Here is how nuts, Ted Cruz is. He has spent the last several months preaching to mobs of tea party wankers, telling them he and fellow conservatives would force the defunding of the Affordable Care Act, by threatening to shut down the entire government. During that time he convinced himself and his fans that all the people of this nation, even the ones who don't, clap, hoot, howl, and cheer in his presence will blame the shut down entirely on Barak H. Obama, the President of the United States.
At his incessant urging, his pals in the House of Representatives passed a continuing resolution that permits a stop gap budget, but only so long as the Affordable Care Act is monetarily stripped bare. Now that the bill, nicknamed the CR, has hit the senate, it has finally dawned on Teddy Ballgame he doesn't have the votes to prevent the defunding part of it from being deleted out of the resolution. So, in a logic found only in his brain, the Senator from Alberta is fighting tooth and nail to keep the CR from advancing. Yes, that is right, Mr. Cruz got exactly what he wanted and yet he is, at this very moment, trying to keep it out of the grasp of senate democrats through every stall tactic he can think of. One has to wonder if he believes the democratic majority in the senate is going to somehow magically disappear at this juncture--you know, just long enough to let he and his cohorts get the CR passed as is. Perhaps he forgot how to count for a little while and now has suddenly regained his cognitive senses. Maybe, illicit drugs have been in use for an extended period and the hallucinations overcame any tenuous grasp he might have had on reality. Or, in the end, he could just be an idiot without the slightest idea of how congress works.
He has been quoted as condemning, "the tendency toward brinkmanship" in Washington. The definition of brinkmanship is, "The practice of pushing dangerous events to the verge--or to the brink--of disaster in order to achieve the most advantageous outcome." Sort of sounds like what the crazed Canadian has been doing all along doesn't it? Criticizing oneself is odd behavior for a United States Senator, but there he is trying to stop a resolution he is in favor of, so we really shouldn't be surprised at anything he does.
Republican Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma had this to say about the state of affairs, "This is misleading the conservative base because it is not achievable and all it will do in the long run is dispirit the base. This is a failed strategy for conservatives."
Senator Robert Burr, R-NC put it a bit more tersely. In his words the notion of shutting down the government over Obamacare is, "the dumbest idea I've ever heard of."
Yesterday Bloomberg ran a story titled, "Five Republican Myths on Defunding Obamacare." Number four is that polls show the public supports the defunding of Obamacare. Oops, sorry guys, but it simply isn't true. CNBC commissioned a poll by Hart--McInturff. It showed 44% of Americans oppose defunding the ACA while 38% want it gutted. However, that number changes dramatically when you throw in shutting down the government. 59% oppose defunding Obamacare if doing so takes a government shutdown, while only 19% are in favor and 18% are unsure. In fact, the only demographic which approves of a government shut down to get rid of the ACA is, you guessed it, republicans who identify themselves as members of the tea party.
This, of course, leads us straight to Bloomberg's republican myth numero uno, that shutting down the government will automatically stop Obamacare. According to the publication most of the ACA funding comes from Medicare and Medicaid which are entitlements and they aren't connected to the budget at all.
Cruz has to know that. Hell, I'm sitting here in an apartment in Oklahoma City sucking on a beer and I figured it out. The only conclusion one can come to is that this version of the continuing resolution is clearly a crude act of extortion meant to shame and terrify the president and the senate into submission.
The problem is, Cruz is a slash and burn guy and it is increasingly apparent it is his only talent. He is the Washington equivalent of a two bit vandal. He can fuck up the works, but he hasn't an inkling when it comes to getting things done. Unfortunately, he is utterly convinced he is not only the smartest guy in the republic, but that everyone else is so stupid they'll buy into everything he says because he is--well--Ted Cruz. If he actually thinks Obama and the senate democrats are going to cave into what he wants he is also delusional, perhaps dangerously so.
According to Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, "...we will not bow to tea party anarchists who deny the mere fact that Obamacare is the law. The simple fact remains Obamacare is the law of the land and it will remain the law of the land as long as Barak Obama is president of the United States and I am the Senate Majority Leader."
Even Coburn admits the only way to get rid of the ACA is for republicans to win the presidential election in 2016.
Indeed, The Grand Plan isn't so grand after all. Nearly 60% of Americans don't agree with it. Huge chunks of people in his own party don't agree with it. Barak H. Obama and a majority of the U. S. Senate certainly don't agree with it.
Ted Cruz has his eyes on the big white house on Pennsylvania Avenue in 2016. Given what is going on at the moment, he may find his presidential campaign cut short by about three years. In truth, he is currently being exposed to the public as both a bully and hysteric. And worse--that he hasn't a clue when it comes to how things operate in a democracy.
Hey, it couldn't happen to a nicer guy.
sic vita est
9-24-13
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