The Crimson Cyclone wrote:

Roger Dorn wrote:House passes vote, Obama to sign bill immediately

I hear he's going to wait to sign it until they pass immigration reform

CalvinBall wrote:Did you vote jerseyhoya?

Near the end of the vote, members and staff were startled when a House stenographer suddenly ran to the microphone and started to yell. She was quickly escorted out, but House floor staff looked visibly shaken.

jerseyhoya wrote:I'd be all for the House GOP holding firm on trying to gain concessions in passing a government funding bill if it seemed like we had anything resembling an end goal and anything resembling a plan on how to get there.

At the start of the fight (or at least as soon as Cruz's song and dance was finished) they should have picked one thing that can be messaged effectively and is popular (delaying individual mandate for a year; the Vitter amendment on Congressional health care subsidies), pass it, tell Harry Reid to go fuck himself if he doesn't pass it. There are things that can win Democratic support in the Senate, and fit neatly in a 15 second clip on a news broadcast (even if ultimately they aren't huge public policy wins). "Harry Reid and Senate Democrats are willing to shut down government to protect Congressional subsidies" "Harry Reid and Senate Democrats are willing to shut down government to keep a penalty in place on working Americans who are struggling in today's economy, even while the administration has already delayed these penalties on big business" Whatever. It seems like they've finally arrived at that strategy a week late, which means they're destined to fail. At least they've got Begich, Landrieu, Pryor and the rest taking these shit sandwich votes, but as a wider strategy, the whole thing has been awful.

We've been throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks, and the likely outcome is a clean CR being passed eventually, but only after maximum damage is self inflicted. There is some minority of the GOP House (and Senate) caucus that seems to think all we need to do to succeed and have our preferred policy outcomes achieved is fight harder and have courage and force Obama to cave. The fact that we only control one of the three cogs of power is irrelevant, and anyone who suggests otherwise is some wussy RINO. It's like if Ruben came out and said the problem with this year's team is we didn't play the game the right way, used poor strategy and next year having everyone bringing Utley-like intensity will win us the NL East (depressingly, it wouldn't be surprising to hear him say that), ignoring the reality of the roster just not being talented enough.

Hopefully they get it over with and pass the CR tonight after the Senate votes down these latest amendments. It's going to happen eventually, but maybe we can skip the step where we hemorrhage support, embarrass the party and hurt the economy first. The usual suspects will whine, but a majority of the GOP caucus will be happy.

jerseyhoya wrote:Ahahahahaha what a lunatic

JFLNYC wrote:He reminds me of Joe McCarthy.

JFLNYC wrote:He reminds me of Joe McCarthy.