The Bible teaches that sowing the wind is not free. There is a cost. Republicans have tried to destroy Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid since their inception, because they hate the notion of anything other than death as the safety net for who cannot pay. They have failed because the American people support these valuable programs so much that Republicans have to pretend to be supporting them at the same time they are trying to destroy them. Faced with another addition to America’s safety net, Republicans sowed the wind. With lie after lie, they whipped up such fear of ObamaCare abound their rabid base they they felt sire they could stop it, while pretending to negotiate. But they failed. So they tried to prevent it’s implementation, right up to shutting down the government. Now they have failed, again, but the fear they generated has taken on a life of its own. Now they are beginning to reap the whirlwind.
As the government shutdown enters its eleventh day and the nation races towards a possible default, a growing number of Republican lawmakers, leaders, and voters are publicly blaming Congressional Republicans for the budget impasse. Though they fault President Obama for failing to negotiate with Congress, as the public mood sours, some within the GOP are hurriedly distancing themselves from the mess in Washington.
“It’s time for someone to act like a grown-up in this process,” former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu (R) told the Associated Press. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) agreed, remarking on Monday that “This is not how we should operate. It shouldn’t be about people fighting and yelling.’ “The bottom line is we need that money in our economy to save rural hospitals and jobs in the rural areas,” Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) told the Arizona Daily Star on Thursday, criticizing the GOP’e effort to defund the Affordable Care Act.
The criticism comes as an Associated Press-GfK poll released Wednesday showed that “three-quarters of Republicans nationally said their party in Congress deserves a moderate degree or most of the blame for the shutdown” and a NBC/Wall Street Journal survey reported that just 24 percent of Americans now have a favorable view of Republicans — the lowest figure in the poll’s history. Seventy percent of Americans say Republicans are putting politics ahead of the national interest and have an increasingly dim view of Tea Party backed Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Mike Lee (R-UT), who orchestrated the current impasse.
In yet another sign of trouble for the GOP, business interests are also showing signs of discontent, signaling a possible rift with Republicans ahead of the 2014 mid-term elections…
Inserted from <Think Progress>
Rachel Maddow and Ezra Klein discuss how the Republican Party is crashing and burning in the eyes of the American People.
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
This looks great to me. ObamaCare is more popular, and if Obama and the Democrats stand firm, we will enjoy the sweet, musty fragrance of Republican cave moss.
24 Responses to “The Cost of Sowing the Wind”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
I see the 24% of those supporting the overthrow of the US posting blatantly on G+ and Facebook.
What is sad for me, though, is when I see such ignorance coming from a friend or relative. I wish I could sit them down to talk, but trying to convince them in posts or PMs is just about impossible.
Fortunately, the ones I care about most are all raging liberals like me.
24% supporting the overthrow of the US government is scary in my mind, because I assume many are probably willing to put their own lives on the line for it. They obviously don't care that 24% is a minority of the total population. In a democracy, majority should rule. These people can only be described as self-centred, "me first and the hell with you" types. May sanity prevail.
I agree with you and Lynn. In the 1960s, when I was one ot those supporting a minority position, we worked hards to change people's mind. There were a few wing-nuts, who talked about overthrowing the government, back then, but we ignored them. That a major party embraces such could not be more treacherous.
I do hope you are right TC and that they will reap the whirlwind that they have sown. I sympathise with Marva as I bet we all do – there is no talking to some people!
Look at the polls, Pat. I agree.
I'm not so sure they have failed. Between their "starve the beast" and "no new taxes" scams; they have convinced enough Americans over the last thirty years, to vote for them in enough numbers to cause great damage.
Before the TEA nuts, Republicans have for decades been trying to "drown government in a bathtub." Legislation by minority is just a new twist that works because of a weak leader, Tan Man.
The debt caused by their ridicolous fiscal policies has already hit a no return point (IMHO). We cannot finance our government; and I'm not just talking about this shutdown.
Over the last 80 years they could never get majority to kill off SS, etc., etc., so they just cut the money off. Same result. Programs that no longer service the people as intended. The damage caused tells me they are winning.
What choices will future Americans have with 20-30 trillion in debt? We already cannot afford choices we know would help because of our 17 trillion debt. I'm not optomistic, but then I won't be around to pay the consequences. I can say I've tried many avenues to stop it, but found my fellow citizens wanted/want it that way.
Pundits expect Republicans to pay for this at election time. I'm not so sure. Reagan was proven wrong with his "Voodoo Economics" by leaving the first multi-trillion dollaer debt, yet, Americans kept voting Republican. They voted for a Bush three times and end up with a 13 trillion dollaer debt and a ruined economy, yet, Americans voted a House Republican majority and now we are dead in the water.
It's cycle of destruction. We will have to hit the gutter hard before we realise our mistake, and start rebuilding. The reason we started all this government help (safety net programs) will become clear (imperative) again. It wasn't just the great depression that made Americans decide on government introvention. From after the Civil War we suffered under corporate poverty policies; and it took us another 70 years to combat that. Now we are headed down the same path. The Republicans seem to be under the delusion that America's greatness is created by the type of corporate culture of the 1880's.
It is a failure of the Baby Boomer generation; that we leave this debt, and future Americans a worse off America than was left to us. A first for that, I think.
Thanks for a place to rant.
Sorry, didn't even use spell check. Just ranting.
When I said Republicans have failed, I said it in specific reference to their attempts to destroy Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Regarding the rest of your welcome rant, I would have an excellent reply, except John has beaten me to it. In addition, our spending problem is not that we spend too much, but that we spend on the wrong things. Instead of spending on welfare for the 1%, we need to be spending on research, infrastructure and education. That is what America's future depends upon.
HERE! HERE!
Welcome, Michael! 🙂
Thank you!
Thank you TC, I agree.
Hopefully the Tea Republicans will be hurt enough by this mess, to cause some votes to change. To much to expect Tan Man to put his job on the line, to end this, so I guess we are in this fight for a while. And the people suffer.
Steve,
The points of your rant are well taken, and I sympathize completely. One thing that hasn't been brought up often enough or emphatically enough is the solution that the Republicans are fighting so hard against.
We have to increase revenue to meet expenditures in order to remain viable. That's Econ 101, but the conservatives refuse to admit it. They keep pushing Saint Ronnie's voodo economic in the hope that enough of their base haven't noticed that the only thing that trickles down is liquid, and some of that doesn't smell so good. On our side, the fault lies in not being willing or able to fight hard enough or long enough to counter the propaganda they have been so successful in pounding into everyone's heads.
I don't like paying taxes any more than anyone else, but I realize that this is the price we pay for a society that meets our needs in an orderly and humane fashion. I won't live long enough to see how this all plays out, but I have two granddaughters who are just heading out into the world, and I will do everything in my power to see that they have as much of an opportunity to succeed as I can give them.
Don't apologize for the rant, we should all do more of it.
Amen John, amen!
We also need to remember some of the other things that the Republicanus/Teabaggers have done thatput them in place to do harm like gerrymandering and election fraud. This way they stack the deck, moving society out of the realm of orderly and humane.
Thank you John. Well said.
Mondale was right.
It is scary how GOP favorability has tanked for years yet they control the House and use their control to try and dictate how the government should be run. Forget checks and balances with these folks. They just want to write the checks.
Kevin, it is tanking far worse now than it has in recorded history.
When you put ideology (aka idiotology) above the national interests, the sheeple will eventually show their displeasure. The low approval ratings for the Republicanus/Teabaggers are an indication of that displeasure. Unfortunately, there are still some that blame the Democrats as well as evidenced by their dropping approval rating, although nowhere near that of the Republicanus/Teabaggers.
This could signal the beginning of the end for the Republicanus/Teabaggers and a return to sanity in government. Although I must say that Ted Cruz tried to put an interesting spin on the recent NBC/Wall St Journal poll — 20% of those polled were government workers or democrats and that that "failure" to conduct the poll properly and without bias skews the results. Cruz, always looking for an angle, is like a "whirling dervish" trying to find his political bliss by spinning and spinning.
The other spin they are doing is that the polls are not fair, because more Democrats were polled than Republicans. If they had their way, it would not be a fair poll, because to poll fairly the demographics of the poll must match the demographics of the country. More Democrats were polled, because there are more Democrats than Republicans.
I hope you are right, TC, but I fear the Dems will cave again, as they have over and over again. The current budget proposed is less than Ryan demanded. Now he is going after Social Security and Medicare and Obama has indicated he will consider the cuts.
Actually Edie, it's just a hair over what Ryan demanded, but the CR is far closer to Ryan's amounts than they are to Obama's.
On the way home from my wife dragging me to the beach today, an SUV with a middle aged man and woman flipped us the one finger salute… I first assumed a lane dispute but, upon a bit more thought realized it was my wife's sticker on her Kia Soul – "We Love Obamacare". With a few other Democratic stickers in addition… rolling eyes'
I like your wife!
Enjoy those FL beaches, before the GOBP destroys them.