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WillyT's Journal
October 6, 2013
Jason Cherkis & Sam Stein - HuffPo
Posted: 10/04/2013 5:36 pm EDT | Updated: 10/04/2013 6:04 pm EDT
<snip>
WASHINGTON -- As she drove along the outskirts of Tallahassee, Fla., on Thursday, Kim Maxwell, 38, became overwhelmed with emotions. It had been nearly three days into the government shutdown, and the political paralysis brought on by warring lawmakers in Washington, D.C., had begun seeping into her life. The Head Start program that her 3-year-old son Matthew attended had closed, leaving her to balance new parenting responsibilities with critical work hours.
“I was bawling on Interstate 10,” Maxwell said. “It just hit me. I feel so bad for Matthew being stuck in the house and I’m not having the money to put him in another program.”
Three days may not seem like a lot of time. But for Maxwell, it was enough to bring her to tears. Since enrolling in Head Start, Matthew had learned to bottle his energy. One-word utterances had blossomed into whole sentences. While her son was at school, Maxwell had used the time to get back on her feet and start her own house-cleaning business.
They were building a life. Maxwell had gotten two to three cleaning jobs per day and began making payments on the rent-to-own television and her bed.
With Head Start closed, she’s lucky to get a babysitter to watch her son long enough to get one house cleaned per day. She’s already lost a few hundred dollars in wages, she said, and if it goes on longer she will have to further narrow her priorities and ambitions.
“We’re just going to keep the electricity on and eat,” Maxwell said. “We’re not going to worry about anything else.“
The perception that the government shutdown has had no demonstrable effect on the country is not true...
<snip>
More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/04/government-shutdown-head-start_n_4045715.html
In Case You Missed This... 'Victims Once More, Head Start Families Struggling Under Shutdown'
Victims Once More, Head Start Families Struggling Under ShutdownJason Cherkis & Sam Stein - HuffPo
Posted: 10/04/2013 5:36 pm EDT | Updated: 10/04/2013 6:04 pm EDT
<snip>
WASHINGTON -- As she drove along the outskirts of Tallahassee, Fla., on Thursday, Kim Maxwell, 38, became overwhelmed with emotions. It had been nearly three days into the government shutdown, and the political paralysis brought on by warring lawmakers in Washington, D.C., had begun seeping into her life. The Head Start program that her 3-year-old son Matthew attended had closed, leaving her to balance new parenting responsibilities with critical work hours.
“I was bawling on Interstate 10,” Maxwell said. “It just hit me. I feel so bad for Matthew being stuck in the house and I’m not having the money to put him in another program.”
Three days may not seem like a lot of time. But for Maxwell, it was enough to bring her to tears. Since enrolling in Head Start, Matthew had learned to bottle his energy. One-word utterances had blossomed into whole sentences. While her son was at school, Maxwell had used the time to get back on her feet and start her own house-cleaning business.
They were building a life. Maxwell had gotten two to three cleaning jobs per day and began making payments on the rent-to-own television and her bed.
With Head Start closed, she’s lucky to get a babysitter to watch her son long enough to get one house cleaned per day. She’s already lost a few hundred dollars in wages, she said, and if it goes on longer she will have to further narrow her priorities and ambitions.
“We’re just going to keep the electricity on and eat,” Maxwell said. “We’re not going to worry about anything else.“
The perception that the government shutdown has had no demonstrable effect on the country is not true...
<snip>
More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/04/government-shutdown-head-start_n_4045715.html
October 5, 2013
Leonard Downie, a former executive editor of The Washington Post, is the Weil family professor of journalism at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University. This article is based on his report “The Obama Administration and the Press,” forthcoming Thursday from the Committee to Protect Journalists.
By Leonard Downie Jr. - WaPo
Published: October 4, 2013
And...
More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/in-obamas-war-on-leaks-reporters-fight-back/2013/10/04/70231e1c-2aeb-11e3-b139-029811dbb57f_print.html
“This is most closed, control-freak administration I’ve ever covered.”
In Obama’s war on leaks, reporters fight backLeonard Downie, a former executive editor of The Washington Post, is the Weil family professor of journalism at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University. This article is based on his report “The Obama Administration and the Press,” forthcoming Thursday from the Committee to Protect Journalists.
By Leonard Downie Jr. - WaPo
Published: October 4, 2013
In the Watergate era, the Nixon administration’s telephone wiretaps were the biggest concern for journalists and sources worried about government surveillance. That was one of the reasons why Bob Woodward met with FBI official Mark Felt (a.k.a. “Deep Throat”) in an underground parking garage in Arlington, and why he and Carl Bernstein did much of their reporting by knocking on the front doors of their sources’ homes. Except for the aborted prosecution of Daniel Ellsberg for the leak of the Pentagon Papers, criminal culpability or pervasive surveillance were not major concerns, especially after Richard Nixon resigned the presidency in 1974.
Not so now. With the passage of the Patriot Act after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a vast expansion of intelligence agencies and their powers, the aggressive exploitation of intrusive digital surveillance capabilities, the excessive classification of public documents and officials’ sophisticated control of the news media’s access to the workings of government, journalists who cover national security are facing vast and unprecedented challenges in their efforts to hold the government accountable to its citizens. They find that government officials are increasingly fearful of talking to them, and they worry that their communications with sources can be monitored at any time.
So what are they doing? Many reporters covering national security and government policy in Washington these days are taking precautions to keep their sources from becoming casualties in the Obama administration’s war on leaks. They and their remaining government sources often avoid telephone conversations and e-mail exchanges, arranging furtive one-on-one meetings instead. A few news organizations have even set up separate computer networks and safe rooms for journalists trained in encryption and other ways to thwart surveillance.
“I worry now about calling somebody because the contact can be found out through a check of phone records or e-mails,” said veteran national security journalist R. Jeffrey Smith of the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit accountability news organization. “It leaves a digital trail that makes it easier for government to monitor those contacts.”
Not so now. With the passage of the Patriot Act after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a vast expansion of intelligence agencies and their powers, the aggressive exploitation of intrusive digital surveillance capabilities, the excessive classification of public documents and officials’ sophisticated control of the news media’s access to the workings of government, journalists who cover national security are facing vast and unprecedented challenges in their efforts to hold the government accountable to its citizens. They find that government officials are increasingly fearful of talking to them, and they worry that their communications with sources can be monitored at any time.
So what are they doing? Many reporters covering national security and government policy in Washington these days are taking precautions to keep their sources from becoming casualties in the Obama administration’s war on leaks. They and their remaining government sources often avoid telephone conversations and e-mail exchanges, arranging furtive one-on-one meetings instead. A few news organizations have even set up separate computer networks and safe rooms for journalists trained in encryption and other ways to thwart surveillance.
“I worry now about calling somebody because the contact can be found out through a check of phone records or e-mails,” said veteran national security journalist R. Jeffrey Smith of the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit accountability news organization. “It leaves a digital trail that makes it easier for government to monitor those contacts.”
And...
Will Obama recognize that all this threatens his often-stated but unfulfilled goal of making government more transparent and accountable? None of the Washington news media veterans I talked to were optimistic.
“Whenever I’m asked what is the most manipulative and secretive administration I’ve covered, I always say it’s the one in office now,” Bob Schieffer, CBS News anchor and chief Washington correspondent, told me. “Every administration learns from the previous administration. They become more secretive and put tighter clamps on information. This administration exercises more control than George W. Bush’s did, and his before that.”
“Whenever I’m asked what is the most manipulative and secretive administration I’ve covered, I always say it’s the one in office now,” Bob Schieffer, CBS News anchor and chief Washington correspondent, told me. “Every administration learns from the previous administration. They become more secretive and put tighter clamps on information. This administration exercises more control than George W. Bush’s did, and his before that.”
More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/in-obamas-war-on-leaks-reporters-fight-back/2013/10/04/70231e1c-2aeb-11e3-b139-029811dbb57f_print.html
October 4, 2013
******************************************************************
******************************************************************
And Then...
**************************************************************
Point is... for all those who claim here to be "steeped in politics" you appear oblivious of the way this "game" is played. As soon as I saw it... I KNEW he had to, and was going to, respond.
And in the final analysis... it in some ways DOES NOT MATTER whether this actually happened.
Whether it was Rovian, Murdocian, or Foxian Propoganda...
And ESPECIALLY... if it was true... (The Worst Fear)...
They were FORCED to respond.
And I think the President did well in that but...
I'd be looking for the idiot in the cracker-jack box.
If you pay attention to politics, and find all of this hard to believe... you really haven't been paying close attention.
To My Detractors This Morning... Love Ya !!!
The White House Needs To Put A Muzzle On Whoever This Idiot Is...
White House: 'We Are Winning'
Sam Stein - HuffPo
6:22 AM – Today
<snip>
The standoff over the government shutdown is, obviously, a political affair, with each side hoping to extract enough pain that the other acquiesces. But part of effective politics is pretending (in a convincing fashion) that politics doesn't matter. So it's hard to see how this quote from an anonymous official inside the administration does the White House much good.
Via the Wall Street Journal: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303492504579113781436540284.html
Said a senior administration official: "We are winning...It doesn't really matter to us" how long the shutdown lasts "because what matters is the end result."
<snip>
Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/04/government-shutdown_n_4042676.html#237_white-house-we-are-winning
White House: 'We Are Winning'
Sam Stein - HuffPo
6:22 AM – Today
<snip>
The standoff over the government shutdown is, obviously, a political affair, with each side hoping to extract enough pain that the other acquiesces. But part of effective politics is pretending (in a convincing fashion) that politics doesn't matter. So it's hard to see how this quote from an anonymous official inside the administration does the White House much good.
Via the Wall Street Journal: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303492504579113781436540284.html
Said a senior administration official: "We are winning...It doesn't really matter to us" how long the shutdown lasts "because what matters is the end result."
<snip>
Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/04/government-shutdown_n_4042676.html#237_white-house-we-are-winning
******************************************************************
Um... Y'All Might Wanna Check Out The Front Page Of HuffPo Right Now...
******************************************************************
And Then...
Obama: No 'Winning' In Shutdown - USAToday
Obama: No 'winning' in shutdown
David Jackson, USA TODAY
2:12 p.m. EDT October 4, 2013
<snip>
With the government shutdown in its fourth day, President Obama walked to lunch on Friday — and disavowed a comment from an anonymous staff member who claimed the administration is "winning" the political battle over the government shutdown.
"There is no winning" when people are not at work and being paid, Obama told reporters while getting some take-out in the Taylor Gourmet shop near the White House.
"Nobody's winning," Obama said of the shutdown. "We should get this over with as soon as possible."
The president was responding to a quote in The Wall Street Journal from an unnamed "senior administration official" who said: "We are winning ... It doesn't really matter to us' how long the shutdown lasts 'because what matters is the end result.'"
Obama also responded to criticism from House Speaker John Boehner...
<snip>
More: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/10/04/obama-shutdown-boehner-white-house/2922439/
Obama: No 'winning' in shutdown
David Jackson, USA TODAY
2:12 p.m. EDT October 4, 2013
<snip>
With the government shutdown in its fourth day, President Obama walked to lunch on Friday — and disavowed a comment from an anonymous staff member who claimed the administration is "winning" the political battle over the government shutdown.
"There is no winning" when people are not at work and being paid, Obama told reporters while getting some take-out in the Taylor Gourmet shop near the White House.
"Nobody's winning," Obama said of the shutdown. "We should get this over with as soon as possible."
The president was responding to a quote in The Wall Street Journal from an unnamed "senior administration official" who said: "We are winning ... It doesn't really matter to us' how long the shutdown lasts 'because what matters is the end result.'"
Obama also responded to criticism from House Speaker John Boehner...
<snip>
More: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/10/04/obama-shutdown-boehner-white-house/2922439/
**************************************************************
Point is... for all those who claim here to be "steeped in politics" you appear oblivious of the way this "game" is played. As soon as I saw it... I KNEW he had to, and was going to, respond.
And in the final analysis... it in some ways DOES NOT MATTER whether this actually happened.
Whether it was Rovian, Murdocian, or Foxian Propoganda...
And ESPECIALLY... if it was true... (The Worst Fear)...
They were FORCED to respond.
And I think the President did well in that but...
I'd be looking for the idiot in the cracker-jack box.
If you pay attention to politics, and find all of this hard to believe... you really haven't been paying close attention.
October 4, 2013
David Jackson, USA TODAY
2:12 p.m. EDT October 4, 2013
<snip>
With the government shutdown in its fourth day, President Obama walked to lunch on Friday — and disavowed a comment from an anonymous staff member who claimed the administration is "winning" the political battle over the government shutdown.
"There is no winning" when people are not at work and being paid, Obama told reporters while getting some take-out in the Taylor Gourmet shop near the White House.
"Nobody's winning," Obama said of the shutdown. "We should get this over with as soon as possible."
The president was responding to a quote in The Wall Street Journal from an unnamed "senior administration official" who said: "We are winning ... It doesn't really matter to us' how long the shutdown lasts 'because what matters is the end result.'"
Obama also responded to criticism from House Speaker John Boehner...
<snip>
More: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/10/04/obama-shutdown-boehner-white-house/2922439/
Related Link: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023782619
Obama: No 'Winning' In Shutdown - USAToday
Obama: No 'winning' in shutdownDavid Jackson, USA TODAY
2:12 p.m. EDT October 4, 2013
<snip>
With the government shutdown in its fourth day, President Obama walked to lunch on Friday — and disavowed a comment from an anonymous staff member who claimed the administration is "winning" the political battle over the government shutdown.
"There is no winning" when people are not at work and being paid, Obama told reporters while getting some take-out in the Taylor Gourmet shop near the White House.
"Nobody's winning," Obama said of the shutdown. "We should get this over with as soon as possible."
The president was responding to a quote in The Wall Street Journal from an unnamed "senior administration official" who said: "We are winning ... It doesn't really matter to us' how long the shutdown lasts 'because what matters is the end result.'"
Obama also responded to criticism from House Speaker John Boehner...
<snip>
More: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/10/04/obama-shutdown-boehner-white-house/2922439/
Related Link: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023782619
October 4, 2013
Sam Stein - HuffPo
6:22 AM – Today
<snip>
The standoff over the government shutdown is, obviously, a political affair, with each side hoping to extract enough pain that the other acquiesces. But part of effective politics is pretending (in a convincing fashion) that politics doesn't matter. So it's hard to see how this quote from an anonymous official inside the administration does the White House much good.
Via the Wall Street Journal: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303492504579113781436540284.html
<snip>
Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/04/government-shutdown_n_4042676.html#237_white-house-we-are-winning
The White House Needs To Put A Muzzle On Whoever This Idiot Is...
White House: 'We Are Winning'Sam Stein - HuffPo
6:22 AM – Today
<snip>
The standoff over the government shutdown is, obviously, a political affair, with each side hoping to extract enough pain that the other acquiesces. But part of effective politics is pretending (in a convincing fashion) that politics doesn't matter. So it's hard to see how this quote from an anonymous official inside the administration does the White House much good.
Via the Wall Street Journal: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303492504579113781436540284.html
Said a senior administration official: "We are winning...It doesn't really matter to us" how long the shutdown lasts "because what matters is the end result."
<snip>
Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/04/government-shutdown_n_4042676.html#237_white-house-we-are-winning
October 4, 2013
Republicans say they’ll extend the shutdown as a weapon in the debt ceiling fight.
By William Saletan - Slate
OCT. 3 2013
<snip>
Three days into the federal shutdown, Republicans are beginning to admit that, contrary to everything they told us, they didn’t really close the government to stop Obamacare. They did it, and will keep doing it, to gain leverage in the coming fight over the debt ceiling. The government will stay shut for the next two weeks so that the GOP can accumulate power.
This isn’t Democratic spin. It’s what Republicans themselves are telling reporters, particularly the conservative media. Last night in the Washington Examiner, David Drucker reported:
The real target, according to Drucker’s sources, is the deadline for raising the debt ceiling, which is two weeks away:
Drucker’s account matches what Republicans are telling other outlets. In the Washington Post, Paul Kane reports that House Speaker John Boehner never wanted to use the shutdown threat to stop Obamacare. Nevertheless, Boehner joined this assault in order to head off a “rebellion” in his caucus. As a result, the speaker has:
On Wednesday, according to Robert Costa of the National Review...
<snip>
More: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/frame_game/2013/10/shutdown_leverage_forget_obamacare_republicans_are_using_the_shutdown_as.html
Heads-Up !!! - 'Your Government Is Our Leverage' - Slate
Your Government Is Our LeverageRepublicans say they’ll extend the shutdown as a weapon in the debt ceiling fight.
By William Saletan - Slate
OCT. 3 2013
<snip>
Three days into the federal shutdown, Republicans are beginning to admit that, contrary to everything they told us, they didn’t really close the government to stop Obamacare. They did it, and will keep doing it, to gain leverage in the coming fight over the debt ceiling. The government will stay shut for the next two weeks so that the GOP can accumulate power.
This isn’t Democratic spin. It’s what Republicans themselves are telling reporters, particularly the conservative media. Last night in the Washington Examiner, David Drucker reported:
House GOP leaders and most of their rank and file never supported conservatives' efforts to use the budget bill and the threat of a government shutdown to defund Obamacare … But having gone as far as they have, House Republicans now say they won't back down. And they expect to score political points in the process.
The real target, according to Drucker’s sources, is the deadline for raising the debt ceiling, which is two weeks away:
<House> Republicans said Wednesday that the spending impasse that shut down the government early Tuesday is less about conservatives' desire to derail Obamacare than it is about strengthening their hand in the debt-ceiling talks. … “We’re not going to be disrespected,” conservative Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., added. “We have to get something out of this. And I don’t know what that even is.”
Drucker’s account matches what Republicans are telling other outlets. In the Washington Post, Paul Kane reports that House Speaker John Boehner never wanted to use the shutdown threat to stop Obamacare. Nevertheless, Boehner joined this assault in order to head off a “rebellion” in his caucus. As a result, the speaker has:
kept sending the Senate bills that would completely defund or delay the health-care law, knowing it would lead to a shutdown. … Now that Boehner has survived several days of the shutdown, his friends say there is no point in moving a clean funding resolution. They said the shutdown is leverage in talks with Obama and the Democrats about lifting the debt ceiling.
On Wednesday, according to Robert Costa of the National Review...
<snip>
More: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/frame_game/2013/10/shutdown_leverage_forget_obamacare_republicans_are_using_the_shutdown_as.html
October 4, 2013
AP/HuffPo
October 3, 2013 10:27 PM EST
<snip>
WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is canceling a trip to Asia next week because of the government shutdown.
Obama had already shortened the trip from four countries to two. The White House announced earlier in the week that Obama would be unable to visit Malaysia and the Philippines because the partial shutdown of the federal government was impacting personnel needed to set up the stops.
The White House had held out hope that the president could attend to economic summits in Indonesia and Brunei. But it announced late Wednesday that Obama decided to skip the entire trip to stay in Washington to continue pressing for a budget bill that would reopen the government.
<snip>
Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20131003/us-obama-asia/?utm_hp_ref=homepage&ir=homepage
Breaking: 'Obama Cancels Asia Trip Because Of Shutdown' - AP/HuffPo
Obama cancels Asia trip because of shutdownAP/HuffPo
October 3, 2013 10:27 PM EST
<snip>
WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is canceling a trip to Asia next week because of the government shutdown.
Obama had already shortened the trip from four countries to two. The White House announced earlier in the week that Obama would be unable to visit Malaysia and the Philippines because the partial shutdown of the federal government was impacting personnel needed to set up the stops.
The White House had held out hope that the president could attend to economic summits in Indonesia and Brunei. But it announced late Wednesday that Obama decided to skip the entire trip to stay in Washington to continue pressing for a budget bill that would reopen the government.
<snip>
Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20131003/us-obama-asia/?utm_hp_ref=homepage&ir=homepage
October 4, 2013
Ryan J. Reilly - HuffPo
Posted: 10/03/2013 12:20 pm EDT | Updated: 10/03/2013 1:15 pm EDT
<snip>
WASHINGTON -- A federal judge has delayed the lawsuit House Republicans brought against Attorney General Eric Holder over the Fast and Furious scandal, taking a shot at the House of Representatives in the process.
Given the current government shutdown, the Justice Department asked this week to delay proceedings in a lawsuit filed by the House Oversight Committee accusing Holder of contempt of Congress because he did not turn over documents in response to a subpoena related to a botched operation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The ATF operation, known as Fast and Furious, allowed weapons to flow into the hands of Mexican drug cartels. Led by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the House committee sued Holder to force the Justice Department to turn over the documents.
Lawyers for the Oversight Committee had opposed a delay to the proceedings and said it was "conceivable that appropriations will be restored" by an Oct. 15 court deadline. But the federal judge sided with the DOJ.
"There are no exigent circumstances in this case that would justify an order of the Court forcing furloughed attorneys to return to their desks," U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson ordered. "Moreover, while the vast majority of litigants who now must endure a delay in the progress of their matters do so due to circumstances beyond their control, that cannot be said of the House of Representatives, which has played a role in the shutdown that prompted the stay motion."
<snip>
Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/03/fast-and-furious-shutdown_n_4037520.html?1380817253
Fast And Furious Judge Slams House GOP Over Shutdown - HuffPo
Fast And Furious Judge Slams House GOP Over ShutdownRyan J. Reilly - HuffPo
Posted: 10/03/2013 12:20 pm EDT | Updated: 10/03/2013 1:15 pm EDT
<snip>
WASHINGTON -- A federal judge has delayed the lawsuit House Republicans brought against Attorney General Eric Holder over the Fast and Furious scandal, taking a shot at the House of Representatives in the process.
Given the current government shutdown, the Justice Department asked this week to delay proceedings in a lawsuit filed by the House Oversight Committee accusing Holder of contempt of Congress because he did not turn over documents in response to a subpoena related to a botched operation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The ATF operation, known as Fast and Furious, allowed weapons to flow into the hands of Mexican drug cartels. Led by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the House committee sued Holder to force the Justice Department to turn over the documents.
Lawyers for the Oversight Committee had opposed a delay to the proceedings and said it was "conceivable that appropriations will be restored" by an Oct. 15 court deadline. But the federal judge sided with the DOJ.
"There are no exigent circumstances in this case that would justify an order of the Court forcing furloughed attorneys to return to their desks," U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson ordered. "Moreover, while the vast majority of litigants who now must endure a delay in the progress of their matters do so due to circumstances beyond their control, that cannot be said of the House of Representatives, which has played a role in the shutdown that prompted the stay motion."
<snip>
Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/03/fast-and-furious-shutdown_n_4037520.html?1380817253
October 4, 2013
John Celock - HuffPo
Posted: 10/03/2013 5:50 pm EDT | Updated: 10/03/2013 5:53 pm EDT
<snip>
Some Republican state lawmakers are saying that the current federal government shutdown needs to end before it harms the country further.
The shutdown is hurting state and local governments, they told The Huffington Post, and while they understand a need to address Obamacare at the federal level, shutting down the government is not the answer. The shutdown would do more harm than good to the Republican Party in the long-term, the GOP state legislators said.
"As it is prolonged, people will start looking for someone to blame," Kansas state Rep. J.R. Claeys (R-Salina) told HuffPost. "When they look for someone to blame, it will be House Republicans. Whether it is real or not, it does not matter."
Claeys agrees with House Republicans' position on the health care law, but he said there are better ways to get the point across than tying it to continued funding of the federal government. He questioned why they even connected the two, saying it was a goal that would never be reached.
"I think asking the president to sign something that defunds or postpones his signature domestic policy achievement is something that he will not budge on," Claeys said. "I am not sure what the point is."
<snip>
More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/03/republican-legislators-shutdown_n_4039119.html
Republican State Legislators Call For End To Shutdown - HuffPo
Republican State Legislators Call For End To ShutdownJohn Celock - HuffPo
Posted: 10/03/2013 5:50 pm EDT | Updated: 10/03/2013 5:53 pm EDT
<snip>
Some Republican state lawmakers are saying that the current federal government shutdown needs to end before it harms the country further.
The shutdown is hurting state and local governments, they told The Huffington Post, and while they understand a need to address Obamacare at the federal level, shutting down the government is not the answer. The shutdown would do more harm than good to the Republican Party in the long-term, the GOP state legislators said.
"As it is prolonged, people will start looking for someone to blame," Kansas state Rep. J.R. Claeys (R-Salina) told HuffPost. "When they look for someone to blame, it will be House Republicans. Whether it is real or not, it does not matter."
Claeys agrees with House Republicans' position on the health care law, but he said there are better ways to get the point across than tying it to continued funding of the federal government. He questioned why they even connected the two, saying it was a goal that would never be reached.
"I think asking the president to sign something that defunds or postpones his signature domestic policy achievement is something that he will not budge on," Claeys said. "I am not sure what the point is."
<snip>
More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/03/republican-legislators-shutdown_n_4039119.html
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