Is The Shutdown Actually A Republican Victory? Op-Ed Suggests Radically Alternative Narrative

inquisitr.com ^ | 10/15/13

[cotton1706]

The Republicans are desperately losing the government shutdown battle and they’re embarrassing themselves by continuing to fight. It begs many questions, but most importantly, why does the GOP continue to fight a battle with no clear goal at the expense of not just their party, but the fate of then entire U.S. government?

Maybe it’s because they’re actually winning.

Though the media has largely painted the GOP as the reckless, kamikaze caucus, Peter Beinart argues in a column for The Daily Beast that Republicans are not only in perfect control of the government shutdown fight, but that they’ll win in the long run no matter what happens.

To wit, Beinart points to the previous shutdown battle of 2011 which culminated in the Budget Control Act which agreed to cut spending by $917 billion over ten years. A part of that agreement led to the 2012 sequester, which ended up creating $1.2 trillion in arbitrary cuts. Though most have agreed that these cuts were “harsh” and “brutal,” the GOP managed to get all of the spending cuts it wanted without raising taxes once.

Indeed, House Speaker John Boehner boasted “I got 98 percent of what I wanted” out of the fight.

As recently as last month, GOP leadership said that locking in the sequester cuts through a “clean” continuing resolution that extended into 2014 would return to the country to a “pre-2008 level of discretionary spending.”

What does this mean? Basically, cementing the sequester spending cuts and creating a new baseline from which future negotiations must begin un-does much of the expensive work that President Obama has managed to accomplish in five years and prevents him from meaningfully moving forward on the reforms (immigration, energy, etc.) he promised during the 2012 election.

And taxes didn’t go up.

[mrsmith]

The fines and the increases in premiums should condemn this as a huge, devastating tax- even though the media will never report the true costs of the boondoggle.

[mjp]

What does this mean? Basically, cementing the sequester spending cuts and creating a new baseline from which future negotiations must begin un-does much of the expensive work that President Obama has managed to accomplish in five years and prevents him from meaningfully moving forward on the reforms (immigration, energy, etc.) he promised during the 2012 election.

And taxes didn’t go up.

Now, we just need for cr-ppycare to continue to implode, and for the people to be smart enough to elect politicians willing to repeal it, to totally win.Unfortunately, the average IQ of America is dropping like a rock, and I am sceptical about the ability of America to know what the right thing to do is.

[amnestynone]

In the long run it will probably be a Republican advantage. They now know they have a base to answer to. The base thinks they are feckless. Now they have to start challenging Obama and after Obama used all of his leverage to try to destroy us they now know what they are up against. Hopefully they are not going to go through with this amnesty bullshite. If this prevents them from really stabbing us and themselves in the back with amnesty then it was all worth it.

There is no evidence in polls that GOP candidates are hurt Lonegan lost but at the same margins the polls howed him losing before. Also in other trial runs in Senate and Governors races there doe snot appear to be any damage. People now know that the fight over Obama care is not over and they will hopefully and probably vote knowing that the GOP is not going to roll over.

The outrageous media coverage of this mess has probably convinced a lot of Republicans to not support the MSM or at least come closer to that action. This action was reckless and if it had been allowed to continue it could of caused some serious damage to the party so it was good that it was stopped when it was. Hopefully they will find other more constructive ways to fight and know they have to jut to keep us happy.

[plain talk]

What? Are you serious? The outcome in Feb will just be a repeat cave performance like all the rest. Obama won everything. Tea Party lost. They did a lot of talking and gave many federal workers a paid several week vacation but that’s it. The whole thing was a waste.

I think we need to think of other ways to inflict damage and influence voters that goes around politics.

[SunkenCiv]

• Rand Paul: GOP ‘probably can’t defeat’ Obamacare
• Paul: We probably can't get rid of 'Obamacare'
• Paul pushes to restore state felon voting rights as part of push to reform sentencing
• Rand Paul’s immigration speech

  Let’s start that conversation by acknowledging we aren’t going to deport 12 million illegal immigrants... bringing these workers out of the shadows and into being taxpaying members of society. Imagine 12 million people who are already here coming out of the shadows to become new taxpayers.12 million more people assimilating into society. 12 million more people being productive contributors. [but he’s not in favor of amnesty, snicker, definition of is is]

• Rand Paul: Time for GOP to soften [immigration, gay marriage] stance

  ...by softening its edge on some volatile social issues and altering its image as the party always seemingly "eager to go to war... We do need to expand the party and grow the party and that does mean that we don't always all agree on every issue" ... the party needs to become more welcoming to individuals who disagree with basic Republican doctrine on emotional social issues such as gay marriage... "We're going to have to be a little hands off on some of these issues ... and get people into the party," Paul said.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks cotton1706.

Peter Beinart argues in a column for The Daily Beast that Republicans are not only in perfect control of the government shutdown fight, but that they'll win in the long run no matter what happens. To wit, Beinart points to the previous shutdown battle of 2011 which culminated in the Budget Control Act which agreed to cut spending by $917 billion over ten years. A part of that agreement led to the 2012 sequester, which ended up creating $1.2 trillion in arbitrary cuts. Though most have agreed that these cuts were "harsh" and "brutal," the GOP managed to get all of the spending cuts it wanted without raising taxes once. Indeed, House Speaker John Boehner boasted "I got 98 percent of what I wanted" out of the fight. As recently as last month, GOP leadership said that locking in the sequester cuts through a “clean” continuing resolution that extended into 2014 would return to the country to a "pre-2008 level of discretionary spending."