Correction 10/4: The staff of Congress is being furloughed. Some of the Congresspeople and Senators are actually answering their own phones, giving tours, etc. Good for them!!
So let me get this straight... The Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010. Some of its provisions have been in effect for years. The state medical exchanges opened as of the beginning of this month and millions of people are looking to sign up. The constitutionality of this law has been affirmed by the Supreme Court. The Republicans have tried and failed more than 40 times to pass a bill repealing ACA (colloquially known as Obamacare).
So they decide they're willing to shut down the entire federal government in a pathetic and desperate attempt to defund a law that was passed years ago, which has already been funded, and which they don't have the votes to repeal.
To be fair, there are a few grown-ups amongst the Republicans who recognize the futility of this, and are mad as hell at its instigator, narcissist Senator Ted Cruz.
I would not count Speaker of the House John Boehner amongst the grown-ups. He has enough votes between the Democrats and the Republicans to pass a clean bill (i.e., one without the defunding of ACA), but he won't allow it to come up for a vote. Why? Because he's going by the so-called "Hastert Rule," which is the idea that the Speaker should have a majority of the majority party voting for a bill before bringing it up for a vote. But here's the rub... today Dennis Hastert, the former Speaker for whom the law was named, said there never was such a "rule." He advocated bringing a bill up if a simple majority would vote for it. Oops.
Speaker Boehner and Senator Cruz should do the country a big favor and resign from Congress immediately. Their asinine idea to try to defund a law that was duly passed, signed into law and affirmed by SCOTUS, after having tried over 40 times to repeal it, is nothing short of an attempt by some members of the Republican party to circumvent the Constitution and hijack this country by sheer blackmail. They are pathetic excuses for congressmen and do not deserve the honor of serving in that institution.
As far as the shutdown goes, the very first thing that should happen in a government shutdown is that every member of Congress should be required to give up not only their paychecks, but their staff should be given paid furloughs. No congressperson or senator should have a driver or a car to shuttle them around. No assistant to go get their coffee. No one to read their bills for them. Period.
The second thing that should happen is that federal workers who are furloughed should be given back pay. Then, federal parks should remain open with the rangers receiving their full pay. Essential things like medical trials should be continued.
There's no sense in the American people suffering because we have some idiots sitting in Congress who are doing everything in their power to keep people who don't have health care from receiving it.
Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-Ind.) had this to say: "We're not going to be disrespected. We have to get something out of this. And I don't know what that even is." Disrespect? Really. Like the Republicans haven't disrespected this President ever since he was elected! Rep. Stuzman, I am going to call 'em like I see 'em, and I say you're an ass. You don't deserve to "get" anything for this shameful attempt to blackmail our President into dumping a law that's already in effect just because you don't like it or him. You and your Republican colleagues need to get off your butts and get back to work. Go do your job, pass a damn budget bill like you've been elected to do, or get the hell out of Congress and let someone more worthy of your seat do it instead.
President Obama should stand his ground and not give the Republicans one damn thing. What they have done is unconscionable, and the GOP will pay for it in future elections.
I can just imagine what other developed countries think of us. They manage to have single-payer health care for all at a much lower cost than the patchwork mess that is our private, for-profit insurance model that until now has left millions of Americans without even basic health care. I'm sure they think Americans are just idiots. Right now, I'm agreeing that some of us certainly are, and they're sitting on Capitol Hill.
