Gov. Shutdown?

[quasarvs]

I didn't mean to cast any doubt or aspersion on Hannity or Beck because they're conservative. I'm very ready to listen to conservatives, present company included. I do question Hannity and Beck's crying wolf about coming economic apocalypse because that's exactly what paid spokesmen for a gold company would cry. As for the Mother Jones article, on page 1:





The criticism here is that Hannity is biased about economic alarm not as a conservative, but as a paid spokesman for a gold company. I think the criticism stands independent of Hannity's politics and Mother Jones'.

There's nothing wrong with questioning motivations, but in this particular case on this issue I think Hannity is right.

fwiw, I'm not a Bill Maher fan at all. I don't share his anti-religiousness, his vaccine denialism is wrong and dangerous, and he's personally nasty. Granted, he's an adult comedian, but not my thing.


We agree here.


Congress passed the ACA (Obamacare) and Congress sets taxes. A clean vote in both houses of Congress today clearly wouldn't repeal the ACA, repeal it in large part or delay it in large part. Supporters of the ACA, Democrats and two Independents, hold a clear majority in the Senate. Seems to me a grown-up way to deal with this would be for conservative opponents of the ACA to campaign against the law and hope to win over enough Senators – or Senate seats – not to stomp their feet and refuse to fund the government today.

What the Republicans did was a legitimate government action.
Trying to win each other over is what Senators do all day when they discuss and debate with each other over issues. In this case it was not working.

• Sticking to debt ceilings: The debt ceiling is based on commitments by Congress to pay for obligations Congress has already assumed. United States debt ceiling (Wikipedia).

Granted. However, it is unwise to avoid capping the debt ceiling where it stands, as Congress has determined it, in order to begin eliminating debt versus creating more.

• Drilling here and now for energy: President Obama in his 2013 State of the Union Address: "[T]he natural gas boom has led to cleaner power and greater energy independence. We need to encourage that. And that’s why my administration will keep cutting red tape and speeding up new oil and gas permits. (Applause.) That’s got to be part of an all-of-the-above plan. But I also want to work with this Congress to encourage the research and technology that helps natural gas burn even cleaner and protects our air and our water."

No. He did not do what he said he was going to.
President Obama Finances Offshore Drilling in Brazil - WSJ.com
Obama Signals Cracks In The Proposed Keystone Pipeline - Forbes

In the State of the Union, he speaks to this at length within the first few minutes. "Our work must begin by making some basic decisions about our budget -- decisions that will have a huge impact on the strength of our recovery. Over the last few years, both parties have worked together to reduce the deficit by more than $2.5 trillion -- mostly through spending cuts, but also by raising tax rates on the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans. As a result, we are more than halfway towards the goal of $4 trillion in deficit reduction that economists say we need to stabilize our finances. Now we need to finish the job." He goes on to discuss tax reform and entitlement reform including containing health care spending.

I think ACA is a good enough example of Obama's "attempts" to reform and reduce spending.
Included in that would be the ACA website debacle.