Empathy is the capacity to recognize emotions that are being experienced by another sentient or fictional being. One may need to have a certain amount of empathy before being able to experience accurate sympathy or compassion. -Wikipedia
Psychopathy (/saɪˈkɒpəθi/) (or sociopathy (/ˈsoʊsiəˌpæθi/)) is a personality disorder characterized partly by enduring anti-social behavior, a diminished capacity for empathy or remorse, and poor behavioral controls. -Wikipedia
RED FLAG #3. Exhibiting a lack of empathy.
“They don’t really have the meaningful emotional inner worlds that most people have and perhaps because of that they can't really imagine or feel the emotional worlds of other people," M. E. Thomas, a diagnosed sociopath and author of “Confessions Of A Sociopath,” told NPR. "It’s very foreign to them.” - Macrina Cooper-White, Huffington Post, “11 Signs You May Be Dating A Sociopath”
#3) Sociopaths are incapable of feeling shame, guilt or remorse. Their brains simply lack the circuitry to process such emotions. This allows them to betray people, threaten people or harm people without giving it a second thought. They pursue any action that serves their own self interest even if it seriously harms others. This is why you will find many very "successful" sociopaths in high levels of government, in any nation.
#5) Sociopaths seek to dominate others and "win" at all costs. They hate to lose any argument or fight and will viciously defend their web of lies, even to the point of logical absurdity.
#9) Sociopaths never apologize. They are never wrong. They never feel guilt. They can never apologize. Even if shown proof that they were wrong, they will refuse to apologize and instead go on the attack.
#10) Sociopaths are delusional and literally believe that what they say becomes truth merely because they say it! Charles Manson, the sociopathic murderer, is famous for saying, "I've never killed anyone! I don't need to kill anyone! I THINK it! I have it HERE! (Pointing to his temple.) I don't need to live in this physical realm..." -Mike Adams, NaturalNews.com, How to spot a sociopath - “10 Red Flags That Could Save You From Being Swept Under the Influence of a Charismatic Nut Job
“I was proud of him,” Mr. Labay said of the state’s junior senator. “I was proud he was a Texan. I wish they would have held firm, and we’d still be shut down.” Speaking of Sen Ted Cruz (R-TX)
Psychologists have found that conservatives are fundamentally more anxious than liberals, which may be why they typically desire stability, structure and clear answers even to complicated questions. “Conservatism, apparently, helps to protect people against some of the natural difficulties of living,” says social psychologist Paul Nail of the University of Central Arkansas. “The fact is we don't live in a completely safe world. Things can and do go wrong. But if I can impose this order on it by my worldview, I can keep my anxiety to a manageable level.” -Emily Laber-Warren for Scientific American
Republicans don’t like the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) because it’s President Obama’s signature achievement since he took office, one they were unable to obstruct as they were not in power when it was passed (March 2010). Republicans after taking control of the House have done virtually nothing to improve the country and the lot of the majority of it’s citizens. They are horrified by the prospect that anything good or beneficial will occur while Obama is president, because if that were to happen the Democrats might retain the presidency in 2016, so they obstruct, obstruct, obstruct, hoping the American voters forget who it was that actually prevented the country from advancing, and blame Obama, and by extension the next Democratic nominee for president.
They are wrong. The American people will not forget. But if they do people like me are here to remind them.
Oh Yeah, the idea that affordable healthcare for everyone was originally a conservative idea. Here’s the document written by the right wing Heritage Foundation suggesting it.
And the great state of Massachusetts implemented it under then Governor Mittens Romney, a point of fact that embarrassed him to no end during the last general election. Yet he insisted he would repeal Obamacare on his first day in office when he won the presidency, which was a lie of course. The President doesn’t have the power to repeal laws.
And neither does the House of Representatives. Not by itself.
But you know... if inconvenient facts in the real world get in the way of Republicans, just ignore them, move on, and lie about it. Standard Republican Operating Procedure (SROP).
Republicans also don’t like Obamacare because it makes healthcare expenses less expensive, and places new rules on the health insurance industry, like not being able to turn down individuals with preexisting conditions, that hinder the profitability of said health insurance companies. And that is unthinkable to those who worship money above all things.
And most of all Republicans are deathly afraid that Obamacare will work.
Mind you, Republicans offer no health insurance reform of their own. They say they have ideas, but in the real world they have nadda. Not a thing. They used to say “Repeal and Replace” Obamacare, that was their mantra, until they had to admit that they couldn’t come up with any ideas of their own that would reign in costs in the only industrialized nation that did not provide basic healthcare for it’s citizens, one of the most expensive countries to receive healthcare, with the least amount of tangible result, namely better health and quality of life.
So they changed their mantra to “Repeal...” And that’s it! Just leave it the way it was, which pretty much let for profit health insurance companies control every healthcare aspect. If it cost too much to keep a insured person well, then that insured person was pretty much out of luck.
Not to mention all of the poor who had no insurance to begin with, who were using the emergency room as their primary care physician. An emergency room that tax payers subsidized anyway.
So when the Speaker of the House John Boehner spoke to the American people and told them jobs was the House’s number one priority, he was flat out lying. To this day the House has not offered up one jobs bill! The President offered up one, the American Jobs Act of 2011, but it stalled in Congress (of course!). Instead the Republicans in the House thought it best to spend the tax payer’s time and money holding useless votes to repeal Obamacare 41 times (I say useless because everybody knew, including House Republicans, that their bills to repeal Obamacare would die in the Democratically controlled Senate, and if somehow the Senate was high on acid for some reason when presented with the House bills and passed one, then the President would be very unlikely to sign it into law, thereby repealing his greatest administrative achievement (unless he was hitting the old Windowpane as well))! 41 times. If you count the continuing resolutions offered by the House during the appropriations process leading up to the shutdown, the total goes up to 46 (by the way, the Republicans could not sabotage Obamacare as they usually do by withholding funds for it. Money for the laws October 1st implementation had already been allocated and would continue even if the government did shutdown, making the Republican’s chance of stopping it almost exactly 0. The Republicans knew this before they shut the government down, so they changed their demands after it became clear that Obamacare would survive, to a whole host of other issues that they knew the Democrats would not agree to (a balanced budget amendment, approving Keystone XL, eliminating funding for Planned Parenthood, Medicare privatization, tax reform as outlined by Paul Ryan, the REINS Act, which would require Congress to approve significant federal regulations, means-testing Social Security, defunding Obamacare (yes, again), allowing employers to eliminate insurance coverage for birth control, an expansion of off-shore drilling, preserving all the Bush tax cuts, “Trillions” in budget cuts, slashing funding for food stamps, protecting mountaintop strip mining, stripping the EPA of authority to regulate greenhouse gases, loosening regulation on coal ash, delaying Obamacare implementation by one year (yes, again), repealing a tax on medical devices, eliminating Social Service Block Grants, expanding drilling on federal lands, restricting the child tax credit, mandatory partridges in a pear trees. Need I say that if these demands were actually to be implemented the result would be a disaster for the environment, the poor, children, women, seniors, and practically everybody else on the planet, to benefit a few billionaires and multinational corporations), making the shutdown completely unnecessary. But we’re talking about Republican reality here, not real reality, and appeasing the Tea Party base, who make their home in Republican reality... and whatever Fox News tells them is true.
So they really wanted to get rid of Obamacare (the major shutdown advocate being Texas (of course) senator Rafael Edward "Ted" Cruz, who has been in office all of ten months and now wants to run for president in 2016. I guess the only qualifications to become president these days is to make as much noise as possible, and be the biggest asshole (a term of endearment) in Congress as possible, which will make you a darling of the corporate media). Their ultra-conservative base did, who would threaten House members with primary elections with Tea Party candidates if House members stepped out of line, and the Tea party members and other conservative leaning citizens were continuously being lied to by the Republican Noise Machine, i.e., Fox News and folks like Glenn Beck, and Rush Limbaugh to name just a few, who would prattle on about how the world will end if Obamacare was implemented (6 Most Brazen Right-Wing Lies About Obamacare. And one truth... from Fox?!), and who are in turn controlled and funded by multi-billionaires, the so called 1%, who wish to control the country simply for their own financial gain.
That’s one reason I call these politicians, and the ultra rich corporations and individuals who control them, traitors. Traitors to the nation, and to it’s people.
Benjamin Wittes of the Brookings Institution, wrote that Congress is "the clearest and most present danger in the world to the national security of the United States."
“As summarized by a recent New York Times article, we've learned that the shutdown was planned months in advance by a very small but incredibly wealthy network of outside interest groups. Roughly three dozen well funded political organizations signed off on the "Blueprint to Defunding Obamacare," which outlined the strategy of using a government shutdown as leverage against the healthcare law, back in February -- nearly eight months before the shutdown went into effect. A Supreme Court hostile to any efforts to curtail the corrosive influence of money in politics has given these groups free reign to enforce this strategic vision, will of the people be damned.” - Mansur Gidfar, The Huffington Post
So on October first the government shutdown began. The first time in 17 years.
What happened?
During the shutdown, most non-exempt government employees were furloughed. This put about 800,000 public servants on indefinite unpaid leave starting October 1st. Unpaid leave. They have bills to pay just like anyone else, and were not able to pay them.
Rep. Steve Pearce (R-N.M.) offered furloughed workers his financial advice on Twitter: “If you are a furloughed government employee, we encourage you to reach out to your financial institution as soon as you worry you might miss a paycheck. Financial institutions often offer short term loans and other resources. Don’t wait until you are behind on a bill; call now and explore your options.”
Well thank you Rep Pearce! Suggesting government workers take out loans due to his parties actions probably was very helpful. So helpful that this message was removed and blamed on a staffer.
Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Fla.) suggested furloughed workers should not be given back pay for the time they were forced to leave work.
During a town meeting a caller told Yoho that he was fine giving back pay to federal employees who continued working during the shutdown, "but the people that are home watching Netflix and whatever, I'm not sure that we should be sending them checks."
Yoho referred to the bill that passed the House unanimously in his response: "Well, when we voted on that, they were supposed to come back to work as part of that deal. I agree one hundred percent with you. If they're not working, they shouldn't get paid."
The amount of compassion and empathy displayed by House Republicans, first by shutting down the government to begin with, and then displayed during the shutdown, is beyond belief... for those who aren’t sociopaths.
Rep. Lee Terry (R-Neb.) justified his refusal to give up his constitutionally protected $174,000 annual salary during the shutdown by stating “I'm a dick!" No, he didn't really say that, but he might as well have. What he did say was this, "I've got a nice house and a kid in college, and I'll tell you we cannot handle it," he told the Omaha World-Herald. "Giving our paycheck away when you still worked and earned it? That's just not going to fly." He didn’t seem to mind or care about the hundreds of thousands of other families that may have had nice houses and kids in school who were not earning salaries due to the Republican shutdown.
He later apologized for his statement, and said he would forgo his salary during the shutdown, and for his troubles is now facing a tough Democratic challenger in his next relection bid, Omaha city councilman Pete Festersen, who hadn’t planned on entering the race until Terry mouthed off.
Good.
About half of the Defense Department's civilian employees were furloughed., which opened up the possibility of Liechtenstein finally admitting to its nuclear program and attacking us.
The WIC program (Women, Infants, and Children), which provides low-income pregnant women, new mothers and children up to the age of five with healthy food, was not funded. "No additional federal funds would be available," said the Department of Agriculture.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention faced a reduced ability to detect and investigate disease outbreaks. The annual influenza program – the one that tracks the flu and helps people get flu shots, was been shut down. The CDC also stopped offering its usual assistance to state and local authorities, who rely on the agency for help in tracking unusual outbreaks.
All right at the beginning of the flu season (I got my flu shot at the VA Tuesday. I may not get the flu, but my arm still hurts).
The National Institute of Health continued to treat patients at its hospital center, but no new clinical trials began.
Still members of the Republican Doctors Caucus, dressed in lab coats, made the case that pediatric cancer research trials at the NIH deserved to be funded, even if the rest of the government was not.
"There are times that the private sector cannot be reasonably expected to do the research and development needed because the issue, the syndrome, the disease, might be so rare that it is economically prohibitive," said Rep. Todd Rokita (R-Ind.), whose son suffers from Angelman Syndrome, a rare neurogenetic disorder.
“I ask the president himself to stop this nonsense," said Rokita. "Let us help people. Let us help children. Please."
Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-N.C.), a former nurse, choked up as she described the tears of parents learning that their children have cancer. She said it's up to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to help those families by passing the GOP bill.
"Don't take hope away from those families. Don't take hope away from those moms," Ellmers said. "Let's give hope back to those families. I'll tell you, Sen. Reid, you will not sleep until that happens."
That’s all very touching except for the fact that it was of their own doing that clinical trials were ceased. This is just another form of extortion, pass the GOP bill defunding the new healthcare law that will provide new health insurance for millions of Americans that had formerly not had it, or these children with cancer will suffer because we shut the government down.
Either these representatives figure that the American people as as dumb as they are, or they’re truly not aware of the ridiculousness of their position... or both.
The freaking Panda Cam was shut down! I mean really!
The animals at the National Zoo were cared for and fed, being essential personal, but the zoo, like all Smithsonian museums, was closed to the public.
NASA furloughed almost all of its employees, though it continued to keep workers at Mission Control in Houston and elsewhere on to support the International Space Station, where two Americans and four others are deployed.
National parks and monuments were closed, including the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, the National Mall and the Statue of Liberty (not to mention the thousands of small businesses that catered to those that visited these places). Park rangers erected barricades to prevent people from accessing these spaces. This caused a public outcry from the very same Republicans who had caused them to be closed (clips 2 through 6 at the top of this post), due to the fact that the public likes to visit these sites. Republicans apparently were truly outraged that the Obama Administration would actually close these parks and monuments, which might have been blamed on them, and quite rightly so. Yet Republicans like Michelle Bachmann and Randy Neugebauer thought the closures could possibly be used to their advantage by turning the tables and trying to blame the President for the closures that they caused.
I know! It doesn’t make any sense, but that’s how they think. They live in a bubble of non-reality that they reinforce amongst themselves, the external reality that the rest of us live in be damned, because it doesn’t conform to their views, or help to promote their agenda and propaganda.
Do you notice how Michelle Bachmann doesn’t quite get the fact that she’s using veteran’s as a political prop when denouncing the Obama administration for using veterans as a political prop. I did.
Or how Neugebauer tried to get a park service officer to be ashamed of herself for doing her job, for enforcing the shutdown that he helped cause.
These people are just totally unbelievable.
And they’re in charge.
My God.
Then Republicans like asshat (a term of endearment) Darrell Issa spent the American tax payer’s time and money holding hearings on why the National Park Service was doing such a good job shutting down the national parks (it’s not easy closing the Grand Canyon), which was it’s job during a government shutdown, that Republicans caused, but which made the Republicans look bad.
These people are insane. Their certifiable. They need to go to the funny farm and get treated with happy talk and Risperidone.
The Veteran’s Administrations’ hopsitals and clinics remained open because it is funded in advance. And a good thing too, or else I’d probably have the flu right now.
On and on. In total the cost of the Republican shutdown is estimated to be around 24 billion dollars ($24 billion in potential economic activity -- equalling at least 0.6% of projected annualized fourth-quarter 2013 GDP growth, according to ratings agency Standard & Poor's. Instead of the 3% annualized growth fourth quarter originally projected in September, S&P now forecasts actual fourth-quarter growth near 2%, the agency said in a press release). That’s a lot of money, even for me. That’s a little over a third of what the Koch brothers are currently worth (about 30 billion apiece).
This shutdown was caused by the party that loves to embrace the claim that they are the party of fiscal responsibility. Well it is when it is convenient for them to be, just as it is when they claim they are the defenders of family values and Christianity.
They keep saying that Obamacare is the greatest job killer ever created, and that they are so worried that government spending and the federal deficit will ruin the future of our children, and then this shutdown, which slows the economy and threatens another recession, actually kills jobs, and wastes a significant amount of money that belongs to you and me.
Elizabeth Warren, the new junior senator from the great state of Massachusetts and consumer advocate, got... how shall I say this... pissed off by Republican antics (and you don’t want to piss off Elizabeth Warren).
She sent sent an email to supporters saying that although she was pleased that the bill addressing two disasters had passed (the shutdown and debt ceiling crisis), she felt the damage to the economy had already been done.
"According to the S&P index, the government shutdown had delivered a powerful blow to the U.S. economy. By their estimates, $24 billion has been flushed down the drain for a completely unnecessary political stunt," Warren wrote in the email. "$24 billion dollars. How many children could have been back in Head Start classes? How many seniors could have had a hot lunch through Meals on Wheels? How many scientists could have gotten their research funded? How many bridges could have been repaired and trains upgraded?"
The good people who write The Progress Report for ThinkProgress came up with a list of other things that $24 billion could be used for:
“The net cost to the government from the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP): $24 billion
The Department of Agriculture’s proposed budget: $22.6 billion
NASA’s approved budget: $16.6 billion
All air transportation programs, including the Federal Aviation Administration, security, research, and other costs: $21.9 billion
The Child Tax Credit: $22.1 billion
The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program (formally known as welfare): $17.7 billion
The cost of Head Start, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and Women Infants and Children (WIC) program combined: $25.2 billion
The $24 BILLION sucked out of the economy thanks to the government shutdown comes on top of an estimated $700 BILLION cumulative hit to the economy thanks to the GOP’s years-long effort to govern by crisis.
Despite admitting that they got ‘nothing’ as a result of the painful and damaging shutdown, Tea Party Republicans say it was somehow still ‘worth it’ for them.
In fact, Sen. Ted Cruz won’t rule out another shutdown, adding that he will still ‘do anything’ to stop Obamacare. Another House Republican, Rep. John Fleming (R-LA), said, ‘we’re going to start this all over again.’”
Wikipedia tells us: “The United States debt ceiling or debt limit is a legislative mechanism to limit the amount of national debt that can be issued by the Treasury. The debt ceiling is an aggregate figure which applies to the gross debt, which includes debt in the hands of the public and in Intragovernment accounts. Because expenditures are authorized by separate legislation, the debt ceiling does not directly limit budget deficits. In effect, it can only restrain Treasury from paying for expenditures after the limit has been reached, but which have already been approved (in the budget) and appropriated.
When the debt ceiling is actually reached without an increase in the limit having been passed, Treasury may resort to "extraordinary measures" to temporarily finance the government's expenditures and obligations until a resolution can be reached. The Treasury has never reached the point of exhausting extraordinary measures. If this situation were to occur, it is unclear whether Treasury would be able to prioritize payments on debt to avoid a default on its debt obligations, but it would at least have to default on some of its non-debt obligations. A default could trigger a variety of economic problems including a financial crisis and a decline in output that would put the country into a recession.”
Well the Treasury was about to exhaust all of it’s extraordinary measures on Oct 17th, thereby causing a debt ceiling default. What would happen if that occurred?
“If the debt ceiling is not raised and extraordinary measures are exhausted, the United States government is legally unable to borrow to pay its financial obligations. At that point it must cease spending unless the expenditure is covered by revenue receipts, which can lead to a partial government shutdown. In addition, the government would not have the resources the pay the interest on (and sometime redeem) government securities when due, which would be characterized as a default. A default may affect the United States' sovereign risk rating and the interest rate that it will be required to pay on future debt. The United States has never defaulted on its financial obligations, but the periodic crises relating to the debt ceiling has led to a rating downgrade by several rating agencies and a warning by others. The GAO estimated that the delay in raising the debt ceiling during the debt ceiling crisis of 2011 raised borrowing costs for the government by $1.3 billion in fiscal year 2011 and noted that the delay would also raise costs in later years. The Bipartisan Policy Center extended the GAO's estimates and found that the delay raised borrowing costs by $18.9 billion over ten years.” -Wikipedia
We wouldn’t have to worry about the government shutting down because the Republicans had already shut it down. However the anarchists of the Tea Party wanted to default on our debt as well. Why not? Two crisis’s for the price of one.
Wikipedia elaborates: “Yalman Onaran of Bloomberg News wrote that the government's failure to raise the debt ceiling and pay its debt would "halt a $5 trillion lending mechanism for investors who rely on Treasuries, blow up borrowing costs for billions of people and companies, ravage the dollar and throw the U.S. and world economies into a recession that probably would become a depression", noting that a government default would be 23 times larger than the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy during the Great Recession. On October 15, 2013, Fitch, the credit rating agency, placed the U.S. AAA ratings on "rating watch negative" as talks to increase the debt limit reached an impasse fueling concerns of congressional dysfunction and impending default.”
Our friends overseas were watching.
Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso said that the U.S. debt limit, if not raised, would have an "internationally significant impact." On how the US situation could affect Japan, he said "I think this could likely result in a situation where the dollar will be sold and the yen will be bought." The falling dollar is bad news for Japan's exporters, a key driver of growth in the world's third-largest economy.
“They’re putting at risk thousands of jobs here in Mexico,” said Ahmad Fayad, 31, an administrative assistant leaving a bank in Mexico City. “Many companies here depend on the American economy’s health. And if everything continues to be so uncertain, they’ll start laying people off.”
“I never thought a global superpower like the U.S. could ever be in a comparable position to Greece,” said Theodore Couloumbis, emeritus professor of international relations at the University of Athens. “Both countries are paying dearly for rising political tensions. But in America’s case, there is the potential for serious global repercussions, too.”
“I think the U.S. is losing its place,” said Osama Shawki, a shopkeeper in Cairo.
“It’s strange that such a thing has happened there,” said Irina Popova, 40, a homemaker in Russia, which suffered a financial collapse and default in 1998. “I always dreamed of going to America. It can happen to any country. It was us before, now it’s them.”
China's Dagong credit rating agency on October 17th downgraded its United States sovereign credit rating to A- and maintained its negative outlook on America's solvency. Dagong warned that despite Washington's last-minute resolution of the debt ceiling deadlock: "The fundamental situation that the debt growth rate significantly outpaces that of fiscal income and gross domestic product remains unchanged."
China, our largest debtor, owns more about $1.2 trillion in bills, notes and bonds, according to the Treasury, and has questioned the future of using the dollar as the world’s reserve currency, as well as a few other countries like Japan, Australia, and most notably Liechtenstein.
China's official Xinhua news agency called for "a de-Americanized world", while the Global Times, a government mouthpiece, chastened the "unreliability of the US" and warned that the United States position as a superpower was under threat.
Congress quite often waits until the very last day and hour to get things done. The debt limit crisis was no exception. On October 16th, Senate Majority leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch “Turtleman” (a term of endearment) McConnell advanced a proposal to fund the government through January 15th at present levels and suspend the debt limit until February 7th. The bill passed 81 to 18, with support from all of the Democrats in the Senate and 27 of the Republicans. 18 Republicans voted to oppose it. A list of those 18 can be found above.
What exactly were these 18 Republicans voting for when they voted no to a debt ceiling increase?
Economic chaos.
To what end?
Who the fuck knows? I don’t.
Asshat (a term of endearment) Tom Coburn of Oklahoma had the nerve to appear after the vote on “Meet the Press” and discuss term limits on congressional seats which might enhance productivity in Congress.
Really? After he had just voted for worldwide economic chaos.
There’s that Republican mind set for you.
Productivity in Congress? There’s a misnomer if I’ve ever heard one.
The Senate proposal was sent to the House which finally admitted defeat, and with hours to go before the default became official, voted to approve the Senate's plan by 285 to 144. Democrats supported the bill unanimously, 198-0 with two Democrats not voting. The Republican vote was 87 to 144, with one not voting.
Here’s the list of those who voted for anarchy:
Justin Amash R MI-3 Billy Long R MO-7
Mark Amodei R NV-2 Frank D. Lucas R OK-3
Michele Bachmann R MN-6 Blaine Luetkemeyer R MO-3
Andy Barr R KY-6 Cynthia M. Lummis R WY-1
Joe L. Barton R TX-6 Kenny Marchant R TX-24
Kerry Bentivolio R MI-11 Tom Marino R PA-10
Rob Bishop R UT-1 Thomas Massie R KY-4
Diane Black R TN-6 Michael McCaul R TX-10
Marsha Blackburn R TN-7 Tom McClintock R CA-4
Kevin Brady R TX-8 Mark Meadows R NC-11
Jim Bridenstine R OK-1 Luke Messer R IN-6
Mo Brooks R AL-5 John L. Mica R FL-7
Paul Broun R GA-10 Candice S. Miller R MI-10
Larry Bucshon R IN-8 Jeff Miller R FL-1
Michael C. Burgess R TX-26 Markwayne Mullin R OK-2
John Campbell R CA-45 Mick Mulvaney R SC-5
John Carter R TX-31 Randy Neugebauer R TX-19
Bill Cassidy R LA-6 Kristi Noem R SD-1
Steven J. Chabot R OH-1 Richard Nugent R FL-11
Jason Chaffetz R UT-3 Alan Nunnelee R MS-1
Chris Collins R NY-27 Pete Olson R TX-22
Doug Collins R GA-9 Steven Palazzo R MS-4
K. Michael Conaway R TX-11 Steve Pearce R NM-2
John Culberson R TX-7 Scott Perry R PA-4
Ron DeSantis R FL-6 Tom Petri R WI-6
Jeffrey Denham R CA-10 Joe Pitts R PA-16
Scott DesJarlais R TN-4 Ted Poe R TX-2
Sean Duffy R WI-7 Mike Pompeo R KS-4
Jeffrey Duncan R SC-3 Bill Posey R FL-8
John J. Duncan Jr. R TN-2 Tom Price R GA-6
Renee Ellmers R NC-2 Trey Radel R FL-19
Blake Farenthold R TX-27 Tom Reed R NY-23
Stephen Fincher R TN-8 Jim Renacci R OH-16
Chuck Fleischmann R TN-3 Tom Rice R SC-7
John Fleming R LA-4 Martha Roby R AL-2
Bill Flores R TX-17 Phil Roe R TN-1
J. Randy Forbes R VA-4 Mike D. Rogers R AL-3
Virginia Foxx R NC-5 Dana Rohrabacher R CA-48
Trent Franks R AZ-8 Todd Rokita R IN-4
Scott Garrett R NJ-5 Tom Rooney R FL-17
Bob Gibbs R OH-7 Dennis Ross R FL-15
Phil Gingrey R GA-11 Keith Rothfus R PA-12
Louie Gohmert R TX-1 Ed Royce R CA-39
Robert W. Goodlatte R VA-6 Paul D. Ryan R WI-1
Paul Gosar R AZ-4 Matt Salmon R AZ-5
Trey Gowdy R SC-4 Mark Sanford R SC-1
Kay Granger R TX-12 Steve Scalise R LA-1
Sam Graves R MO-6 David Schweikert R AZ-6
Tom Graves R GA-14 Austin Scott R GA-8
Morgan Griffith R VA-9 F. James Sensenbrenner R WI-5
Ralph M. Hall R TX-4 Pete Sessions R TX-32
Andy Harris R MD-1 Jason Smith R MO-8
Vicky Hartzler R MO-4 Lamar Smith R TX-21
Jeb Hensarling R TX-5 Steve Southerland R FL-2
George Holding R NC-13 Chris Stewart R UT-2
Richard Hudson R NC-8 Steve Stockman R TX-36
Tim Huelskamp R KS-1 Marlin Stutzman R IN-3
Bill Huizenga R MI-2 William M. Thornberry R TX-13
Randy Hultgren R IL-14 Michael R. Turner R OH-10
Duncan D. Hunter R CA-50 Ann Wagner R MO-2
Robert Hurt R VA-5 Tim Walberg R MI-7
Bill Johnson R OH-6 Greg Walden R OR-2
Sam Johnson R TX-3 Jackie Walorski R IN-2
Walter B. Jones R NC-3 Randy Weber R TX-14
Jim Jordan R OH-4 Brad Wenstrup R OH-2
Steve King R IA-4 Lynn Westmoreland R GA-3
Jack Kingston R GA-1 Roger Williams R TX-25
Doug LaMalfa R CA-1 Joe Wilson R SC-2
Raul Labrador R ID-1 Rob Woodall R GA-7
Doug Lamborn R CO-5 Kevin Yoder R KS-3
James Lankford R OK-5 Ted Yoho R FL-3
President Obama signed the bill just after midnight on October 17th.
So we’re okay... for a little while. Everybody says the Republicans are unlikely to attempt another shutdown, but then you have folks like Ted Cruz and Michelle Bachmann around, so who knows?
As my friend Jeffrey used to say, we shall see.
Overall, what I come away with this whole episode is how childish the Republicans appeared, not only the politicians, but the Tea Party constituents as well. Just like little kids who hadn’t gotten their way.
Can you imagine if Democrats had acted like that, and what the Republicans would say of us, and how Fox News would spin it?
It would be like we were living in another universe.
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