As the government shutdown continues, observers are beginning to wonder if some of the Republican lawmakers driving the shutdown understand the legislative process very well and how the shutdown actually has been brought about and how it is affecting Americans.
Jon Stewart railed against Republicans for trying to renegotiate a law already passed and enacted. The time for negotiating the contours of the bill and its merits is passed, he said. “It’s a law.” “You lost.”
John McCain made the same point on the Senate floor last week, admonishing shutdown leader Ted Cruz. “We fought as hard as we could in a fair and honest manner and we lost,” he said. “One of the reasons was because we were in the minority, and in democracies, almost always, the majority governs and passes legislation.”
Yesterday, Tea Party Texas Congressman Randy Neugebauer admonished a Washington DC Park Service ranger for not allowing veterans into National Mall monuments. “You should be ashamed of yourself,” he said, letting loose with righteous indignation. Of course, the sites were closed as a result of the government shutdown, which was triggered and is continuing due to Tea Party House Republican determination to defund Obamacare. Gawker called the exchange an “astounding confrontation.” Then added, “The good news is that, despite the GOP’s best efforts to divert blame to literally anybody else, most Americans know full well who’s truly to blame.”
That’s Gawker. On perhaps the other side of the mainstream cultural spectrum, there’s Faith in Public Life, which is going after House Republicans who have stalled the nation’s Farm Bill by submitting versions that would subsidize wealthy agriculture but would cut $40 billion from what used to be known as the food stamps program and is now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which mostly helps feed children and the elderly. The group has taken particular offense at lawmaker justifications for the proposed cut that they bolstered with quotes from scripture.
In the video above, Faith in Public Life caught up with North Dakota Republican Kevin Cramer, who either didn’t seem to understand what he was voting to support or was being dishonest about it.
