Not all Conservatives Are Good At Math

 

There’s no reason to be in this predicament because this crisis was self -manufactured. Conservatives will tell us that the debt is too high, and we need to cut back our spending and start reforming our tax code and entitlements. Who can disagree with that, as one side of the argument? That’s an argument for austerity that’s doesn’t work but we don’t have to throw the baby out with the bath water.  That’s where the word compromise comes in to play.

Let’s go back a couple of weeks ago to see what the conservatives thought was important. The GOP basically said that the deficit and debt were OK because they didn’t have any problems funding the government and increasing the debt limit.  The most important thing to the House GOP was defunding Obamacare. In order to accomplish that they would need at least 289 votes in their own chamber to override a presidential veto. They have 232 party members meaning they would need 57 Democrats. They would also need to persuade 13 Senate Democrats to go along with their scheme. As a prominent Republican said, “a fool’s errand.” True conservatives can do the math.

This morning Republican representative from Wisconsin, Sean Duffy said he thought it was perfectly reasonable to put the president and Congress on Obamacare without government subsidies, as most Americans. The question I have to ask (and Mika Brzezinski did) “is this why you shut down the government? “Again we have to get back to basics. Only 15% of Americans are eligible for Obamacare.  Employer contribution is what the Congressman is calling subsidies because it makes it sound cynical. The American taxpayer is the employer of federal employees. It’s common knowledge that those in the exchange (15%) will not get employer contribution but many will get subsides. Many on the “Morning Joe “advised the congressman to write a bill, get Cosponsors and proceed through the normal parliamentary procedure, but that shouldn’t be part of a CR or a reason not to raise the debt limit.

I saw where two or three people in our local newspaper are blaming the Democrats and President Obama for the shutdown. Will our local newspaper be like the Houston Chronicle (they endorsed Ted Cruz) and only start telling its readers the truth when it’s too late, just so they won’t offend a potential subscriber?  I know those two or three people didn’t see the polls where 74% of Americans blame the GOP for the shutdown. And even if they did, they have a way of ignoring anything negative by calling it media bias. A newspaper shouldn’t “go along to get along.”

The Senate will likely pass a bipartisan bill to open the government and raise the debt limit this afternoon. They will send it over to the House where it will likely be passed with just enough Republicans. Look back people and ask, “was all this worth it and do we really want to go through this again in a few months?” It’s not out of your hands because one of 80 representatives who signed a letter calling for this shutdown way back in the summer was Blake Farenthold.