Economy
It's All Over, Until Next Time
Remember in 2009, when Jim DeMint said health care reform would be President Obama's Waterloo? Four years later, defunding health care reform became the GOP's Alamo. But Republicans aren't done damaging their party, or the rest of the country, yet.
The Moustache Of (Mis)Understanding Strikes Again
This Thomas Friedman column is so bad,you have to read the whole thing to experience the full horror of it. It reads like something the messaging shop at Fix the Debt put together to sound like Thomas Friedman.
Shutdown: Conservatives' Revenge Against the "47 Percent", Pt.2
Republicans are celebrating the consequences of the shutdown for two groups of Americans that conservatives despise: government workers and the millions of Americans who rely on the services those workers provide.
The Radicalization of the GOP: the Most Important Political Story Today
The most important political story of our time is one that journalists wedded to the idea that ‘both sides do it’ are uncomfortable reporting: the wildly asymmetric polarization of our two major political parties.
Madman Theory
The idea that the President did something wily by refusing to defund Obamacare is pretty funny. If anyone's done anything wily, it's the Republicans who deployed Nixon's madman theory. It seem to have persuaded the Democratic establishment.
End Game: John Boehner Doesn’t Even Have to Cave
Seven days into a government shutdown, and 9 days away from a potentially catastrophic breach of the nation’s debt limit, and the question everyone is asking is: who will blink first?
Can Senate Democrats Prevent Disaster?
It's great that Senate Democrats are working on a plan to prevent financial disaster, but Americans would rather see Republicans end this economic hostage taking, and stop using our economy as a pawn in their political games.
Testing GOP Resolve
Sorting out the allegedly "moderate" GOP Senators is a good place to start the week. The dynamic may very well be different from the House, where certain Republicans hate the shutdown, but aren't rushing to end it. Let's test this in the senate too.
Forget About the Tourists, Worry About the Workers
The government shutdown is revealing how easily distracted we are by shiny objects. Tourist sites are important, but they fail to capture the economic pain that ordinary Americans, and especially the poor, will feel if the shutdown drags on.
What Do They Really Want, Part XXIV
Remember when we all assumed that sequestration could never hold and they'd just have to pull the plug and negotiate a reasonable budget when the going got tough? Yeah, that's worked out for us.
