Boehner Admits it's Over and He's Lost

     Just as we posted last night,  yesterday was the last hurrah for the House Republicans. There will be no more Plan Bs. 

     http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2013/10/sounds-like-house-gop-may-be-ready-to.html

     While making predictions may well be a fool's errand, at least one prediction I've made has turned out right. I was wrong that Boehner wouldn't allow a government shutdown-I thought the Gingrich Lesson was one thing the GOP actually did have branded indelibly in their heads. I was wrong, I gave them too much credit. I also, off topic, gave my New York Giants too much credit in thinking they'd have won a game by now. 

    I was, however, right that Boehner wouldn't let us default on our debt as well, which would have made the words Full faith and credit of the U.S. government as hollow as the words Rush Limbaugh uses in his daily broadcast. I was going to lead off with Boehner's surrender address but let's begin with Rush-it seems he thinks the GOP has somehow become irrelevant:

   "Rush Limbaugh on Wednesday blasted the Republican Party as “irrelevant” and responsible for “creating one of the greatest political disasters” he’s ever seen.

    “I was trying to think earlier today, if ever in my life I could remember any major political party being so irrelevant,” the conservative radio host said on his show, according to a transcript. “I have never seen it. I have never seen a major political party simply occupy placeholders, as the Republican Party is doing.”

     Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/rush-limbaugh-gop-so-irrelevant-98402.html#ixzz2hvjVG5R3

     Now if we leave it there, he is quite right. It certainly is one of the greatest political disasters and the GOP is really harming its relevance. Of course, Rush's reason for why this is just totally wrong:

    "Limbaugh slammed the Republican Party for consistently failing to offer any “serious opposition” to the Democratic Party or President Barack Obama. And now the party has made an “inexplicable political cave-in” with the agreement to reopen the government and lift the debt ceiling, he said."

     Yeah, ok. If they had just hung tough like Ted Cruz and Mike Allen, they would have won this-just allow the country to default in order to save face. Good thinking Rush. Actually the problem is just this kind of delusional thinking. The GOP sure isn't where it is because they haven't listened enough to Rush Limbaugh. 

   Ok, now the main event. Boehner admits it's over:

   "The House has fought with everything it has to convince the president of the United States to engage in bipartisan negotiations aimed at addressing our country's debt and providing fairness for the American people under ObamaCare.  That fight will continue.  But blocking the bipartisan agreement reached today by the members of the Senate will not be a tactic for us.  In addition to the risk of default, doing so would open the door for the Democratic majority in Washington to raise taxes again on the American people and undo the spending caps in the 2011 Budget Control Act without replacing them with better spending cuts.  With our nation's economy still struggling under years of the president's policies, raising taxes is not a viable option. Our drive to stop the train wreck that is the president's health care law will continue.  We will rely on aggressive oversight that highlights the law's massive flaws and smart, targeted strikes that split the legislative coalition the president has relied upon to force his health care law on the American people."

    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/boehner-blocking-senate-deal-will-not-be-a-tactic-for-us

    He's half right when he says that 'we fought the good fight we just didn't win.' They didn't win. However, how this leaves him with any pride is a measure of how perverse he and his party have become. The economy sure isn't the better for 'fighting the fight.'

    "The first federal government shutdown in 17 years, triggered by a Republican demand to defund the Affordable Care Act on Oct. 1, cost the U.S. $24 billion in potential economic activity -- equalling at least 0.6% of projected annualized fourth-quarter 2013 GDP growth, according to ratings agency Standard & Poor's."

    "Instead of the 3% annualized growth fourth quarter originally projected in September, S&P now forecasts actual fourth-quarter growth near 2%, the agency said in a press release:

As we've said, we expect the Senate deal to be approved. However, the current chatter coming out of Washington suggests that any continuing resolution will be a temporary one, with an early 2014 timeframe for the next set of Washington deadlines. The short turnaround for politicians to negotiate some sort of lasting deal will likely weigh on consumer confidence, especially among government workers that were furloughed. If people are afraid that the government policy brinkmanship will resurface again, and with it the risk of another shutdown or worse, they'll remain afraid to open up their checkbooks. That points to another Humbug holiday season.

   

   http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/s-p-shutdown-cost-u-s-24-billion-0-6-gdp-in-projected-growth

    Yes, salvation for the GOP is in listening more to Rush and Ted Cruz, but it's hell for the country.