I think both … they flagellate themselves and enjoy it.
Oh no, there was no “please proceed” about it. Quite the contrary, he was very much “please please don’t”. He set it up so the Republicans took all the blame. As stories rolled in of hardships the shutdown created for vulnerable people, he announced he was giving in because he couldn’t stand the hardship being inflicted anymore, so he was giving the Republicans what they demanded. He asked for just three little things, and the Republicans celebrated while we Democrats howled in anger. Then we switched reactions as we realized the little things took away everything the Republicans wanted. They got bupkis, except the blame. We took back both houses in 2012.
Exactly! This is not a “both sides” situation. Either you provide healthcare coverage to your neediest citizens or you are being ridiculously callous! I wish these reporters would stop being so skittish. Call the GOP out! This is just plain wrong!
because the other shutdown over the ACA worked out so well. Republicans are nuts
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“…in the event there is no budget…”
In other words, in the event Republicans become derelict in their duty.
Please Proceed™ VAGOP
“Feet in the stirrups! You can just close your eyes…”
I wonder that too, GR … cui bono?
Oligarchs aren’t the ones who benefit from Medicare expansion, but they are the ones these politicians are playing to. This may be one of those historic overreaching oversights that the media does not want to expose, despite the fact there seems to be a tidal wave of real voters suddenly awakening to their loss.
But, if you were on the receiving end of the Citizens United gravy train, you might not want to tell the truth either. It is SO HARD to tell the truth when your meager profit depends on lying.
Denying the expansion of medicare in their politically red states seemed to be just another part of the whole anti-obamacare effort, but that has now become the biggest liability for the Republicans at every level facing election or re-election this year.
Even the Democrats who think they need to take a “fix the law” approach can pivot on the medicare expansion and shout loudly at the governors who denied it.
The Republicans have opened the door to a big, surprise loss because of it. So many members of their own aging voter base were directly impacted by that denial, and every one of those who actually knows they were denied will have to weigh that very personal fact and their own self-interest against their own stubborn prejudices and inherent apathy.
One of the questions we will see asked and answered many more times before November is “How many Americans (Kansans, Virginians, Oklahomans, etc etc) were denied healthcare by my opponent and/or their party?”
answer “more than (40-400),000 just in our own state alone!”
follow up question
“Were you or someone you loved one of them?”
from there, it is very easy to flow right into the hometown horror stories…
"Well let me tell you about Joe Smith, one of my constituents from Blahblah County, he and his wife Jane can tell you all bout getting denied medicare when they needed it desperately… but Governor Blahblah apparently didn’t think they mattered as much as the billionaires who put him into office. Governor Blahblah refused to protect and defend his own constituents, even with $(80)billion dollars of YOUR OWN FEDERAL TAX MONEY on the table to pay for it, MONEY YOU EARNED AND YOU DESERVE, billions of YOUR taxpayer dollars that he just ignored while his own people suffered… "
“and there are stories like Joe’s all over the state and the country, good, hard working Americans who shouldered the burden of building our prosperous nation, yet they were denied the most fundamental healthcare when the opportunity came for us to pay them back for their lifetime of hard work and dedication.”
You can extrapolate a great speech for any Democrat in ANY red state from that fragment, for a very good reason; there are millions of uninspired potential voters who might be inspired by pointing out their own personal benefit, or lack thereof, people who would have been covered by Medicaid but got stiffed by red state governors and their ALEC allied legislatures…
And that is a very quantifiable number available for our candidates to utilize. If the State Dems just about everywhere are smart, they’ll make that headcount count, and post it profusely in every newspaper in the country, even if some of their candidates don’t go there… And even those candidates might need to rethink their positions, they may not even have to openly embrace Obamacare, just remind their audience how many of them would be covered by Medicare if those Governors and their hired hands in their statehouses hadn’t chosen to protect the millionaires and billionaires instead of all the people.
And keep in mind there really ARE stories like Joe and Jane’s. all over the country, in every red state where they refused to expand medicare.
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REPUK’S HATE GOVERMENT SO WHY DO THEY RUN FOR A GOVERMENT OFFICE???
maybe we should water board they all