House Republicans behavior unconstitutional

MORNING MESSAGE

By Richard Eskow

Campaign for America's Future

ourfuture.org

The House’s Un-American Activities

The Constitution does an admirable job of describing the way our government is supposed to operate, and nowhere does it say the House of Representatives has the power to shut it down in order to revoke a law that displeases it. In fact, it makes it clear that this is not how our system works ... What the Republicans are attempting to do is, therefore, both unconstitutional and a violation of their own sworn promise – an oath sworn on the Bible they claim to revere. Their consciences must decide whether their behavior is un-Godly, but the Constitution they swore to uphold makes it pretty plain that it’s un-American.

GOP Squabbles Over Who Should Force Shutdown First…

House Republicans slam Sen. Ted Cruz for suggesting he wouldn’t fight in the Senate to pass the ObamaCare repeal he’s demanded of the House. WSJ: “Rep. Sean Duffy (R., Wis.) tweeted that Messrs. Cruz and Lee ‘refuse to fight. Wave white flag.’ Rep. Tim Griffin (R., Ark.) said they were all talk no action: ‘So far Sen Rs are good at getting Facebook likes, and townhalls, not much else. Do something.’ Rep. Tom Price (R., Ga.) sniffed, ‘House Republicans are turning words into action to defund #Obamacare. Ball will be in the Senate’s court.’”

E. J. Dionne pinpoints why the Right is so obsessed with stopping Obamacare: “Its central worry is not that the program will fail but that it will succeed.”

…But Debt Limit Breach Bigger Threat

WH acceptance of sequester means shutdown less likely than debt limit breach, notes Politico: “[A] so-called clean CR could pass the House with roughly 180 Republican votes with the remainder coming from the Democratic side of the aisle, according to senior GOP sources … Although some Democrats are pushing to turn off the sequester as part of any CR deal, White House officials believe they can count on between 40 and 50 Democratic votes for a clean CR at the $986 billion level … with only sequester-level spending to claim as a victory on the CR, the House GOP stance will harden when it comes to hiking the debt ceiling in mid-October. And the political and economic stakes become much higher with the outcome more difficult to predict.”

“If we get a debt ceiling crisis, it’s because Republican voters want one” finds W. Post’s Greg Sargent: “The new Washington Post/ABC News poll on the debt ceiling tells us something remarkable: Among Republicans who believe that not raising the debt ceiling would cause serious harm to the economy, a majority of them wants Congress not to raise it anyway.”