Not In The House, Not With A Mouse

Congressclown Cruz, during his exercise in Theatre of the Absurd, chose to read that classic of classics, GREEN EGGS AND HAM aloud. This was positively one of the most brilliant, enlightened, prescient moves this clown could’ve made. He used a children’s classic, so simple, so straight forward, so easily distilled that my kids could discuss in its native Hebrew, to illustrate precisely, concisely, and exactly what is wrong with his argument.

You see, Sam-I-Am is bugging the unnamed narrator to step outside his box and try something new. But narrator-guy has formed a belief without any empirical evidence to support it. It’s foolishness, but he’s got one excuse after another as to why he won’t try the green eggs and ham. Interestingly, the excuses aren’t excuses at all. He just insists over and over that he doesn’t like them and will not try them here, there, anywhere, in a house, with a mouse, in box, with a fox, in a tree, on a train, in a car, in the dark, in the rain, on a boat, with a goat…until he finally agrees to taste them just to make Sam-I-Am just go away. And of course, he loves them.

But Congressclown Cruz won’t let Obamacare happen because, as Republican Sen-nutella Mike Lee of Utah pointed out, health care is just another entitlement:

It's a reason to stop it be with because what we discover about entitlements, Rush, is that once they're in place, they're almost impossible to get rid of.  You got death, you got taxes, and you've got entitlements.

Sen. Mike Lee on Rush Limbaugh Show

July 31, 2013

Right. An entitlement. Like Medicare, Sen-nutella Mike? Or Social Security? Like the stuff that’s supporting your rapidly aging base? You mean those entitlements?

This is not to suggest Obamacare is a great program. Anything short of single-payer national health coverage is merely a stopgap measure. But it’s a start. And Sen-nutella Lee is right; once people have access to health care, they’re not gonna give it up.

If this wasn’t so ridiculous, it could be a plot line on sitcom, but unfortunately, these assholes are playing roulette with the nation. They will hold the nation hostage to their view and their view only, trying to  cast millions of We, the People, onto medical and financial ice floes. And the really bizarre thing is that a high preponderance of those floatees will be the less affluent members of that cabal.

The GOP, led by the Teabag Brigade, is actively pursuing a course of economic terrorism. They seem to believe that Government Chicken is gonna win friends and influence people. Au contraire, mes amis! So the National Parks close. Who cares? So some strangers in bloated Washington get sent home and not paid. So what? If these clowns wanted to really impact the nation, they would close the shop, lock, stock, and barrel. Do exactly what the GOP has dared this nation to do: shut the whole thing down.

You wanna get things moving? Shutter the clinics in the VA system and stop taking in new, non-emergency patients. And by emergency I mean bleeding on the floor emergency. Dialysis isn’t an emergency…unless you don’t have a functional kidney. But it won’t matter because after there’s no health accessibility, you won’t be able to get dialysis anyway. No chemo, no bone setting, no nuthin’. Send the air controllers and the TSA home. Shut down the locks and dams, the ports, and the customs stations. Close up the federal courts, and go to skeleton crews at the federal prisons. Hoo ha!!! Then you’ll see some movement…probably with pitchforks and torches headed toward the Big Top on the Hill.

You think I’m kidding, right? Nope. Start with the air traffic controllers and the TSA. Get those clowns right where it hurts the most…in their frequent flyer accounts. Boy, will you see some negotiating then!

By the bye, I’m not just blaming the GOP on this. The Dems own a fair sized chunk of the problem, but economic terrorism isn’t really their thing. When they want to hold hostages, it’s usually about environmental issues, but they already know they’re fundamentally right and they don’t have to do much more than sit back and wait for the next hurricane to hit the east coast. Still, they could’ve done more to bring the conversation to the table. They had the opportunity to be the adults in the room and pretty much failed.

As I type this, it’s 11:36 PM in Washington, and this is what the GOP leadership just issued:

“It’s regular order,” a House Republican leadership aide said. “It means we’re the reasonable, responsible actors trying to keep the process alive as the clock ticks past midnight, despite Washington Democrats’ refusal – thus far – to negotiate.”

Sure. And I’m Madame Defarge. 

Did you know you can’t accuse someone of treason during peace time? Well, we have one open front and one potential front. Oh, yeah, and then there’s Iraq that we’re supposed to be out if. Here’s the legal definition of treason:

Under Article III, Section 3, of the Constitution, any person who levies war against the United States or adheres to its enemies by giving them Aid and Comfort has committed treason within the meaning of the Constitution. The term aid and comfort refers to any act that manifests a betrayal of allegiance to the United States…. If a subversive act has any tendency to weaken the power of the United States to attack or resist its enemies, aid and comfort has been given.

So, gentle readers, you tell me: Is Speaker Boehner and his minions committing treason? A rose by any other name……

  

Wifely Person’s Tip o’the Week

CNN posted a poll today that showed Congress’s approval rating at 10%.

This means 90% of We, the People, think they’re doing a lousy job.

Someone really ought to tell them we’re on to them.