The Shutdown: Clowns to the Left of Me…Jokers to the “Right”

clowncarAs the Government Shutdown wanes on, polls are coming out, seemingly every day, blaming the 17% Shutdown on Congress. Heck, some are even actually laying the blame on the shoulders of President Barack Hussein Obama, where is most certainly belongs.

As yesterday ended, Congress found themselves still without any sort of agreement, as the Wall Street Journal reports…

Top Senate leaders said they were within striking distance of an agreement Monday to reopen the federal government and defuse a looming debt crisis just days before the U.S. could run out of money to pay its bills.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) said on the Senate floor that the leaders had made “tremendous progress” toward a deal and that he was hopeful Tuesday would be a “bright day.” The Senate’s Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, seconded Mr. Reid’s optimism. “We’ve had a good day,” he said.

The White House postponed a planned afternoon meeting of congressional leaders with President Barack Obama, saying the schedule change would give Senate leaders time to hash out a deal.

The latest proposal would reopen the government at current spending levels until Jan. 15 and extend the federal borrowing limit until early February, according to aides familiar with the talks. Lawmakers also would begin longer-term negotiations on the budget, with the task of reaching an agreement by Dec. 13.

Even before the deal was unveiled, it provoked grumbling Monday night among restive House Republicans. Mr. McConnell said Monday he expected to “get a result that will be acceptable to both sides.”

By setting up yet another series of fiscal deadlines, the agreement, if embraced, would carry the hallmark of other deadline-driven deals that have become typical of the increasingly polarized Capitol.

“Everybody realizes that whatever happens, we’re going to be litigating this another day,” said Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, a member of the Senate GOP leadership.

…Republicans who entered the budget battle determined to gut the health law have steadily scaled back their demands in the face of Democratic resistance. Still, many could find it hard to accept the Senate proposal, especially if it makes no changes to the health law.

Some House Republicans would likely resist the deal, putting House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) in a tight spot.

Mr. Boehner could face a rebellion from the House’s most fiscally conservative lawmakers, many of whom were elected with tea-party support. That would force Mr. Boehner to rely on Democrats to pass the Senate measure.

The lack of immediate spending cuts, as well as the absence of major changes to the health law, could prompt conservative opposition.

“I can’t vote for something that doesn’t have substantive spending cuts right now,” said Rep. Joe Barton (R., Texas).

Many House Republicans declined to comment until they saw the final Senate proposal. Some still were smarting from Mr. Obama’s decision to end discussions with them on Friday, which effectively sidelined the House GOP and accelerated talks in the Senate. The House offer abandoned many of the GOP’s initial policy demands. It would have raised the debt ceiling for six weeks without making other policy changes. But it didn’t appear to contain any explicit agreement to reopen the government immediately.

“We believed that we could have worked with the president,” said Rep. Pete Sessions (R., Texas) “and then the president dropped us like a hot potato.”

There is actually more animus from the House Republicans toward the RINOs in the Senate, than the WSJ alluded to, as Breitbart.com tells us…

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), chair of the House Budget Committee, told conservative talk radio host Charlie Sykes Monday morning that House Republicans had demanded a one-year delay in Obamacare’s individual mandate, along with an end to congressional exemptions, while offering a six-week debt ceiling hike to allow room for negotiations on broader budget issues. The offer was made to President Barack Obama last Thursday.

President Obama, said Ryan, listened but declined to respond. In the meantime, Ryan said, it became clear the president was negotiating separately to obtain more favorable terms from Senate Republicans, trying to “jam” the House Republicans in the process. Ryan told Sykes that Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had “overplayed their hand” in attempting to prolong the crisis to maximize political damage to Republicans.

Ryan described the delay to the individual mandate as an “obvious” step to take, given that technical issues with the Obamacare exchanges might prevent the mandate from being enforced at all. “We could have spent the weekend putting an agreement together that says we’re gonna deal with the debt, we’re gonna deal with this economy, and we’re gonna fix these big flaws in Obamacare, or at least give people delays in these penalties.”

While Ryan actually makes a good point, concerning delaying the Individual Mandate, that is like using a slingshot to bring down an elephant.

The fact of the matter is that Americans do not want Obamacare…period…as proven by the fact that only 51,000 nationally, signed up for Obamacare in its first week.

That is less Americans than attend a College or Professional Football Game.

Evidently, the Manchurian President feels like he can more easily con the old RINO’s in the Senate, like McConnell, McCain, and Graham, who have been publicly bashing Conservatives for a while now, including the last week, than he can Cryin’ John and Company, in the House.

Meanwhile, average Americans, like you and me, are forced to watch these clowns and jokers, as they hurl accusations at one another, making Capital Hill and the White House sound more like a Daycare Center, rather than the Seat of Government.

Judging from the fact that Obama is the one who refuses to negotiate…

I’d say that somebody needs a nap.

Until He Comes,

KJ

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