BATON ROUGE, La. - U.S. Sen. David Vitter told a packed town hall meeting Thursday that he will support a federal government shutdown this fall rather than agree to pay for President Barack Obama's health care law.
"I'm going to fight like the dickens. I'm going to vote to repeal, to delay, to defund," the Republican senator said.Vitter said he won't vote for legislation to continue paying for U.S. government services beyond Sept. 30 if it contains money for the health care law's implementation.
In the midst of cries of, "Shut it down!" you have to wonder if the people at the town meeting think at all about consequences.
Well, yes they do. Temporarily? For how long? The folks who are so willing to sacrifice had better prepare for the long haul. Who knows when the Republican clown show in Congress will get around to funding the federal government once again in this age of deadlock?He [Robert Ordeneaux] and several others in the audience said they'd be willing to temporarily lose their government benefits through Social Security, Medicare and other programs listed by Vitter that would stop issuing checks in a shutdown.
Senator Vitter's support of a government shutdown is despicably reckless and irresponsible, and he'd be very foolish to believe his supporters will not flood his office with phone calls demanding their checks. Vitter draws the line at the suggestion by his supporters to impeach President Obama, because he says it could backfire. If Republicans succeed in shutting down the government, Vitter will soon know the meaning of backfire in spades, for the voters will not blame Obama and the Democrats. When Social Security payments don't arrive, and Medicare stops paying the bills, the blame will go squarely where it belongs - on reckless and irresponsible Republicans who would rather destroy the country than not have their way.
The Health Insurance Marketplace, part of the Affordable Care Act, is due to begin taking applications on October 1, 2013, and the Republicans are fearful that the marketplaces may actually work and citizens will see the benefits, so they want to stop it in its tracks.
Republicans are afraid, very afraid.Open enrollment starts October 1, 2013. Plans and prices will be available then. Coverage starts as soon as January 1, 2014.
On a side note, Vitter says he supports Rep. Bill Cassidy (R) in the Senate race against Sen. Mary Landrieu (D), but the Tea Party folks don't much like Cassidy because he's too liberal (Ha ha). Rob Maness is their boy. Maness says Cassidy is just another Mary. Landrieu is a right-leaning Democrat, so since Bill Cassidy is comparatively sane, but still quite conservative, Maness is probably not far off in his comparison. I will support Landrieu, though I don't always agree with her policies and votes, because any Democrat in the Senate is better than a Republican. To see two Republicans mix it up in the primary will do my heart good.
David, go pay your hookers, and leave governing to grown-ups. *
ReplyDelete* Since MOST Congressional Republicans are SCREWING the American body politic, that include them, too!
Vitter has not left his mark in the Senate in any other way than following the party line to a T, and, of course, the memory of his earlier escapades, which the voters in Louisiana seem not to hold against him.
DeleteCut off people's social security checks? Oh Mimi, I can't think of words nasty enough or polite enough to use on your blog for this S.O.B. He certainly isn't worried about paying the rent or the light bill, or buying groceries. What an arrogant, hateful monster.
ReplyDeleteThe parable of the rich man and Lazarus comes to mind here, and for once I hope it is literally interpreted.
What traitorous, treasonous people these are - wanting to shut down the whole government??? What kind of patriotism is that? Nasty, nasty, nasty. EVIL. That's all I can say here while I'm sitting in your parlor - but I'm thinking much worse.
Russ, as you know, Vitter is not alone. The members of Congress have no clue what it's like to live on the edges. Ordeneaux, the person quoted by name, is retired from Exxon, and he probably has a good pension and maybe even health insurance from his former employer. He may be able to afford a few months without his SS checks, but many are entirely dependent on them.
DeleteAh; that explains his willingness to give up everybody else's SS checks.
DeleteThis has become a matter of "faith" (in the stupid and blinkered sense of that word most critics of religion mean), not of reason. Reminiscent of the first town halls that caught everyone's attention, the sentiments again are being ginned up by Freedom Works and others, and only emotions are being expressed, the primary one being fear.
I don't know what average Americans fear from Obamacare. You're right about what the Republicans (and the people funding Freedom Works, et al.) fear: that government will actually work. I've been seeing ads quoting Max Baucus calling the new law a "train wreck." What he actually said was, without GOP help to fix problems apparent in the complex, as yet not-fully implemented law, it will be a train wreck.
But what do ordinary people fear, even the ones screaming about it at town halls? That I still don't understand. It's certainly far less socialistic than Medicare.
Some things never change. The willingness to lay heavy burdens on other people is no surprise and nothing new. SOCIALISM and BIG GOVERNMENT are scary words, and lots of folks don't trouble themselves to make distinctions or think through to consequences. Slogans suit the purposes of those whose default position is fear.
DeleteSlogans suit the purposes of those whose default position is fear.
ReplyDeleteTrue dat.
Now I have something to meditate on, as well.