Boehner Hammers Last Nail In Republican Coffin
Speaker of the House John Boehner has apparently just let the House of Representatives go home for the night, even though there's an hour left before the federal 2013 fiscal year ends (as of this writing). This guarantees at least a short-term partial shutdown of the federal government. Irony of ironies, however: the shutdown will not actually affect the Obamacare insurance exchanges, which will open on time tomorrow as planned. Meaning the whole "defund Obamacare" point of principle the shutdown supposedly hinges on won't actually be achieved by the shutdown. This basic truth was, as usual, completely ignored by most of the mainstream media who have spent the last week, instead, salivating over the prospect of a knock-down political fight.
Tea Party Republicans in the House are convinced they're going to win this battle... somehow. They're convinced that, number one, the American public will blame President Obama and the Democrats for the shutdown; and, number two, that they'll magically convince Democrats to stop defending the president's signature legislative achievement by shutting the government down. Neither is going to happen, but that is indeed what they fervently believe -- in the same fashion that Republicans believed all those 2012 public opinion polls were "skewed" and that Romney would (again "...somehow...") handily win the election. To put it another way, it's a matter of faith to them.
Of course, the Tea Partiers (most of them) weren't around back when Newt Gingrich shut the government down in a battle of wills with President Clinton. They consider the fears that Republicans will once again pay a political price for such a maneuver to be overblown. They have convinced themselves of this because "that was before Fox News was around" and, somehow, the country was different back in the 1990s in some sort of fundamental way that is no longer true now.
Maybe, but then again, maybe not. The approval rating for Congress has dropped in half within the past month -- from 20 percent approval to a dismal 10 percent. And that's before the news of the shutdown broke. One way or another, we're about to see who is right in the "blame game" battle. My humble guess is that most Americans are feeling nothing but disgust right now, but whether it'll translate into anything meaningful in the 2014 midterm congressional elections or not is entirely up in the air. Right now, "a pox on both your houses" might more accurately sum up the public's feelings.
The House of Representatives has now voted something like 45 times to kill Obamacare. The Obamacare exchanges will -- nonetheless -- go into operation tomorrow. Millions of people who have been waiting to purchase affordable health insurance will have the opportunity to do so when tomorrow dawns. The news of how the exchanges are working will be competing with the "government shuts down" stories tomorrow -- showing the irrationality of the "line in the sand" Republicans have just drawn. From tomorrow onwards, Republicans will be fighting to deny benefits that people have already signed up for -- which is a powerful thing. This is what Republicans truly fear most -- not that everyone in the country is going to start hating Obamacare tomorrow, but that increasing numbers of people are going to be helped by it, are going to see benefits from it, and are going to start supporting the whole Obamacare concept. Which is why Republicans are fighting so hard against it, in what they see as their last chance to argue against unknown future scariness, versus the tangible reality that will start tomorrow.
I must admit that I, personally, have been more optimistic in the past week that the shutdown wasn't even going to happen. I still have a pretty firm belief that the shutdown won't last more than a maximum of 48 hours, at the absolute most. Sooner or later Speaker Boehner is going to have to tell the few dozen hardline Tea Party members "it's over -- we fought as hard as we could, but we lost," and then introduce a clean bill to the House floor, which will pass with mostly Democratic votes (and a few dozen moderate Republican votes).
In fact, I see the fact that Boehner was forced to actually shut the government down as a measure of the weakness of his speakership. If he were a little more confident of his own position, he would be showing a little more leadership -- instead of being the dog wagged by the Tea Party tail. He is obviously terrified of a challenge from within his own party for the gavel he wields, and so he does their bidding, no matter how extreme and damaging to the national brand of his own party.
Republicans are going to sustain political damage for this gimmickry. That's pretty much assured, if the polls are accurate. The only question remaining is how much damage they will sustain. Perhaps Americans will have other things on their minds a year from now, and perhaps this will be a long-forgotten episode when election day rolls around next November. Perhaps. But perhaps the public will remember the disgust they're now feeling, and vote a Democratic House in next year. As I said, it's impossible to tell at this point (the American public, it should be noted, does have a notoriously short attention span).
John Boehner has now, for better or for worse, thrown his lot in with the radicals in the Tea Party. He has abdicated all pretense of leading, and now meekly follows what the extremists dictate. Or, to put it another way, he no longer exercises any control over his own party in the House, rather they exercise more control over him. The Republican Party, as a whole, has chosen which path it will now tread upon. They are all so frightened of "being primaried" by a more-pure Tea Partier (in what used to, politically, be called a "purge") that they will go along with anything the Tea Party demands of them. The GOP leadership has, in effect, left the building. The Tea Party takeover of the Republican Party is now complete.
They ought to just change the name, really. Leave it as just the "Democrats" versus the "Tea Partiers" -- because the Republican Party of yore is nothing more than a corpse waiting for burial, at this point. John Boehner, in fact, just hammered the last nail in its coffin.
-- Chris Weigant
Cross-posted at The Huffington Post
Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant
A brief update,
I'll get 2011 Obamacare out soon people, I'm just busy. As for the shutdown. I just love how Republicans are trying to frame this debate. They lost the presidential election in 2012, house republicans lost the popular vote and seats, THEREFORE the democratic president must implement the Republican party platform, or they'll take their ball and go home. And if Obama, i dunno, balks at this patently insane idea, then it's his fault? Now as far as how's gonna get blamed. Probably Republicans, they're busying pissing away their inherent 2014 advantage(see all 2nd term midterm elections) on this stuff. It's a dumb idea, it's bad strategy, and while they might succeed in tarring democrats, its only going to be splashes compared to what's going to happen to the Republicans.
A brief memo to Republicans, if you want to implement a nation wide political plan, maybe you should win some national elections. Otherwise? The other team gets to.
Speaker of the House John Boehner has apparently just let the House of Representatives go home for the night, even though there's an hour left before the federal 2013 fiscal year ends (as of this writing).
I am constrained to point out that Reid and the Senate went home a LOT sooner..
And Pelosi didn't even show up for work today..
They're convinced that, number one, the American public will blame President Obama and the Democrats for the shutdown; and
Which, as I pointed out in the previous commentary is probably pretty accurate..
and, number two, that they'll magically convince Democrats to stop defending the president's signature legislative achievement by shutting the government down.
You mean, they will magically convince Democrats to actually put the American people BEFORE their own partisan agenda..
Yer right. Absolutely NO CHANCE of that happening..
Republicans are going to sustain political damage for this gimmickry. That's pretty much assured, if the polls are accurate.
Which polls are those? The ones that show the American people are firmly and demonstrably against obamacare??
Overall, I think the message we can take away from all of this is that the GOP is not as fractured and divided as ya'all had thought. Or had hoped.. :D
Michale
A+ CW!
"Tea Party Republicans in the House are convinced they're going to win this battle... somehow. They're convinced that, number one, the American public will blame President Obama and the Democrats for the shutdown; and, number two, that they'll magically convince Democrats to stop defending the president's signature legislative achievement by shutting the government down."
AKA Governing with "Beer Goggles"
"This is what Republicans truly fear most -- not that everyone in the country is going to start hating Obamacare tomorrow, but that increasing numbers of people are going to be helped by it, are going to see benefits from it, and are going to start supporting the whole Obamacare concept. Which is why Republicans are fighting so hard against it, in what they see as their last chance to argue against unknown future scariness, versus the tangible reality that will start tomorrow. "
Republicans remember Social Security...and Medicare. Started as modest "noses under the tent" Now Entrenched and popular. This is what Republicans see when the Beer Goggles wear off. At which point they order another round of beer goggles. I look to the Big Corporate Donors to break this cycle, if it can indeed be broken. It could be the new normal.
Once again, ya'all are assuming that the American people will change their minds about obamacare.. That they will actually come to like it and want it..
I point out that there is NOTHING to support that belief, save wishful thinking and blind faith...
Michale
http://drudgereport.com/bo.jpg
And so it begins....
Michale
http://freebeacon.com/woodward-if-shutdown-or-debt-ceiling-causes-economic-crisis-its-on-the-presidents-head/
Whose to blame????
The buck stops with the POTUS....
Michale
AKA Governing with "Beer Goggles"
http://mp3skull.com/mp3/billy_got_his_beer_goggles_on.html
:D
Freebeacon.com? I guess it's useful for lining electronic bird cages...or wrapping electronic fish.
I'll nominate it for a Mr. Peabody Award.
Beer Goggles.
So lemme get this straight ...
On one hand you have a party that does little but rage against government. Night and day hate, hate, hate government. If we know one thing, they hate government.
On the other hand you have a party that believes people coming together (government) can solve problems.
Basically, any 10-year old can tell you which party wants to shut the government down.
On the third hand you have the media saying ... well, not saying, because they don't want to be accused of any type of bias ... but asking "Which party is to blame?" Hmmm ... you'd think they might know based on years of reporting about the one party who hates the government.
The Tea Party dream is to shut down government. How is it the "liberal" news media keeps missing this story of their success?
*sigh*
-David
David,
On the other hand you have a party that believes people coming together (government) can solve problems.
What Party would that be??
Because it sure as hell ain't the Democratic Party.
Where is the Democratic Party "coming together" to answer the concerns of the American people over obamacare??
There is none.
Hell, the Democratic Party won't even concede that the concerns EXIST, let alone actually take the time to address them...
Democratic Party coming together?? Gimme a break..
When you have Obama and Reid going to Boehner and the American people and say, "OK, look. There are concerns. This legislation is a shit sandwich with a side of political bigotry.. How can we work together and make it better for the American people???"
When Obama et al says THAT, *THEN* you might have a claim for "coming together"...
But when all we see is political bigotry and rancor coming from the Left, "coming together" ain't even in the same universe..
Michale
US government shutdown: Barack Obama is presiding over the end of America's superpower status
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/concoughlin/100238900/us-government-shutdown-barack-obama-is-presiding-over-the-end-of-americas-superpower-status/
You can bet that foreign governments, friends and foes alike aren't blaming the Republicans for the shutdown...
Michale
The Tea Party dream is to shut down government. How is it the "liberal" news media keeps missing this story of their success?
Simple..
Because the liberal MSM is showing an amazing level of insight and realizing that the American people aren't THAT stoopid that they would buy that this is all the fault of the Tea Party.
Obama and the Democrats had a clear choice..
Accept a reasonable delay on obamacare, the legislation that the majority of Americans don't like and don't want..
Or shut down the government.
Obama and the Democrats made the choice to shut down the government..
It's rather ironic.. Every little glitch, every little muck-up, every little snafu that occurs in obamacare (and it's universally agreed that there will be TONS) the GOP will be able to point to and say, "SEE!! obamacare SHOULD have been delayed so that these problems couldn't happen!!"
This is a GOP wet dream. A built-in PR gift from the Dems to the GOP. A gift that keeps giving and giving and giving and giving...
You just HAVE to admire the deviousness and effectiveness of the GOP plan...
Michale
A brief memo to Republicans, if you want to implement a nation wide political plan, maybe you should win some national elections. Otherwise? The other team gets to.
Winning a national election doesn't give a Party carte blanche to screw over the people...
The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt won a national election.
Hamas won a national election.
Hitler and the Nazis won a national election...
Need I go on??
What part of "The majority of Americans are against obamacare and don't want obamacare" do you not understand??
Michale
You just HAVE to admire the deviousness and effectiveness of the GOP plan.
The one where they shut down the government and blame it on Democrats?
Seriously ...
-David
"I'm not in favor of abolishing the government. I just want to shrink it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub." - Grover Norquist
BTW, the Daily Telegraph is the equivalent of Fox News, London.
The one where they shut down the government and blame it on Democrats?
No, the one where they give Democrats a choice and Democrats choose their "signature legislation" over the needs of the American people..
Basically, the GOP gave the Democrats a chance to do the right thing and the Democrats, true to form, gave the American people a hearty "Frak You"....
"I'm not in favor of abolishing the government. I just want to shrink it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub." - Grover Norquist
"The number one job facing the middle class, and it happens to be, as Barack says, a three-letter word: jobs. J-O-B-S."
-Joe Biden
"This {Iraq} war is lost and the surge is not accomplishing anything."
-Harry Reid
"every month that we do not have an economic recovery package 500 million Americans lose their jobs."
-Nancy Pelosi
"There is no terrorist threat. Yes, there have been horrific acts of terrorism and, yes, there will be acts of terrorism again. But that doesn't mean that there's some kind of massive terrorist threat."
-Michael Moore
"If you take out the killings, Washington actually has a very very low crime rate."
-Marion Barry
"Those who survived the San Francisco earthquake said, ‘Thank God, I'm still alive.' But, of course, those who died, their lives will never be the same again."
-Senator Barbra Boxer
"I have never had sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky. I've never had an affair with her."
-President Bill Clinton
"We actually have not required in this law that you carry health insurance."
-Debbie Wasserman Schultz
Have I given enough evidence to prove that Democrats ALSO say stupid stuff??
I got a ton more if ya need em... :D
Michale
From all indications, it looks like this shutdown is going to last weeks, not days...
It's tough being right. :D
Michale
Ahhhhh....
After years of touting obamacare as the end all get all living end god's gift to Americans...
NOW, Obama says that there will be "months of glitches"...
Strange that we never heard ANYTHING about "months of glitches"....
Geee... I wonder why that is...
Michale
You've listed a whole lot of things that have nothing to do with the subject.
Which party believes in getting rid of government?
Who is jumping up and down with glee at the thought of a government shutdown?
-David
p.s. By the way, Fox News has stopped using the word shutdown. They are now spinning it as a "slimdown" and replaced every instance of the word "shutdown" with "slimdown".
BTW, Speaker Boehner looks like about the most useless figurehead ever. Speaker in name only.
Really? Hitler and the Nazis?
Let me explain this to you, Since you obviously don't understand the difference between a popular mandate and winning an election, and further have no concept of history besides the bad documentaries the History channel used to run.
But since you feel like invoking Godwin's law, I'll be happy to expose your ignorance.
Hitler NEVER won a popular vote.
In the 1930 election to the Reichstag, the national socialists won 18.3 percent of the vote.
In the 1932 presidential election Hitler won 30.1 percent, in the runoff that year he was able to raise that to 36.8 percent.
The Reichtag had 2 elections in 1932 and nazis achieved results of 37.4 percent and 33.1 percent.
And in Germany’s last election under Nazi rule they achieved the stellar result of 43.9 percent. And this is after violence and voter repression became the standard tools of the Nazis. But since you have no idea what all this means, let me put it bluntly. Even with storm-troopers physically beating his opponents Hitler never, not once, got a majority of the vote.
Morsi, unlike Hitler, did win the popular vote in his run-off election, but as usual with your half though out analogies, it fails to paint the picture as it actually happened. Morsi won 51.7 percent of the vote, however, voter turnout was a dismal 51 percent. Hooray for having 25 percent of the country behind you!
And finally Hamas, Hamas won the parliamentary elections in 2006. They won with 44.45% of the vote, compared with Fatah, who won 41.43%. Notice something here? They didn’t win a majority. They also use violence to further political goals, not exactly nice people. Palestine is also known for having a wonderful bomb-free country, no corruption, and a wonderfully functioning political system.
And now we will compare these election results with Barack Obama’s in 2012.
Obama won 51.1 percent of the popular vote, Romney won 47.2. Notice something different here? Obama won a majority, not a plurality, also he didn’t exploit a system with multiple parties, he’s not the first president elected in decades, and he’s not a violent party in a war torn and unstable land. But let’s just consider the votes in the House of Representatives as well. Republicans received 1.4 million fewer votes than Democratic candidates. Period. End of discussion.
You want to find a minority party that’s willing to subvert the Democratic process in order to achieve their political ends? Look no farther than the Republicans Michale. And since you have already invoked Godwin’s Law, I’m going to go one step farther. The insistence of a minority faction of a minority party to attempt to govern by crisis and dictatorial fiat, in the face of the overwhelming rejection of their positions and policies at the polls, is the same strategy of the Nazis in the early 1930s. Go read a book.
David,
You've listed a whole lot of things that have nothing to do with the subject.
I thought the subject was stupid things that politicians say...
Which party believes in getting rid of government?
Which Party believes in killing unborn children and coddling terrorists??
When did Obama stop beating his wife??
Ridiculous questions that have no basis in fact..
Who is jumping up and down with glee at the thought of a government shutdown?
Democrats... After all, ya'all say that the GOP will be blamed.
So, of course, Democrats are ecstatic about the shutdown, no??
YoYo,
Simply mentioning Hitler or the Nazis doesn't constitute a Godwin.
You can discuss semantics and percentages all you want.
But that doesn't change the fact that Hitler and the Nazis were voted into power.. As was Hamas. As was the Brotherhood.
It also doesn't change the fact that just because a Party wins an election doesn't give that Party the right to subvert or ignore the will of the people.
The majority of Americans don't like obamacare and don't want obamacare..
What part of that do you still not understand??
Michale
Capital Digs In for Long Haul
Congress, Obama Prepare for Siege Over Shutdown, Then Debt Ceiling
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304373104579109083001071104.html?mod=WSJ_Home_largeHeadline
No quick resolution...
The well is far too poisoned.
GOP vilifying Democrats.
Obama and the Democrats vilifying Republicans..
What we NEED is a leader. A real leader.
Unfortunately, we're stuck with Obama...
Michale
YoYo,
It also doesn't change the fact that just because a Party wins an election doesn't give that Party the right to subvert or ignore the will of the people.
You can argue that obamacare is the greatest thing since frozen pizza. You can argue that obamacare is better than it was...
But you simply CANNOT argue that, just because Democrats won in the last national election, they can ramrod thru w/o compromise unpopular legislation that the American people do not like or do not want..
Well, you can TRY to make that argument.
But you will fail because it just ain't so..
"There was no poison on the rag and there was no intent to kill and any attempt to prove otherwise is futile because it just ain't true."
-Tom Cruise, A FEW GOOD MEN
Michale
p.s. By the way, Fox News has stopped using the word shutdown. They are now spinning it as a "slimdown" and replaced every instance of the word "shutdown" with "slimdown".
Are you against spin??
Or just spin from the Right?? :D
Michale
Nearly four years after ObamaCare passed, the coalition against it has expanded, not shrunk. The unions are now excoriating the law in terms that once would have been reserved for Republican floor speeches. In his filibuster, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz repeatedly quoted a letter from Teamsters leader Jim Hoffa attacking ObamaCare as a clear and present threat to the middle class. When House Republicans voted to delay the individual mandate a few weeks ago, 35 Democrats joined them; Joe Manchin, the Democratic senator from West Virginia, announced his support for a delay just last week.
Pew Research has found disapproval of the health-care law at an all-time high in its polling. CNN’s latest survey has disapproval at 57 percent and approval at 38. Health care, a core Democratic strength for decades, is becoming a liability. A New York Times poll found that more people disapprove of President Barack Obama on health care than approve by a 54-to-40 margin. Trust for Republicans and Democrats on health care is about even, according to the Pew poll.
The problems with the health law are invariably described by the president and his allies as “glitches,” or harmless technical snafus that no one should worry about. But the law suffers from basic design flaws beyond the question of whether the Obama administration can get its software to work. It depends on young, healthy people buying insurance even as it reduces their incentive to do so; it encourages employers to dump workers off their current insurance; it suppresses full-time work, through the employer mandate; in 10 years, the law still leaves 30 million people uninsured.
http://nypost.com/2013/09/30/the-obamacare-fight-is-just-beginning/
Why don't we fix it then?
If both Republicans and Democrats agreed it needed to be fixed, wouldn't this be easy?
What I'm hearing from conservatives, however, is typically that they want to get rid of it.
-David
I love your piece,"Boehner Hammers Last Nail In Republican Coffin." It makes all the sense in the world. Nonetheless, I wonder: who is really driving John Boehner’s bus? Is it just the Tea Party?
In the House of Representatives, the Tea Party is actually in the minority. If Boehner had allowed an up or down vote to fund the government, surely it would have passed. So why didn’t he? Who is his master? Who does he owe allegiance to?
Finally, in the minds of many, the 2014 midterm elections are a long way off. And as you say, what’s happening today could be a “long-forgotten episode when election day rolls around next November.” I wonder, as I imagine many others, what can we, as a country, do now to move things along and get this disastrous situation resolved as quickly as possible? What would you recommend?
Does anyone know how and when did the House speaker accrue the absolute power to control the agenda? I understand the administrative need to have someone control and set the agenda, but in most organizations this power is not absolute, the body has the ability to approve or revise the agenda. If this were the case in the House this problem would go away instantly because there is a large majority willing to pass a "clean" bill. Some estimate there is a 60% majority. This power is not derived from the constitution, is it just a tradition? How could it be changed?
Why don't we fix it then?
Why don't we delay it UNTIL it's fixed??
Wouldn't that be the most logical step??
Obama already delayed by fiat to serve his corporate cronies...
Why doesn't the American people warrant the same consideration???
Michale
http://twitchy.com/2013/10/02/barry-cades-confirmed-park-service-says-obama-admin-ordered-closure-of-world-war-ii-memorial/
Absolutely pathetic....
Michale
The funniest twit on the White House closing the WWII memorial..
Only Obama would think the WWII Memorial needs to be protected from WWII veterans.
:D
Michale
Absolutely pathetic....
Got anything that leads directly to Obama specifically ordering the WWII memorial closed or are you just hysterically fear mongering? My understanding is Obama through the OMB? closed all DC attractions as part of the National parks shutdown do to no budget (it's their job) rather than a pick and choose that you are trying to pawn off here.
Absolutely pathetic is right, Oh, I was talking about your link. Opinion pieces are bad enough but tweets are a story now?
My understanding is Obama through the OMB?
And who controls the OMB??
The White House...
closed all DC attractions as part of the National parks shutdown do to no budget (it's their job) rather than a pick and choose that you are trying to pawn off here.
The WWII Memorial is an open air memorial, not housed in any building. To "close" the memorial, Obama's OMB had to erect temporary fences around the memorial...
To put it into a context that you would understand and would be incensed about, it would be like a GOP Administration erecting fences around the MLK Memorial to keep people from visiting it.
Get it now??
Opinion pieces are bad enough but tweets are a story now?
They are when they support the Leftist agenda...
Personally, I don't think twits are stories...
But that particular twit IS funny because it's true..
So says Homer Simpson.. :D
Michale
Hay David... Are we still playing dueling quotes??
Reporter: "If it would just help one kid with cancer, why not pass the House bill??"
Harry Reid: "Why would we want to do that?"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0lFyFJeZSY
House Republicans are approving bills that would fund important parts of the government.
Senate Democrats are holding the entire country hostage because they don't want to give the same break to everyday Americans that Obama gave to his corporate cronies...
Do ya'all HONESTLY believe that it's going to be REPUBLICANS who pay the political price for the shutdown??
If ya'all do, I have some swampland in FL I would just LOVE to sell ya.. :D
Michale
http://dailycaller.com/2013/10/02/rnc-offers-to-pay-to-keep-wwii-memorial-open/
Republicans are definitely winning the PR war.... :D
Michale
Shutdown overreach: More personnel sent to WWII memorial than Benghazi; Park Service closes park it doesn't run
http://washingtonexaminer.com/shutdown-overreach-more-guards-at-wwii-memorial-than-benghazi-park-service-closes-park-it-doesnt-run/article/2536710
That little factoid has GOT to hurt..
Once again, the GOP is definitely going to reap the benefits in the PR war....
Michale
Get it now??
Well, no actually. Since you rely on tweets rather than a real story with, you know, information. Is it SOP to surround monuments with barriers for safety/security reasons? Did Obama have any choice or control here or is this just automatic with a shutdown?
They are when they support the Leftist agenda...
Are they? I don't remember any posted here as such. I could be wrong but you have to point them out...
House Republicans are approving bills that would fund important parts of the government.
You mean the republicans are trying to weasel out of their shut down?
Do ya'all HONESTLY believe that it's going to be DEMOCRATS who pay the political price for the shutdown??
If ya'all do, I have a bridge in NY I would just LOVE to sell ya.. :D
Ah spin, it works both ways. Only time will tell who is right...
My understanding is Obama through the OMB?
Your understanding is in error...
Obama admin. knew about WWII veterans’ request and rejected it
http://dailycaller.com/2013/10/01/obama-admin-knew-about-wwii-veterans-request-and-rejected-it/#ixzz2gbUbqHOn
Pretty pathetic that Obama would treat veterans this way...
Michale
Well, no actually. Since you rely on tweets rather than a real story with, you know, information.
I posted a couple "real" stories and a funny tweet.
Of course, you ignore the real stories because they don't pay proper homage to Emperor Barack The First..
Is it SOP to surround monuments with barriers for safety/security reasons? Did Obama have any choice or control here or is this just automatic with a shutdown?
No and no. If you actually read what I wrote instead of automatically going into RIDICULE mode, you would know that the memorial is a 24/7 open-air memorial. To "close" the memorial, you actually have to have workers go out an put barricades up..
Get that?? Ostensibly, there is no money to pay people to have the memorial "open" but the reality is, it TAKES money (and people) to actually close the memorial..
That's Obama-logic for you...
You mean the republicans are trying to weasel out of their shut down?
No. I mean Republicans are actually trying to fund important things despite the Democrat's shutdown..
Remember. Obama and the Democrats made a choice to support obamacare at the expense of a government shutdown...
Obama and the Democrats could stop the shut down right this minute. All the have to do is compromise and agree to the same 1 year delay for everyday Americans that they gave to their corporate cronies...
Democrats refuse and here we are.. In the midst of a crisis of the Democrats' making...
These are the facts...
Michale
MSNBC news producers abandoned their attempt to demonstrate the new health care exchange at healthcare.gov.
While repeatedly trying to access the New York, Maryland and New Jersey health care sites, news anchor Mara Schiavocampo eventually called a phone help line for assistance after the web chat function didn't work.
"This is the second call, so I've probably spent almost 20 minutes on the phone now. We started about 35 minutes ago, so at this point I'm going to hang up and call it a day," she explains on the show. "If I was signing up for myself, this is where my patience would be exhausted."
http://washingtonexaminer.com/msnbc-abandons-health-care-exchange-demo-due-to-long-waits-glitches/article/2536656?utm_campaign=Fox%20News&utm_source=foxnews.com&utm_medium=feed
What were those three little words???
Oh yea...
Told.... ya..... so.... :D
Ya know it's bad when Obama's standard water carrier MSNBC gives up in frustration...
Michale
Off topic, but has anybody else tried to enroll in Affordable Health Care yet? If my experience is typical, the roll out is not going well.
The state exchange website had long delays before I could get an actual enrollment window. When I got to the window it didn't work the first time, and basically kicked me out...resulting in another long wait. Actually two.
Once in, the system requires very strong passwords - making mistakes easy. Keep a notepad handy. Once you've entered your info and pick your 3 security questions you receive a confirming Email with a link you are suppose to click. I got the E-mail, but responding to that link doesn't give any indication anything has actually happened....and since I can't get the entry page to recognize my user name/password, I think nothing actually happened. The "Forget username" and "Forget Password" won't let me reset either one. Help requires another long queue.
Phone help? Busy busy. I finally got through to a voice recognition system, agreed to take a survey and waited for a human voice. Fifteen minutes later, I decided it wasn't going to happen.
Bottom line, somebody (lowest bidder) has engineered a virtual government office building!
Man, I'm there with ya. I would enter a ton of data, the server would hang, loose everything. Try again. Same result. I would half ass the data to see if the service was up. Of course it would work. Start again with the full data, crash city. Hell even today I've been having problems...
Oh, wait a minute, I was talking about GTA online. You know the other huge online service that went live on Tuesday and was hit with millions of users.
Welcome to the internet. Launch problems don't just hit government sites. AAA game developers have the same problems. Just wait, it will smooth out soon enough.
TS,
Off topic, but has anybody else tried to enroll in Affordable Health Care yet? If my experience is typical, the roll out is not going well.
That's putting it mildly..
The roll-out is a disaster...
And what's REALLY funny is that Obama and the Democrats can't blame ANY of it on the Republicans...
Obama and the Dems would have been a LOT better off agreeing to delaying the personal mandate.. That might have taken some of the sting off..
obamacare is a full blown train wreck now.... No doubt about that anymore. It's a fact, now...
Michale
I should add: if you want to see true hysteria that makes even the tea party and Michale seem tame in comparison, check out the GTA online forums. You would think the impending doom of the universe was just hours away...
obamacare is a full blown train wreck now.... No doubt about that anymore. It's a fact, now...
You are going to have to work on your hysteria if you want to catch up to GTA online complainers...
Bashi,
That's because I don't deal in hysteria.. I deal in facts..
And ALL the facts I have relayed have yet to be refuted..
Here's another fact for you..
Insurance Manager: ‘We Have Yet To Have Someone Successfully Register On The Marketplace’
http://washington.cbslocal.com/2013/10/03/insurance-manager-we-have-yet-to-have-someone-successfully-register-on-the-marketplace/
We also have a PERSONAL testimonial from a Weigantian... A testimonial that seems to be the norm...
I know it hurts that I called it.. :D
Michale
Hahaha. You deal in facts? When did that start?
And I have yet to get the character I want to play on GTA online...
No comment on the reason? Too much interest is clogging the servers. So much for your Americans hate Obamacare line. I mean if they hated it, why are they trying to sign up in mass on day one when coverage doesn't start until January 1st and they have until March to get signed up?
No comment on the reason? Too much interest is clogging the servers. So much for your Americans hate Obamacare line. I mean if they hated it, why are they trying to sign up in mass on day one when coverage doesn't start until January 1st and they have until March to get signed up?
Ahhh.. The "it's so popular" meme...
Apparently Obama and the Democrats weren't prepared, eh???
Typical Democrats..
Let's throw something out there that is so damn awesome!!
We'll figure out how it actually can work later!!
The very epitome of incompetence....
Michale
Still waiting for you (or ANYONE for that matter) to refute the facts...
I now have the FACTS that prove obamacare is a train wreck...
Do you have any FACTS to show it's not??
{{{chhiiirrrrpppp}}} {chiirrrrppppp}
Didna think so...
Michale
Apparently Obama and the Democrats weren't prepared, eh???
Either was Rockstar. What's your point? This stuff happens all the time for just about anything popular on the internet. Hell, even Apple servers have had problems when a new product goes live. As a computer person I thought you would know this...
I now have the FACTS that prove obamacare is a train wreck...
Which facts were those? All the opinion pieces and estimate articles that were Guessing as to the outcome? Guessing is not facts. You won't have facts for quite sometime as the program is just getting started...
All the opinion pieces and estimate articles that were Guessing as to the outcome?
No one is "guessing" the outcome..
We are SEEING the outcome, played out before our eyes..
Did you not read Stig's post?? His (her??) PERSONAL experience with obamacare...
How is that "guessing"???
You won't have facts for quite sometime as the program is just getting started...
The program *IS* started...
And it's a train wreck.....
You can bet that if everything was going peachy keen rosy, ya'all would be pointing to it and saying how awesome it is, right??
So, why not be CONSISTENT and call a train wreck a train wreck???
Michale
Hell, even Apple servers have had problems when a new product goes live. As a computer person I thought you would know this...
Did Apple servers send over 2500 SSNs to Joe Schmoe??
Were Apple products FORCED on Americans by mandate???
No...
Once again, oranges and alligators..
Oranges and alligators...
Michale
Did you not read Stig's post?? His (her??) PERSONAL experience with obamacare...
Did you not read my experience with GTA Online? Big complex programs being hammered by millions of users have problems. In other news the sky is blue and water wet. Hardly a train wreck, though the forum posters to the Rockstar forums might have you believe otherwise...
Once again, oranges and alligators..
Oranges and alligators...
No, just a surprising lack of computer knowledge by you...
Did you not read my experience with GTA Online?
Were you FORCED to play GTA online??
Did the government MANDATE that you buy online time with GTA and then, when you tried, they online wasn't ready???
No??
Then how does that compare to the train wreck that is obamacare??
Answer... It doesn't...
No, just a surprising lack of computer knowledge by you...
Actually, it's a question of competence.
Put another way..
If you advertise an awesome MMPORG that is going to be the living end and cure all your ills and then, when you go live, your servers are constantly crashing at the sign-up......
Does that indicate competence to you???
It doesn't to me..
But then again, my shop stresses customer service above all else... :D
obamacare is not ready for prime time... Better to delay it a year....
Michale....
GTA???
Grand Theft Auto???
Honestly, color me surprised..
I would not have taken you for a GTA fan... :D
Michale
Were you FORCED to play GTA online??
Did the government MANDATE that you buy online time with GTA and then, when you tried, they online wasn't ready???
Was everyone currently uninsured required to buy insurance on Tuesday or do they have until March?
I would not have taken you for a GTA fan... :D
Only the highest grade digital crack for me :-)
If the servers were working I would not be replying to you now...
Was everyone currently uninsured required to buy insurance on Tuesday or do they have until March?
Irrelevant..
If they opened the servers for registration, then said servers should be READY for registration, no??
obamacare might get better. It might not.
For now, it's the train wreck I thought it would be..
That could change. I'll keep you updated..
Only the highest grade digital crack for me :-)
I have always wanted to try STAR TREK ONLINE or the STARGATE MMPORG...
But I have a VERY addictive personality and I know that if I got lassoed into one of the online games, my productivity would plummet to zero.. :D
So I content myself with a session of NEED FOR SPEED HOT PURSUIT (I always play the cop) or MASS EFFECT 3 ... :D
Michale
You should play EVE Online Michale, I know you love sci-fi and spaceships. It'd be right up your alley. It's even got unregulated capitalism. Which I adored, nothing like buying someone's loot and then selling it back to them at a massive markup.
But as far as decrying Obamacare because of day one problems, have you been on the internet in the past ten years? GTA online was just mentioned, but off the top of my head, The new simcity had the same stuff along with guild wars, world of warcraft, everquest and every mmo ever created. In fact a steady smooth rollout is so rare as to be a unicorn. Complex internet systems always, invariably, get hit with murphy's law on day one. So go ahead and yell about the disaster, anyone with a memory longer than a week will know that these things are temporary.
YoYo,
Ya'all are just trying to get me hooked on an MMPORG so I won't have much time to comment here!!
Yea, all online crap has had problems, no doubt.
But ALL the online crap ya'all have mentioned have NEVER:
A> been touted as the end all get all must have most awesomest savior in the world...
and
2> been FORCED on Americans..
We are actually into day 4 of obamacare.
And it's a train wreck..
It's undeniable.
It MIGHT get better. It might not..
But, as of this moment, NO ONE can deny that obamacare is a train wreck...
But take heart..
The mythical obamacare subscriber HAS been located..
http://washingtonexaminer.com/175-premium-for-a-young-healthy-student-thanks-obamacare/article/2536798
A person who actually was able to sign up for obamacare!!
His insurance premium??
$175 a month...
Before obamacare, he could have signed up online for insurance for under $50 a month...
Train wreck.. Pure and simple...
Michale
Another example of how awesome obamacare is..
Fountain Hills man dropped from health insurance because of new regulations
FOUNTAIN HILLS, AZ -
A Fountain Hills man says he may soon have to get another job just to pay for healthcare insurance under the new Affordable Care Act.
http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/region_northeast_valley/fountain_hills/fountain-hills-man-dropped-from-health-insurance-because-of-new-regulations
A direct result of obamacare...
Michale