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Thursday, October 17, 2013

So Will There be a Government Shtudown 3.0?

     It depends on who you ask. Ted Cruz thinks it was a great success because Republicans declared to the world they hate Obamacare in a dramatic way. Right, I mean there was ambiguity about this prior to-I mean the House only voted to abolish it 40 times, there was some doubt where they really stood on the issue. There was a loss of $24 billion dollars in economic activity and now forecasters have reduced growth estimates for 2013 from 3% to 2% but that's a small price to pay for making a point in a dramatic way that they'd already made 40 times. 

     So regarding another govt shutdown: Cruz won't rule it out. 


     "Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said Thursday that he would not rule out pushing the federal government to shut down again in order to defund the health care law."


     "I would do anything, and I will continue to do anything I can, to stop the train wreck that is Obamacare," Cruz told ABC News when asked if he would block government funding in order to take down the Affordable Care Act.


     This is a watertight plan other than the fact that this past govt shutdown did nothing to slow down Obamacare, in fact the govt shut on September 30 and the ACA exchanges opened on October 1. As having another govt shutdown will in now way accomplish this what's the point? He claims the ACA is a train-wreck but if there a greater train-wreck than the last 16 days?

    Mitch McConnell thinks 'two mule kicks' for the GOP ought to be enough. 

     "Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Thursday ruled out shutting down the government in exchange for policy change in the near future, acknowledging Republicans erred when they employed the tactic in their fight against Obamacare."
     “There is no education in the second kick of a mule," he added. "There will not be a government shutdown."

     "Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Thursday ruled out shutting down the government in exchange for policy change in the near future, acknowledging Republicans erred when they employed the tactic in their fight against Obamacare."

      “There is no education in the second kick of a mule," he added. "There will not be a government shutdown."

     http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/cruz-will-not-rule-out-another-shutdown


     McCain also categorically rules out GS 3.0:


      Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) also predicted Thursday that Republicans would opt against shutting down the government now that they've seen the GOP brand plummet at the polls.

"We're not going to go through the shutdown again," McCain said on CNN's New Day. "People have been too traumatized by it. There's too much damage."

      The divide is between the party establishment and the Tea Party. I can't imagine that the leadership wants a third mule kick. 


      Incidentally, McConnell is taking credit for brokering the deal with Reid. It's been argued that the fact that both Marco Rubio and Paul Ryan voted against the deal yesterday is a bad sign, suggesting that GOP presidential hopefuls see acceptable position for primary voters to be in not voting to end the shutdown and raise the debt ceiling. McConnell, is going the other way-he's quite pleased to cite this as proof that he certainly does believe in collaboration and bipartisanship. 


     "McConnell’s handling of the fiscal crisis underscores the tricky political position he constantly found himself in throughout this fight: He couldn’t be seen as undercutting the conservatives in the House, even as he opposed their strategy of using the shutdown as leverage to defund Obamacare."



      "Asked if the deal would hurt his chances in a primary against conservative businessman Matt Bevin, McConnell declined to comment on his primary. But he offered up a stinging analysis of his Democratic opponent, Grimes."

     "What happened yesterday completely steps on the whole rationale for her candidacy, which is that somehow I’m part of what she calls the dysfunction in Washington,” McConnell said. “Look, I demonstrated on four occasions — including yesterday the most recent occasion, yesterday — that when the country is in crisis and something needs to be done on a bipartisan basis, I can step forward and get an agreement.”
Grimes, McConnell said, has had a “pretty bad 24 hours.”

     Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/mitch-mcconnell-senate-deal-obamacare-government-shutdown-98496.html#ixzz2i2MRGA9k
    

    So he's happy to be associated with a deal maker and is pointing to past occasions he brokered agreement-December 2010, August 2011, and the fiscal cliff deal this year, January 2011. 


    What might this tell us about the state of his race against Grimes?  Kentucky is trick as while the state hates Obama they aren't bug fans of McConnell. Is he hoping this will convince them he is trying to be constructive.  



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