Month: October 2013

Republicans Own the Shutdown. Next Question?

Trish

Never been a president who won’t negotiate the debt ceiling? Never been a president who had to.

Let the record show that, as usual, Pres. Obama and the Democrats are telling the truth. This government shutdown is 100 percent on the shoulders of the Republicans, and it could end as soon as Speaker John Boehner (R-Oh) allows the House of Representatives to vote on it. Period.

And as far as his assertion, in the “Breaking News” section shown, that there has never been a president who won’t negotiate with Congress to pay the bills it authorized, please further note that there’s never been a president who had to.

Poll Finds Approval of GOP House Reps in 23 of 24 Swing Districts Dropping Below 50% – Opposition to Shutdown above 55% in 22 of the 24 Districts

Jon Ponder

New polling by PPP in districts held by 24 Republican House members who are considered potentially vulnerable in midterm elections next year found that approval of the incumbents was below 50 percent in 23 of the districts — in the other, California’s 21st District, incumbent David Valadao had a 50 percent approval.

In 17 of the districts, approval of the Republican incumbents was 40 percent or lower. Democrats need a net win of 17 seats to take control of the House in the the midterm elections next November.

The polling also found that opposition to the Republican shutdown of the federal government in order to prevent implementation of the Affordable Care Act was above 55 percent in 22 of the 24 districts held by these vulnerable Republicans. In 18 of the districts, opposition was at 59 percent or higher.

Read more about the poll from the National Journal.

Here are links to results from the polling in each of the 24 districts:

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Blame Game? Ignore the GOP Spin That Democrats Shut the Government Down – Six Quotes from Giddy Republicans about Their Shutdown

Jon Ponder

Kansas tea party Rep. Tim Huelskamp
It is no surprise that Republicans are trying to have it both ways when it comes to who’s responsible for shutting down the government. One minute they are high-fivin’ each other as they take credit for it, while in the next minute they’re blaming the shutdown on Democrats in the Senate. It’s also no surprise, as Trish noted earlier this week, that the “liberal” media is enabling them to have it both ways. Meanwhile, in reality, polls show that most voters see what’s really going on.

To underscore who is really to blame for shutting down the government, here are six quotes from Republicans owning the shutdown:

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Tar Heel Tea Party Rep. Rene Ellmers: ‘I Need My Paycheck’ – Voted for Govt Shutdown But Won’t Give Up Her Salary

Jon Ponder

I need my paycheck.

– North Carolina tea party Rep. Rene Ellmers, who voted to shut down the government, explaining why she opposes giving up her salary, even though her vote has caused 800,000 other federal government employees to go without pay.

Daily Caller Queries House Members on Forgoing Salaries During Shutdown – Including GOP’s Dan Lungren, Who Was Defeated in 2012

Jon Ponder

Top: Rep. Ellmers; bottom: former Rep. Lungren
Daily Caller, the gay-hating, climate-change denying website published by Swanson Foods heir Tucker Carlson, conducted a non-scientific (naturally) survey of House members asking if whether they would be willing to forgo their salaries while the government was shut down.

Result were skewed to make Democrats look feckless (naturally!), even though no Democrats voted to shut down the government. The Daily Calling reporting also produced a couple of unintentional bloopers, however — one that made a North Carolina tea bagger look like a wanton hypocrite and another that exposed the Daily Caller’s apparently casual approach to fact checking and out-of-date knowledge of who actually serves in the 113th Congress.

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