Greg Sargent kinds of bursts my bubble already by declaring that Cruz will do this again next time-or at least he will try.Of course, to some Cruz is a hero. Rush Limbaugh went on a rant against the 'irrelveant' party the GOP has become. According to him they didn't fight hard enough. I guess they should have pushed for a default for real not just threaten it for the last 7 months.
"The only real pushback, Limbaugh said, has come from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah). “This is not the time to abandon Ted Cruz or Mike Lee, folks,” he told his listeners.
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/rush-limbaugh-gop-so-irrelevant-98402.html#ixzz2hvjVG5R3
"So did Republicans gain anything by forcing the showdown?"
"The only real pushback, Limbaugh said, has come from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah). “This is not the time to abandon Ted Cruz or Mike Lee, folks,” he told his listeners.
“You know that what they attempted to do here was, I think, valiant,” he said. “It’s been an illustration of just how terribly wrong things are. There are plenty of opportunities for lessons to be learned here. Now, look, I’m not living in a false reality here. I was thinking about this last night, too, while I was pondering if I can ever remember a greater political disaster in my lifetime, if I could ever remember a time when a political party just made a decision not to exist for all intents and purposes.”
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/rush-limbaugh-gop-so-irrelevant-98402.html#ixzz2hvjVG5R3
I got bad news for Rush. Cruz was so valiant that he called today's agreement 'terrible' yet didn't even fight to stop it.
Cruz does claim the shutdown was a great victory.
"I think we've seen a remarkable thing happen," said Cruz, who is widely considered a 2016 presidential contender. "We saw, first of all, millions upon millions of Americans rise up all over this country, over 2 million people signing a national petition to defund Obamacare. We saw the House of Representatives take a courageous stand listening to the American people, that everyone in 'official Washington' just weeks earlier said would never happen."
"It does give a path going forward," he added. "I hope in time the Senate begins to listen to the American people."
What's harming the economy next to that?
"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.
Small price to pay for harming Obamacare. Oh wait. Actually the day after the shutdown commenced the ACA exchanges opened.
So will we have another one of these? Sargent thinks that left to himself Cruz would put us through this circus again. However, the question is will Boehner allow it again. I have my doubts. I think this will really sink home at least for some GOPers.
"No," Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) said flatly. "I think the answer is no."
I have to give it to Jeff Flake-he really has learned something.
"That we know not to go down this road to a shutdown again?" Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) proposed with a weak smile. "That may be something, at least."
Peter King thinks measures need to be taken against Cruz.
"It’s easy to make fun of GOP Rep. Peter King, but he was one of the few to call out GOP insanity from the inside early in this process. Now, in an interesting and entertaining interview with Capital New York, he’s calling for Republicans to wage war on Ted Cruz. King predicts the Texas Senator will try do this all again in a few months, and crucially, he points out that it’s on the non-crazy Republicans to prevent this from happening:
“He’s going to be coming back, rewriting history, saying, ‘We were on the verge of victory back in October, and we could have won if we’d just stayed in there another week.’ And he’s going to have phone calls being made, and he’s going to have town hall meetings. And he’s going to have all those support groups out there, threatening to downgrade people on their scorecards and all that stuff.” [...]“I think it’s important for people in the Republican Party around the country not to just come in at the end and say, ‘Congress was dysfunctional,’ or ‘Congress screwed up.’ That’s too easy to do,” King said. “Say who it was. Because it wasn’t Congress. it was one person who was able to steamroll Congress and unless we target him for what he is, he’s going to do it again. So I’m hoping other Republicans will join me and start going after this guy, and say we’re not going to let it happen again.”
As Sargent says this is giving Cruz a little too much credit, though there are other Republicans who feel this way about him.
"Americans for Tax Reform Leader Grover Norquist slammed Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and his fellow tea partiers who pushed a defund-Obamacare strategy in an interview with the National Review."
"It’d be a good idea if they stopped referring to other Republicans as Hitler appeasers because they opposed the strategy they put forward which failed," Norquist told National Review's Betsy Woodruff. "I think if you make a mistake as big as what they did, you owe your fellow senators and congressmen a big apology — and your constituents, as well, because nothing they did advanced the cause of repealing or dismantling Obamacare."
Sargent's point is well taken-it's up to Boehner and the GOP establishment to stop this from happening again. I've been wrong before but I can't believe they really will have an appetite for another one of these. Yes, there's the worry about a primary challenge but after the real harm this did for GOPers even in allegedly safe districts it's hard to imagine they'll want this in an election year. We'll see but I'll be shocked.
P.S. King is certainly right this is what Cruz will say-it's what Limbaugh is saying as well-if only they'd dragged this out longer they would have won. Who cares about the world economy, the Republicans would have won.
Yes, the GOP could have won, and put an end to Obama and the Dems creating an uncertain business environment. ;^)
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