Ezra Klein has a wonderful piece on Washington Post’s Wonkblog that lays the blame for the shutdown and subsequent Republican loss of favorability, credibility and viability at the feet of “Tailgunner” Ted Cruz. Here are some of Klein’s points, but read the full article for the full affect:
It is tough to appreciate just how much good Ted Cruz has done the Democrats over these last few weeks.
- He convinced Republicans to shut down the government rather than wait and fight over the debt ceiling, where they would have had more — and more dangerous — leverage.
- He splintered the Republican Party such that, from day one, it was clear that the GOP leadership opposed the strategy they were executing, and GOP senators were publicly blasting House Republicans. That also cut the GOP’s leverage.
- He made this a fight over defunding Obamacare, which polls showed was a wildly unpopular reason to shut down the government, and which united Democrats against him.
- He shut the government down on Oct. 1, the same day Obamacare began, thus distracting the American people from the law’s catastrophic rollout.
Connect:
The Ted Cruz shutdown cost our economy $24billion and .6% GDP