John Boehner Woke Up and Grew Some Balls

'Are you kidding me?' 'Frankly, I just think they have lost all credibility.' Those are words that came from the mouth of Rep. John Boehner, Republican Speaker of the House, he was talking about the conservative outside groups like the Heritage Foundation, Club for Growth etc. This was in relation to the budget deal that was passed overwhelmingly by the House and that was ferociously decried by those organizations. Why, you ask is it surprising or noteworthy? Well John Boehner ever since he got the Speaker's gavel in his hands has been more of a follower than a leader in his caucus, he allowed the crazy Tea Party members of his caucus backed by those groups he slammed earlier, to have a powerful voice that overtook everyone else and made the entire House GOP look like a bunch of right wing crazies.

Deal

After their aborted attempts of throwing a wrench in the Senate deal, the House GOP leadership has declared failure. Their plan even suffered the backlash from conservative power bases like the Heritage Foundation and the Chamber of Commerce. In the morning today Speaker(?) John Boehner announced that the House will take on the Senate deal and will even vote for it first so that the process can be expedited and pass the Senate before the Midnight deadline. The hashed out dead between Senate Party leaders Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell is one that shows the complete and utter loss that the GOP suffered in these two weeks of shutdown.

None of the Houses previsions on Obamacare will make it to the final cut on the bill. Its a clean CR that opens and funds the government until Jan. 15 and also lifts the debt ceiling until Feb. 7. The only sort of concession to the GOP is that there is income verification on those who are receiving subsidies on their insurance. Gone are the one year delay, the two year delay of the medical devices tax and the removal of subsidies from Capitol Hill staffers and administration officials. This is a total victory for democrats in the House, the Senate and the White House who remained united throughout the stand off while the republicans couldn't even figure out what their endgame was.

Hopefully this marks the end of the GOP using the default on the US obligation in their crusades to cut spending. There are far more ways to bring democrats to the table than using the entire US economy as bail. Hopefully this in January and February while we are back to this we will not be back to this mess again.

Obama and democrats - 1
GOP - 0

The Government is still shutdown

It was unbelievable when the government shut down seven days ago and it's still unbelievable now. The government closed because the House refused to pass a clean CR bill that would have funded the government until early December while they worked on compromise for raising the debt ceiling. Unfortunately for all of us the Tea Party hijacked everything a decided to attach a de-fund of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) measure as condition for funding the government. The White House and Senate predictably refused. The House offered a delay of a year, the Senate and the administration still refused. The shutdown happened.

The shut down is looming.

So on Monday if there is no spending bill passed by the Congress the government will shutdown. What does the shut down mean? It means that millions of government workers will go without pay, public parks and buildings will be closed, and the marketS will fall down. Of course those government workers who will be struggling to pay their bills will not include the members of Congress who are really at the origin of this mess.