It wouldn’t be much of a fight. From my reading of the bill, the debt ceiling gets automatically raised unless Congress disapproves (both houses) and Obama can veto it even if it does pass. So there won’t be any more hostage-taking over default. Budget battles galore, but not “burn down the country” shenannigans.
Do you think the Tea Party idiots thought that this was what was going to happen when they started it?
You really don’t understand the least little thing about politics, do you?
Now, this particular wrinkle I had not gathered, despite an obsession level of attention. Not to suggest doubt, but could I get that nailed down, for the sheer joy of it? A cite for sore eyes, if you will.
A timeless answer for a timeless excuse:
[QUOTE=Homer]
Leiodes then caught the knees of Odysseus and said, “Odysseus I beseech you have mercy upon me and spare me. I never wronged any of the women in your house either in word or deed, and I tried to stop the others. I saw them, but they would not listen, and now they are paying for their folly. I was their sacrificing priest; if you kill me, I shall die without having done anything to deserve it, and shall have got no thanks for all the good that I did.”
Odysseus looked sternly at him and answered, “If you were their sacrificing priest, you must have prayed many a time that it might be long before I got home again, and that you might marry my wife and have children by her. Therefore you shall die.”
With these words he picked up the sword that Agelaus had dropped when he was being killed, and which was lying upon the ground. Then he struck Leiodes on the back of his neck, so that his head fell rolling in the dust while he was yet speaking.
[/QUOTE]
Well, except that the GOP did damage to the economy, raised the deficit and caused a fair amount of human misery.
It’s bad enough when someone is stupid enough to venerate Reaganomics, but add in Tea Party conspiracy theory nonsense, and it’s like a retard on roller skates with a gun.
Which doesn’t amount to much if the rest of the party doesn’t join them.
So you’re saying it wasn’t a total failure.
Yeah, right. It’s your *daughter *who’ll be watching it all day now. 
I’m finding it hard to get excited about what should now be the defining example of a Pyrrhic victory. The result was largely what it should have been, but the price was far too high. But don’t let me put a damper on your party, winning is all that matters.
Oh, and don’t forget to vote for your local incumbents, 95% of which you will return to office even though they nearly destroyed the economy of the country and your economic present and future “for your own good”. To the best of my knowledge destroying the village to save it has never worked.
So you guys haven’t learned a damn thing? You’re going to act the same stupid, childish way the next opportunity you get, too?
I would hope that, at least, had changed.
Who exactly do you think paid that price?
Is that a sour-grapes way of trivializing this victory for democracy and simple decency? Or is it something you actually believe? Either way, shame.
The fault here is not that of “the incumbents”. :rolleyes: Only of your own party and its failure to provide even basic leadership.
It wasn’t the Democrats who started this crazy fight, no matter how many times Fox News says otherwise.
A quote from the lead article on Daily Kos:
An increase in the debt ceiling until Feb. 7, but it also continues the ability of the Treasury to use extraordinary measures to extend that period, so that’s not a drop dead date. It also includes language allowing President Obama to waive the debt ceiling, which could be overridden by a vote of disapproval by Congress that could then be vetoed by the president;
NOW I start the celebratory drinking!
The people who didn’t get paid for the duration of this debacle and are now mired in debt, wondering where their food money was coming from, selling things they once cared about to cover their bills, things that they will never get back because a bunch of idiots held them hostage for nothing. The overall economy paid the price, because businesses who based their entire business plan on people with modest disposable income wondering in to sample their wares, only to have nobody with any money, they paid the price. Any number of people paid the price, you know who they are.
It isn’t sour grapes at all. I’m happy with the outcome. I think that the breaking of the Tea Party is a good thing. I think that the Republicans getting wrecked in the next election will be a good thing. Whatever the Republicans have become, it isn’t anything that I want to be associated with (not that I ever did). That doesn’t change the fact that I think the price was too high.
For what seems like the millionth time, I am not, have never been, and never will be, a Republican. Or a Democrat. I am forever an independent, precisely because people like you make assumptions and try to break me over them. Well, that weapon is unloaded.
As far as “incumbents” go, when Congress’ approval rating drops to the levels it has, you have to ask yourself why you keep voting for the same idiots. Without change it can never improve. The irony, and hypocrisy, of it is that even though 4 of 5 think that Congress is doing a terrible job 9 of 10 will return their Congressmen/women so that they can continue to do a terrible job because somehow they think that their guy is doing a great job and it’s everybody else that’s voting for idiots. How can so many people be so wrong?
Vote the bastards out. Or expect more of this. You get the government you want, and ultimately the government you deserve.
It is foolish and incorrect to say that every single congressman shares equally in the blame for this. Some people can go to the polls and vote their incumbents back in guilt-free and with no shame; some can’t.
Personally I look forward to the day when Pat Tiberi is no longer my representative, and look forward to once again not voting for him, next time I get the chance.
OK, I’d like some Bombay Safire Gin with my Quinine, please! That’s sort of a Safire and tonic, no?
Etc. and agreed. Except you were referring to a “Pyrrhic victory” for the Democrats in Congress - as if *they *were paying a heavy *political *price. In short, no, and your attempt at subject-changing instead of replying is noted.
Same kind of problem again. Your claim was “Winning is everything”. If those outcomes are things you consider good, then no, winning is *not *everything.
I count sympathizers, which you pretty reliably are.
False equivalence this time. This embarrassment to the nation, again, was *not *the doing of “Congress”.
I once thought you knew better than to try this lame, irresponsible shit on a board where you know it doesn’t work.
Not a single thing you selectively quoted and made assumptions about is true. I thought you knew better than to try this lame shit. You’ve never been right about me, and you’re not now.
IDK. Until the sweet, sweet nectar of human misery can be captured and distilled, I have to believe that it was. In the meant time, we’ll just have to settle for basking in that misery as best we can. 
I love this quote from Boehner:
What he should have added was, “And in order to stop Obama’s train wreck, we are willing keep running longer, more valuable, more important trains off cliffs and into mountains indefinitely.”
Jesus. DROP IT ALREADY, YOU MORONS. (The morons in Congress, that is. Not the morons in this thread. Er, not that any of you are morons. Ahem.)