Submitted By: Mike Spindell, Guest Blogger
When I awoke a short time ago my mind was in its usual morning fog that slowly dissipates as I go through my wake-up routine which includes laying out the 35 or so pills that I take to stay alive. That fog mentally is usually a jumble of wide ranging short thoughts that are later forgotten as the fog lifts after my first coffee. On the way to the bathroom for my morning ablutions I found myself thinking about the biggest news all week which had been the shutdown of the government and the crisis that ensued. Suddenly, as an idea arose that woke me from the fog. Political Theater, it is all political theater. The threatened shutdown by the Republican Congressman, led by John Boehner et. al. was merely a show whose purpose was to destroy the publicity that would have surrounded the inception of enrollment in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) dubbed by the conservative PR geniuses “Obamacare”. How obvious this was took my breath away and also gave me some chagrin that it took me so long to see this con job in the making, while I mulled over the ramifications of a government shutdown. As the President has said and as some Republican have opined the GOP’s great fear regarding “Obamacare” is that it will succeed. Since enrollment was scheduled to begin on October 1st, without the shutdown speculation dominating the news cycle there would have been much publicity on the beginning of people enrolling in the plan. There would have been actual discussion of the plan and not just the cacophony of misinformation deftly spread by well placed conservative rumor mongers, broadcast blaringly on FOX News and flacked by the innumerable leaders of the “Tea Party”. Our mainstream media would play their continuing game of false equivalence by blithely accepting all information as being equal and not bothering to supply context when lies are told in the service “informing” the public.
Instead we have a manufactured crisis that sends the ACA to the back pages of virtual news media and we have faux layoffs and service loss endlessly debated. Now in truth this thought make me even a little sad for those “Tea Party” congresspeople that haven’t been let in on the nature of the game, nor their role as pawns in the manipulations of some the wealthy elite in this country. As I explained awhile ago in these guest blogs: http://jonathanturley.org/2011/08/02/tea-party-and-the-myth-of-a-grassroots-movement/#more-38049 and http://jonathanturley.org/2013/02/16/tea-party-a-phony-movement-mantled-as-legitimate/ the so-called “Tea Party” is not a grassroots movement, but the creation of the Koch, via an organization known as “Freedomworks” which they fund. On the Bill Maher show last Friday night one of his panel guests was the President and CEO of “Freedomworks” Matt Kibbe. From my perspective he was debunked by the panel, particularly Congressman Alan Cranston. What caught my attention though, was that Kibbe was at one point railing about how big government was run by insider lobbyists. None on the panel, or Maher, were perceptive enough to call him out on this since he is the quintessential lobbyist for the Koch Brothers. To my mind there is nothing to see here folks, move along and allow yourselves to be distracted by yet another manufactured crisis, designed to prevent you from actually evaluating the health care plan that is now available to you without adequate health care, or who are paying far too much for what should be a basic right of citizenship, health care. The Affordable Care Act is not my ideal of what American health insurance should be about because I believe in the “single payer” system used in most civilized nations. However, it is far better than what we already have and because of that should be fairly evaluated by the public. Perhaps though that fair evaluation will never get a chance since there are those who consciously work to distract us through propaganda, mythology and political theater into supporting what is in our own worst interests.
After I had written and posted this to my surprise I discovered this article in The New York Times. “A Federal Budget Crisis Months in the Planning” http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/us/a-federal-budget-crisis-months-in-the-planning.html?hp&_r=0 . A short excerpt:
“WASHINGTON — Shortly after President Obama started his second term, a loose-knit coalition of conservative activists led by former Attorney General Edwin Meese III gathered in the capital to plot strategy. Their push to repeal Mr. Obama’s health care law was going nowhere, and they desperately needed a new plan.
Out of that session, held one morning in a location the members insist on keeping secret, came a little-noticed “blueprint to defunding Obamacare,” signed by Mr. Meese and leaders of more than three dozen conservative groups.
It articulated a take-no-prisoners legislative strategy that had long percolated in conservative circles: that Republicans could derail the health care overhaul if conservative lawmakers were willing to push fellow Republicans — including their cautious leaders — into cutting off financing for the entire federal government.”
Perhaps my subconscious was channelling, but it seems that my idea through the morning fog has some weight to it.
Submitted By: Mike Spindell, Guest Blogger
To supplement the article Oro just provided, I suggest you take a peek behind the curtain of the drivers behind the shut down with the NYT article below.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/us/a-federal-budget-crisis-months-in-the-planning.html?hp&_r=0
It all sounds so strangely familiar.
While the Republicans may be giddy with the government shutdown, the article below describes why they may be terrified of ending it —
From The American Spectator: How to Lose the House Without Really Trying
http://spectator.org/archives/2013/09/30/how-to-lose-the-house-without
Mike —
I think the Republicans got lucky with the timing, that the CR deadline and the ACA rollout occurred in close proximity. Their good luck extends to the government shutdown overshadowing the possible withdrawal of chemical weapons stock form Syria and a nuclear agreement if not normalized relations with Iran. Even a blind hog finds an acorn now and then. But it is a acorn they may very well choke on.
PPP–“GOP could lose the House in 2014”
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/10/06/1244587/-PPP-GOP-could-lose-the-House-in-2014
Keep in mind when reading this poll that it is liberal leaning
I think I’d headline with these words: How To Burn Your House Down
“There is no way they can repeal it with Obama in office. They would have to get a super majority vote, and they can’t do that.”
Boo,
Hoo,
Republicans are “giddy” about the shutdown. Obamacare is no longer the reason. But even the Democrats have to be less than upset about the shutdown. Remember the kerfuffle about the pernicious Paul Ryan budget? And the “dislike” of the sequester? Well, consider that what the Democrats have wrapped their arms around is even more pernicious than the Ryan budget. Where’s the debate but buried under the shutdown.
btw, the Pentagon is going full steam ahead. The M-I folks got their $5 billion in advance of the shutdown. On Sept. 30 the Pentagon granted 94 contracts, compared to about a dozen one month earlier.
Why are the Govo-Sapiens going to be allowed to receive retroactive back pay when all of us regular Homo-Sapiens have to wait a week for unemployment to apply. this is just another foot in the door to TYRRANY,
and Non-government Humans as a SUB-CLASS of Sapiens.
They don’t want ObamaCare, they don’t want to have to sign up for Un-Employment and loose a weeks Pay, they don’t want to be down in the Sewer with US.
The Constitution gives the House of Representatives VETO power over spending if it has the guts! If Obama were more reasonable, he would have passed something that had some Republican support or agree now to some modifications. He is talking now like a DICTATOR, claiming Republicans must “do their job”, ie. do what he says. What a disgusting, arrogant liar!
The Koch Brothers are minor faction of capital as compared to the Rockefeller / OPEC / Trilateral faction behind Obama and his intentionally genocidal ObamaCare. Further, the Tea Party was a natural outgrowth of the long-standing conservative-libertarian grass roots, long motivated by anti-big government, individualist sentiment. The Koch Brothers in addition to being cunning businessmen are long-standing supporters of libertarian ideology. . . sure hope they give big bucks to the Tea Party!
David,
You, of all people, accusing Juliet of not being knowledgeable about anything is laughable.
Understand that when you debate Juliet, you are out of your league. But go for it. Maybe we can sell tickets to the show. 🙄
OS wrote: “accusing Juliet of not being knowledgeable about anything is laughable.”
She clearly was ignorant of how vocal the Tea Party has been against military spending. That is no laughing matter.
They may be against it, but they’re not holding the country hostage over it, are they?
Juliet N wrote: “They may be against it, but they’re not holding the country hostage over it, are they?”
The Tea Party is not holding the country hostage over Obamacare either. That is just left wing spin, taking their cues from Obamaspin.
Instead of viewing this as a hostage tactic, you have to see that the Tea Party just doesn’t want to fund Obamacare. They voted already to fund everything else, and they are still calling upon the rest of Congress to please fund the federal government. The Democrats, under Obama’s despotic leadership, have blocked those bills from going through.
The Tea Party is leading on an issue for which they have gained some support from other Republicans, enough Republicans that their votes actually mean something. Granted, if the Tea Party had their way, they would not fund the military as much either, but they negotiate and compromise so that some of them will vote with other Republicans to fund the military. Tea Party leader Ron Paul is less compromising and he votes against it every time, even when he is the only one doing so.
Well, here’s the way it works in our country — if you want to be in charge if the country’s checkbook, you need to win more elections. Otherwise, you’re just a bunch of whiny, sore loser crybabies.
David,
The Republicans planned on obstructing Obama from the date of his first inaugural when they met to devise plans to block Obama and make sure he was a one term president. When that plan did not work, it makes sense that they would do whatever they can to attempt to block Obamacare. Once Obamacare is up and running, they will have no chance to stop it. How much money have these allegedly spending mavens spent on stopping a bill that has been law for a few years and the Supreme Court approved? I doubt you will find the numbers on your favorite Fox New.
rafflaw – I agree with most of what you said, but why do you put forward that the Supreme Court approved it when they actually found part of it unConstitutional? Furthermore, Chief Justice Roberts directed that the remedy would be the democratic process, which is what we are observing now, despite the despots who are obstructing democracy by refusing to fund all the federal government except Obamacare.
If only the Democrats were smart enough to have passed a spending bill for the laws they make. Why do they always go for the blank check instead of voting for a budget? Not one budget the entire time Obama has been in office. Not one.
davidm2575,
Despite your abominable, 19th-century social attitudes, I must extend my grudging admiration.
Who in the world would admit, these days, to being a Republican?
“I beat my wife.”
“So, what’s your point? And?”
“I’m a Republican.”
“Burn him!”
You do love to be punished.
If cows could, they’d give Milnot. The government shut down has not affected me as yet. I am a guide dog for a blind guy who lives on a Navy base and all the places that we normally go to are open. Obamacare does not matter to blind guy because he is on the government dole already. He has a campaign button that says “I Like Ike”. I don’t know why he would like Ike over Tina but he is a curmudgeon.
DavidM: ANECDOTAL. Please learn what that means, with regard to evidence. It seriously hinders you.
Congress should be debating CongressMed. They get free medical care on our dime.
Mike,
Very good.
You have a reasonable idea, here. It’s no far-out conspiracy theory.
35 pills? I guess you can pass on breakfast, then.
Whether or not Republicans planned this shutdown specifically to deflect attention from the advent of the Affordable Care Act, that tactic must have at least occurred to them at the beginning. They must realize the value of sustaining it. Even Republicans are clever, in a Machiavellian, weasel sort of way.
It’s also diverted attention from the NSA spying revelations, which continue to surface.
OS,
Thanks
RepubliCons are signing up for Obamacare in droves.
Tea Party Pot
Pea Party Bold
Pee Farty in the Pot Nine Days Old.
David,
I have been reading polls. Despite aggressive gerrymandering, there is a real possibility that Republicans will take a drubbing in 2014.
Democrats are not much more popular, but being less popular than both herpes and Kudzu, repubs should be taking the hint they are doing something wrong.