With the president trying to deal with three wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya, bitching and moaning among our allies in NATO, a nuclear crisis in Japan, unrest in Bahrain, Oman, Yemen, Jordan, and Syria, an escalation of hostilities between Israel and Hamas, and a delicate situation in Egypt, now is probably not the right time for the Republicans to add a government shutdown to his list of worries. But that’s exactly what it looks like the Republicans are going to do. With budget negotiations at an impasse, it’s time for finger-pointing and name-calling.
Speaker John A. Boehner joined in with a statement that accused Democrats of lacking a fiscal plan. “If Democrats don’t have a plan, do they intend to shut down the government because they can’t agree among themselves?” he asked.
Democrats fired back, suggesting that Republicans were backtracking under pressure from House conservatives allied with the Tea Party who were opposed to any compromise with Democrats in the budget debate.
“After days of positive negotiations, with significant flexibility shown by the speaker, the House Republican leadership is back to agonizing over whether to give in to right-wing demands that they abandon any compromise on their extreme cuts,” Mr. Schumer said. “Instead of lashing out at Democrats in a knee-jerk way, we hope House Republicans will finally stand up to the Tea Party and resume the negotiations that had seemed so full of promise.”
Fortunately, Chuck Schumer is actually quite good is this kind of give and take, and he knows enough to frame this a fight between a beleaguered president and a Tea Party fringe. So, as the previous president said, “Bring It On!” Bring on the government shutdown. The Republicans will be punished for it with extreme prejudice. It’s the one silver lining in all the bad news that has been piling up lately. No one is any mood for petty bullshit. We have enough drama.
