williamsburg, Virginia, to plot out their legislative strategy for President Obama’s second term. Conservatives were angry that their leaders had been unable to stop the expiration of the Bush tax cuts on high incomes, and sought assurances from their leaders that no further compromises would be forthcoming. The agreement that followed, which Republicans called “The Williamsburg Accord,” received obsessive coverage in the conservative media but scant attention in the mainstream press. (The phrase “Williamsburg Accord” has appeared once in the Washington Post and not at all in the New York Times.)

But the decision House Republicans made in January has set the party on the course it has followed since. If you want to grasp why Republicans are careening toward a potential federal government shutdown, and possibly toward provoking a sovereign debt crisis after that, you need to understand that this is the inevitable product of a conscious party strategy. Just as Republicans responded to their 2008 defeat by moving farther right, they responded to the 2012 defeat by moving right yet again. Since they had begun from a position of total opposition to the entire Obama agenda, the newer rightward lurch took the form of trying to wrest concessions from Obama by provoking a series of crises.

The first element of the strategy is a kind of legislative strike. Initially, House Republicans decided to boycott all direct negotiations with President Obama, and then subsequently extended that boycott to negotiations with the Democratic Senate. (Senate Democrats have spent months pleading with House Republicans to negotiate with them, to no avail.) This kind of refusal to even enter negotiations is highly unusual. The way to make sense of it is that Republicans have planned since January to force Obama to accede to large chunks of the Republican agenda, without Republicans having to offer any policy concessions of their own.

Republicans have thrashed this way and that throughout the year. Republicans have fallen out, often sharply, over which hostages to ransom, with the most conservative ones favoring a government shutdown threat and the more pragmatic wing, oddly, endorsing a debt default threat. They have also struggled to define the terms of their ransom. The Williamsburg Accord initially envisioned forcing Obama to sign spending cuts, or some form of the Paul Ryan budget. During the summer, Republicans flirted with making Obama lock in lower marginal tax rates. Recently, Republicans settled on pressuring him to kill his health-care law. But the general contours of the legislative strike, and the plan of obtaining policy victories without offering any policy concessions, has enjoyed general agreement within the party.

The history is important because much of the news coverage and centrist commentary has leaned heavily on the idea that the crises in Washington have come about because of some nebulous failure of bipartisanship. The Washington Post editorial page implores both sides to compromise, without explaining why only one party should have to offer policy concessions to keep the government running.



The analytic error here is the assumption by professional pox-on-both-housers that they can take an advocacy position on the government shutdown without siding with one of the parties. If you want to land on the conclusion that both sides are to blame, you need to equivocate on the underlying moral question of whether a shutdown is really a bad thing. If, on the other hand, you want to take a stance against crisis governance, you need to be honest about the fact that one party is pursuing this as a conscious strategy.


http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/09/house-gops-legislative-strike.html

 

8 Flagrant Examples of Republican Shutdown Hypocrisy

They claim they didn't want a shutdown, but these GOP politicians have been clamoring for one since 2010
By Robin Marty
October 7, 2013 11:35 AM ET
We are nearly a week into the government shutdown, and neither side of the aisle has shown any sign of backing down. Another hardline policy fight over raising the debt ceiling is coming up in just a couple weeks, so it's unlikely that the impasse will end any time before that October 17th deadline.
With no real reason to compromise, the greater battle is over pinning blame for the shutdown on the other party. Leading that charge Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio), who is desperate to convince the media and the public that the Democrats are the ones who want the shutdown to continue. "This isn't some damned game," Speaker Boehner said to the press on Friday. "The American people don't want their government shut down, and neither do I. All we're asking for is to sit down and have a discussion, reopen the government and bring fairness to the American people under Obamacare."
Is the speaker being genuine? Probably not. As a New York Times article this weekend notes, the GOP plan to eliminate Obamacare – even if it means grinding the government to a halt – has been in the works for a long time. The current funding standoff is the result of a detailed blueprint drawn together by special interest groups, conservative lawmakers and billionaire donors.
Despite their claims otherwise, shutting down the government isn't something Republicans have tried to avoid, but something many have openly embraced as an option – both as a weapon against the Affordable Care Act and any other policy issue with which they disagreed.
Here are just eight of the many Republican politicians who have been pushing for a shutdown as far back as 2010:
1.
Rep. Mark Meadows (R-North Carolina) has been called "the architect of the shutdown" by CNN. They report that Meadows "wrote a letter to his Republican leaders suggesting they tie the dismantling of Obamacare to the bill that funds the government for the next year . . . . Meadows successfully convinced 79 of his colleagues to sign on to his letter. And he went further, leading a group of 40 lawmakers to demand that the continuing resolution, or the short-term government funding bill at issue, zeroes out funding for President Barack Obama's signature domestic policy achievement so far." (Meadows has nonetheless denied that a shutdown was the end goal: "Our intent has never been to shut down the government. It's to stop the [health care] law.")
2.Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas) has been ready to shut down the government since August. He told the conservative site Newsmax, "One of the things that we're doing wrong is that we're accepting the argument that when we defund Obamacare, that we're closing the government down. We're not! In fact, we're saving the nation's future by not funding it."
3.
Rep. Tom Massie (R-Kentucky) says a shutdown is just fine with him, since he was happier at home than at Congress, anyway. "The last thing I fear is going back and leading that same life," he told Bloomberg Businessweek when they asked if he was concerned about losing his seat because of advocating for a shutdown.
4.Indiana's Mike Pence is no longer in Congress, having been elected as the state's governor in the 2012 cycle. But when he was still a member of the House, he was more than willing to shut the government down – in that case, in an attempt to defund Planned Parenthood. According to the blog Crooks and Liars, when then-Rep. Pence was asked in 2011 if he would shut down the government over a budget that provided federal funds to the healthcare provider, he responded, "Well of course I am. I think the American people have begun to learn that the largest abortion provider in the country is also the largest recipient of federal funding under Title X, and they want to see that come to an end."
5.
Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) has also been calling for a government shutdown for years. In 2010, Rep. King asked for a "blood oath" that Obamacare would be repealed regardless of what it took, even if a shutdown was necessary. "I'd like to challenge them to make that pledge," King said, according to Roll Call. "I'd like [Boehner] to make that commitment that if the president shuts down the government, there wouldn't be a repeat of 1995 where the House caved."
6.
King wasn't alone in 2010 by any means. Also clamoring for a shutdown was Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who figured it would be "frustrating" but worth it. "It's an inconvenience, it would be frustrating to many, many people and it's not a great thing, and yet at the same time, it's not something that we can rule out," he mused. "It may be absolutely necessary."
7.
Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Michigan) is demanding that the responsibility for the shutdown be pinned on President Obama. "It's a disservice to the Constitution, the taxpayers and the businesses of the nation," he told Heritage News. "This has become a political issue and they are trying to make people believe the House Republicans are causing the shutdown." This deflection is a throwback to 2010, when, just after being reelected, Rep. Walberg claimed his victory meant that the voters rejected the health care law, and if President Obama needed to bend to the will of the GOP: "If he doesn't, he will shut government down."
8.
Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) has been taking the closing of the WW II memorial hard, demanding that it be allowed to stay open while the rest of the government stays closed. However, in 2010 Rep. Gohmert was more than willing to see everything shut down – for the sake of the children, of course. ThinkProgress reports Rep. Gohmert saying, "Listen, if it takes a shutdown of government to stop the runaway spending, we owe that to our children and our grandchildren. I don't have any grandchildren yet, but if we don't stop the runaway spending – even if it means showing how serious we are –okay, government is going to have to shut down until you runaway-spending people get it under control. And if you can't get it under control, then we just stop government until you realize, you know, yes we can."
There are reportedly enough votes in the House to produce a clean continuing resolution and end this shutdown for good. But until Boehner is willing to buck the hardliners in his own party, that vote is never going to happen.

​

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/8-flagrant-examples-of-republican-shutdown-hypocrisy-20131007#ixzz2hAUyJ3Mm ​

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I'm proud of these patriots. Sometimes you have to drain the swamp to get rid of the vermin. If that's the only option Obama will accept...let's take 'er down!

Btw, I got a Ryder truck reserved for this Friday.

 

View attachment 2016

 

Patriotism-The last refuge of a scoundrel.

 

With at least 8 repukes openly admitting that they are for a shutdown and who knows how many more just not being dumb enough to speak out except behind closed doors, the insane Right-wing is claiming this is Obama's shutdown. We have dingus above calling them patriots for shutting down the government. But the shutdown is Obama's doing. Show me one, even one Democrat, that has even suggested that the shutdown or default is anything but a bad idea for this country.

Riiiiiiiiight!

 

The House was rescued from the dims in the last round of elections entirely on the candidates promises to fight Obamacare...GAME ON!!
I say let BO hang onto the individual mandate (you can't really call it Obamacare since over 50% of it has been revised, altered, suspended or delayed, can you?) as long as he is willing...everyday it makes him & his ilk look even more pathetic!

 

Let's just call this what it is; The 2013 Tea Party shutdown plan. Flushing the economy down the toilet is just so damn appropriate when you consider it is the TP doing it. Trying to wipe America's butt with the sandpaper of stupidity.

 

Publicly? ...they're evil, not stupid.

 

Obama can end this with the stroke of a pen...why do you suppose he's trying to cause Americans as much pain as possible?

 

What would Obama be signing with that stroke of a pen? Doesn't seem to be a bill to sign. But I suppose he could just take a blank piece of paper out of his desk and sign it. BTW what randsom is the GOP looking for now? Now quite sure where they are at this point. Of course you can't tell me either but Obama should just solve this with the stroke of a pen. Hum? No wonder your party is so unpopular. People just are not as stupid as you and your ilk.

 

He could delay the individual mandate...

 

No such bill on his desk is there? Hum?
You're way behind the times. The GOP isn't even talking about Obamacare anymore. Just what are they demanding for randsom now?

 

Delaying, suspending and modifying virtually every other aspect of Obamacare was easy enough for him to do, why not the individual mandate? It appears to be the most flawed of a program full of flaws.

 

So the most recent hostage demands are what?

 

You're right...Obama's handlers have to let a House bill leave the Senate first.

 

Aren't you forgetting that Article I, Section 7 states that all revenue bills shall originate in the House?

And another Right-wing meme falls apart.

 

And still no one can tell me what the GOP's most recent hostage demands are. This should really tell you something but for some reason ignoring reality keeps the Right-wing's alternate universe intact in their own minds. Kind of tells you exactly who you're dealing with.

 

And just how many do you think the House has passed? And how many of them have reached the Senate floor? I will give you a hint. The answer to the second question is ZERO, but the first answer is not.