“I am not a member of any organized political party,” the humorist Will Rogers said. “I am a Democrat.” Even Will Rogers would be shocked at the disjointed and self-destructive congressional Republican Party of today. By forcing a government shutdown and possibly a credit default in a few weeks, a […] Read more »
A Federal Budget Crisis Months in the Planning
… To many Americans, the shutdown came out of nowhere. But interviews with a wide array of conservatives show that the confrontation that precipitated the crisis was the outgrowth of a long-running effort to undo the law, the Affordable Care Act, since its passage in 2010 — waged by a […] Read more »
Utahns don’t believe Obamacare fight worth shutting down government
A majority of Utahns don’t believe it was worth shutting down the federal government to fight President Barack Obama’s new health care law and most blame Republicans just as much as Democrats, according to a new Deseret News/KSL poll. Nearly half of the Utahns surveyed also disapprove of the tea […] Read more »
Give the Tea Party Credit: Their Grassroots Tactics Worked
The march toward government shutdown got its start in mid-July with a meeting in the office of Senator Mike Lee of Utah. Lee and his colleagues Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida huddled with representatives of Tea Party groups like Heritage Action, ForAmerica, and the Tea Party […] Read more »
Americans See Current Shutdown as More Serious Than in ’95
As non-essential parts of the federal government remain closed, 70% of Americans view the shutdown as a crisis or a major problem, even higher than the 56% saying the same at the height of the last shutdown in 1995. [cont.] Art Swift, Gallup Read more »
Why Republicans Will Never Have an Electoral Incentive to Compromise
Could Republicans lose their House majority if the budget showdown and the upcoming debt-ceiling fight go badly for them? Anything can happen, of course, and the polls showing that Republicans are likely to catch more of the blame than President Obama for Washington’s dysfunction are making some Democrats more optimistic […] Read more »