Even AdNags thinks the Republicans are exaggerating their mandate. You think? Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal is pretending that moderate Wisconsin Republicans are offering a reasonable compromise by sunsetting the loss of collective bargaining rights for public sector unions. The Hill reports on the Democrats’ coordinated messaging for the President’s Day recess:
In a direct jab at the Speaker, Democratic lawmakers are planning to message the continuing resolution (CR) to fund the government as the “So Be It” bill and have printed up buttons with that slogan for members to wear.
Boehner said that if the CR causes some federal layoffs, “So be it.”
“We will hold House Republicans accountable for choosing the wrong priorities — putting special interests ahead of the middle class,” Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) said in a statement Saturday after early morning House passage of cuts. “It’s wrong to take researchers out of the lab or keep homeless veterans on the street to protect special interests. It’s just wrong.”
It’s not terrible, but the Democrats need to learn to use more pungent language. The Republicans’ plan to tackle high unemployment is to destroy as many government jobs as possible. But there are not enough private sector jobs available right now for the people who are unemployed. How the hell will it make it easier for you to find a job if you suddenly have to compete against hundreds of thousands of newly unemployed people coming from the public sector? That’s what the Dems need to do. Talk directly to the people who are looking for a job, or a better job, and ask them if they want all this new competition. Ask all the people who are worried about the budget whether they want to pay the unemployment insurance for hundreds of thousands of government workers. Ask them if they want a new spike in home foreclosures in their neighborhoods. Tear the head off these Republicans and don’t stop until they stop kicking.
The Democrats have basically been daring the Republicans to shut down the government, but the Associated Press thinks the Democrats aren’t all that confident that they’ll win the public relations battle.
In the event of a shutdown, some Republican strategists say deficit-weary Americans would blame Democrats for refusing deeper cuts. Democrats say voters would view Republicans as unreasonable obstructionists, as they did 15 years ago. Neither group, however, seems fully confident, and no one knows how much the political ground has shifted since Obama’s election
The Democrats want to make the Republicans blink and they’re not afraid of a shutdown. I think that makes a shutdown inevitable. It’s not in the Republicans’ nature to back down until they’ve destroyed their position, advantage, the budget, the reputation of the country, whatever country they’ve invaded, their marriages, or anything else that comes in their path.
