Playing “hardball” politics at the risk of a government shutdown is not the answer
“Ideologue†political tactics should not stand in the way of funding government; the economic impact would be devastating
By Juanita Bratcher
Author, Editor & Publisher of CopyLine Magazine
The more I listen to the negative voices coming out of Washington, the more I’m convinced that some of these politicians should never have been elected to office to represent America or the public’s trust. Hopefully, in their re-election bids, voters in their districts will see fit to end their tenure; then the country as a whole will not be subjected to their grandstanding and stupid rhetoric.
I am appalled as to how a handful of uncompromising extremist politicians can hold this country and the American people hostage at the risk of shutting down government because they are opposed to the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacareâ€).
The Affordable Care Act passed without a single Republican vote and is the law of the land. It was passed by the Congress and upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. Yet, Washington Republicans have tried unsuccessfully to repeal the law 43 times. Even though the 43 repeals passed in the U.S. House, they were aware (if they are astute politicians) that their repeals of the law never had a chance of passing the U.S. Senate and would be staring in the face of a veto from President Barack Obama. So why do Washington Republicans keep wasting time on something they know will never happen as long as the Democrats have control of the Senate and Obama is still the president? Are they playing to their political base? Why don’t they spend that time working with the President on trying to get this economy back on track and putting people back to work? If there is a shutdown, 800,000 workers will be forced off the job without pay.
In House Republicans’ recent actions to halt Obamacare they suggested withholding funding of the healthcare law which kicks in on October 1st. Then they shifted to a short-term funding bill that would delay Obamacare for a year. Why not a clean stop-gap spending bill to keep government running and deal with Obamacare later? Reportedly, a government shutdown would cost about $2 billion – which at the moment seems more likely than not.
President Obama said it would be the “height of irresponsibilityâ€on the part of conservatives to shutdown government, adding that it would cause economic chaos.
Whatever happened to compromising? There is a stark difference between demanding and compromising.
The clock is ticking away toward Midnight October 1st. Let’s hope that sanity prevails on the part of our leaders who are in positions to make that happen – to halt a government shutdown and keep government running; that the winds of caution, sanity, and responsibility will prevail in the best interest of this country and its people.
Juanita Bratcher is an Award-Winning Journalist, the Publisher of www.copylinemagazine.com and the author of several books, songwriter and poet. She has been a Journalist for more than 37 years covering politics, education and a wide-range of other topics.
