The Kurtz Republicans

[4588686]

“THEY told me,” Martin Sheen’s Willard says to Marlon Brando’s Kurtz in “Apocalypse Now,” at the end of a long journey up the river, “that you had gone totally insane, and that your methods were unsound.”  His baldness bathed in gold, his body pooled in shadow, Kurtz murmurs: “Are my methods unsound?”  And Willard — filthy, hollow-eyed, stunned by what he’s seen — replies: “I don’t see any method at all, sir.”  This is basically how reasonable people should feel about the recent conduct of the House Republicans.  Politics is a hard business, and failure is normal enough. It’s not unusual for political parties to embrace misguided ideas, pursue poorly thought-out strategies, persist in old errors and embrace new ones eagerly.

So we shouldn’t overstate the gravity of what’s been happening in Washington. There are many policies in American history, pursued in good faith by liberals or conservatives, that have been more damaging to the country than the Republican decision to shut down the government this month, and many gambits that have reaped bigger political disasters than most House Republicans are likely to face as a result.  But there is still something well-nigh-unprecedented about how Republicans have conducted themselves of late. It’s not the scale of their mistake, or the kind of damage that it’s caused, but the fact that their strategy was such self-evident folly, so transparently devoid of any method whatsoever.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/13/opinion/sunday/douthat-the-kurtz-republicans.html?ref=opinion&_r=0

[r2Dtoo]

It's becoming more and more obvious that the President isn't willing to comprise either.  If there's a default both parties are gonna get hit really hard.  Neither side has a good enough argument to take the country there.  All somebody has to do is cave.  Either one of them could do it, it really doesn't matter.

[4588686]

It's becoming more and more obvious that the President isn't willing to comprise either.  If there's a default both parties are gonna get hit really hard.  Neither side has a good enough argument to take the country there.  All somebody has to do is cave.  Either one of them could do it, it really doesn't matter.

 

 

It does matter.  If Obama caves to the Republicans then this will continue the same cycle that has continued since 2011 when Obama initially caved to this crap.

[r2Dtoo]

It does matter.  If Obama caves to the Republicans then this will continue the same cycle that has continued since 2011 when Obama initially caved to this croutons.

 

So a default is better how?

[4588686]

So a default is better how?

 

 

It's not.  But this threat has to stop.  Boehner can't keep depending on other people to save him from the fact that he can't control his party's faction.  He's going to set aside the Hasteret rule and the Democrats and a portion of the House Republicans will vote to raise the debt ceiling.  This has to stop.  

[r2Dtoo]

It's not.  But this threat has to stop.  Boehner can't keep depending on other people to save him from the fact that he can't control his party's faction.  [b]He's going to set aside the Hasteret rule and the Democrats and a portion of the House Republicans will vote to raise the debt ceiling[/b].  This has to stop.  

 

If Obama actually agrees with you, and isn't just stalling I hope you're right.

[John Ryan]

So a default is better how?

 

If the Republicans are going to hold the government hostage again next year, why not simply default this year? The Republicans are simply using fiscal conservatism as political bargaining card. The Republicans could not care about balancing the budget. Paul Ryan is the biggest joke — well, actually the media is the biggest laughing stock for pretending that he is a fiscal conservative. The Republicans do not care about a balanced budget when they are in power. For all the money we spent in Iraq, spending a little more on healthcare is not so horrendous. 

[r2Dtoo]

If the Republicans are going to hold the government hostage again next year, why not simply default this year? The Republicans are simply using fiscal conservatism as political bargaining card. The Republicans could not care about balancing the budget. Paul Ryan is the biggest joke — well, actually the media is the biggest laughing stock for pretending that he is a fiscal conservative. The Republicans do not care about a balanced budget when they are in power. For all the money we spent in Iraq, spending a little more on healthcare is not so horrendous. 

 

Delaying the individual mandate for a year is so bad how?

[4588686]

Delaying the individual mandate for a year is so bad how?

 

 

Because it won't be for a year.  When the next year comes around this will just happen again.  Just think critically, for a minute.  

[r2Dtoo]

Because it won't be for a year.  When the next year comes around this will just happen again.  Just think critically, for a minute.  

 

Yes, it would be simply awful if we all didn't have to pay for overpriced healthcare.

[John Ryan]

Yes, it would be simply awful if we all didn't have to pay for overpriced healthcare.

 

I will be the first to admit that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is rubbish. That being said, I think it is better than no health care reform at all. I am really hoping that its inadequacies become so pronounced that we finally become reasonable and enact a single-payer health care system. Just eliminate all the health insurance companies and you will eliminate so much administrative waste in the system.  

Edited October 13, 2013 by John Ryan

[r2Dtoo]

I will be the first to admit that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is rubbish. That being said, I think it is better than no health care reform at all. I am really hoping that its inadequacies become so pronounced that we finally become reasonable and enact a single-payer health care system. Just eliminate all the health insurance companies and you will eliminate so much administrative waste in the system.  

 

We'll have bigger problems than healthcare if Congress doesn't raise the debt ceiling.

[Winchester]

We'll have bigger problems than healthcare if Congress doesn't raise the debt ceiling.

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

 

Sucker

[havok579257]

Because it won't be for a year.  When the next year comes around this will just happen again.  Just think critically, for a minute.  

 

 

no, its just ok for Obama to illegally(through execuative powers he does not have on obamacare) give a pass to big business.  democrats say they are trying to help out the little man but when it comes down to it the illegally help out big business.  great party you got there hasan

[4588686]

no, its just ok for Obama to illegally(through execuative powers he does not have on obamacare) give a pass to big business.  democrats say they are trying to help out the little man but when it comes down to it the illegally help out big business.  great party you got there hasan

 

 

It's not a very good party.  It's pretty beholden to corporate interests.