House Republicans are like spoiled children

Hey, so, remember when Bush was in office, and the Democrats who controlled congress were so damn stubborn that in just one year they threatened a government shutdown and later threatened to allow the country to default on its credit, sending us into a massive recession?

Me neither.

I do however remember when the Republicans threatened a government shutdown during Clinton's term, and actually went through with it.

President Obama has already offered Republicans a $1 trillion cut to entitlement spending, which justifiably pissed off many Democrats. Let's not forget that those who depend most on entitlement spending are the poor and destitute, not people bitching about paying sales taxes for their yachts.  But that was not good enough, because Obama also wants to close corporate tax loopholes and get the rich – oh wait, I'm sorry, rich people are now called "job creators" – to pay a small fraction more in taxes.

To me, that sounds like a damn generous compromise. Democrats do not want such deep cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. Republicans do not want any tax increases on anyone ever, and certainly not on rich peo... er, "job creators", as the supply-side train of linguistic bullshit goes. So, let's compromise. We won't raise taxes on 98% of Americans. We'll cut the corporate tax rate, but close the loopholes so everyone pays their fair share. In exchange we'll give you over a trillion in cuts to all those poor-people-helping programs you hate.

Well, Boehner and friends aren't having any of it. As if Boehner crying all the damn time isn't pathetic enough, now he's storming out of compromise meetings even after being handed what by any measure is an extraordinarily generous proposal. This guy's the wrinkliest baby I've ever seen.

Time for House Republicans to grow the hell up. If the nation defaults on its debt, it is the poor who will feel it the most. I realize that since Republicans think all poor people are just lazy, that's probably their just comeuppance. But those of us without such self-aggrandizing glasses on do not want Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security checks to stop going out. We don't want our military personnel to stop getting paid. We don't want interest rates to climb. We want this chest-beating to stop instead of sacrificing the welfare of this country because you're too prideful to compromise.


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