But you may want to use a bit of your limited access to read Paul Krugman's column on how Boehner and the Tea Party wing of the GOP have bungled themselves into this mess.
This point needs to the shouted from the rooftops: The Republicans planned this all along. More more precisely, they planned to use the threat of a government shutdown and a deficit default to force the President to walk away from the Affordable Care Act. As Krugman put it:
This was crazy talk. After all, health reform is Mr. Obama’s signature domestic achievement. You’d have to be completely clueless to believe that he could be bullied into giving up his entire legacy by a defeated, unpopular G.O.P. — as opposed to responding, as he has, by making resistance to blackmail an issue of principle. But the possibility that their strategy might backfire doesn’t seem to have occurred to the would-be extortionists.What do you call people who would use the threat of trashing the economy and the good credit of the United States in order to get their way?
You might call them "Republicans". Or "traffickers in sedition and treason." Or just criminals.
Man, do we need a centrist party to rise up, in the same way that the GOP itself arose from the ashes of the Whigs. My fear is that the ashes of the GOP will be mixed in with the ashes of our economy.
It is nice to see Paul fully acknowledging the bat shit crazy Bircher right.
ReplyDeleteFun tip: Clear your cookies and renew your limited access as often as you want.
I completely agree with you on Boehner and the psychotic Republican right. I completely disagree with you on the matter of the New York Times. How are they going to pay for all the reporters and editors, and Paul Krugmans if they don't charge you for reading?
ReplyDeleteDon't tell me about advertising. The amount of Internet advertising they get wouldn't pay for Bill Keller's shoe shine. And fewer and fewer people are reading the paper edition.
Very crankily yours,
The New York Crank
The problem I have is in kinking to a story behind a paywall, however porous, is that a lot of people won't click on it.
ReplyDeleteAs to how the Times has managed to screw up things in the Internet age, that's subject matter for a book.
One of the things you always said for years is the rethuglicans will do anything to discredit or damage the current democrat in office. Further you have said they don't give a shit what damage they do in the process.
ReplyDeleteSeems they are taking this opportunity to make that fully true.
Frelled we are....
Eck!
I'm pretty sure that links from blogs don't count against your limit of NYT articles per month. Navigating within the site is what's limited.
ReplyDeleteThe New York Times, Paul Krugman, Affordable Care Act, and Obama, four things that aren't worth a tinker's damn all in the same post. Groovy.
ReplyDeleteComrade, you been on a tear the last couple days. I know some Republicans that are damn decent folks. And, I know more than few Democrats that aren't worth shooting.
I suggest we spread the blame around a little.
-Moe
note: You write well. I enjoy "most" of your posts - thanks.
There is no blame to spread around. The conservatives have been planning this confrontation for several months. They picked this fight on the assumption that Obama would fold. And they had no plan for what would happen if he didn't.
ReplyDeleteSort of like Cortez burning his ships and then getting massacred.
The only blame on the other side would be Obama's for caving to similar blackmail in 2011. Blaming Obama is like blaming a store manager who got tired of being robbed and shot the next perp.