Jonathan Chait writes about Ted Cruz's campaign urging the House Republican caucus to force a government shutdown if the Senate and president won't agree to an Obamacare delay. Crazy House Republicans are on board, and are making Boehner's life miserable -- but, of course, there's this:
Now, the Cruz House bloc can't exactly force Boehner's hand here. They can simply force him to pass a bill to keep the government open with Democratic votes. That, of course, would be another win for Cruz -- conservatives would be furious at Boehner’s betrayal and looking to potentially depose him:
If Boehner breaks the Hastert rule on CR, there will be a revolt by the usual suspects. Cruz is helping to grow that group's numbers...
— Robert Costa (@robertcostaNRO) September 27, 2013
You know what? I'm sick of hearing that this is such a painful process for Boehner. I'm sick of being told that I should feel some sympathy for the guy because he's just trying to keep his job.
I'm 54 years old. If I lose my job, I lose my job. I have no income. (Yes, I can do freelance work in my field, but that pays much less and comes with no benefits.) Because I'm in my fifties, and nobody in America is hiring people in their fifties, if I lose my job I'll probably never have a good job again. And that's true of pretty much every American my age.
John Boehner? Why does his desire to cling to his speakership supersede the needs of the country? If he genuinely thinks the crazy caucus is leading the country to a cataclysm, why shouldn't he sacrifice his damn speakership and do what's patriotic, suspending the Hastert "rule" (which is just self-imposed and isn't a rule at all) and getting a continuing resolution and debt ceiling increase passed with Democratic and sane Republican votes? What does he lose if he's deposed, besides power -- which, as is obvious by now, is not something he has much of?
If I'm let go in a wave of "belt-tightening" or "restructuring," I'm unemployed. If Boehner's deposed, he can keep his seat in Congress. And if he retires in disgrace, so what? The world of corporate boards and lobbying and fees per speech that would be a nice annual salary for a normal person will open up to him. Plus, as a congressman with a 22-year career, he'll have a lovely pension and health insurance and retirement account. Hell, he's 63 -- he can start collecting Social Security.
Sorry, but there's something pathological about the craven, desperate way that members of Congress -- people with so many options -- cling to their seats. The rest of us are regularly told that we simply can't expect to hold the same job for life -- the real world just doesn't work that way anymore. Our elected officials just don't live in our world.
6 comments:
When I was 54, I lost my job. I lost my job. I have no income. Yes, I do freelance work but I now knocking on the door of sixty and no one in America will ever hire me, I will never again have a real job.
People wonder why I want run my AR up some tea baggers' ass, some Repubilans' ass, and cap off a few rounds.
No fear, got nothin' left to lose.
Totally agree, Steve.
No, they don't have a clue about the real world.
Are you a man, or a mouse, Mr. Speaker?
Never mind. I know the answer to that question.
And I suspect that if Boner loses his SQUEAKership, he'll get paid a million bucks before 55 year-old me can find even a minimum wage job - let alone one that pays a livable salary, and has benefits.
No one's hiring us over 50's if we lose our jobs.
So why would I give a Hershey's-kiss shit about the job of some 63 year-old cowardly clown who has a chance to stand up to the people who intend to do this nation and its people REAL HARM, and instead, hides in some corner with a cigarette and some expensive Scotch, and sticks his ass out of that corner only because he apparently likes it when it's f*cked by his fellow Republicans - the Teatards?
He can go to f*cking hell, for all I care!
They all can.
Every last f*cking conservative one of them.
But they won't go to hell.
Not because there's no such place - I know, I'm about a step away.
I live in place that's one late bill or serious illness from losing our house, and ending up there.
But because these evil assclowns all have golden and/or political parachutes that keep them from having to live in the real world, and suffering the consequences of their own actions.
I care about Boehner about as much as he cares about the millions of unemployed Americans.
Boehner and the Republicans do not have any sense of honor, in its classic sense, any longer. Boehner does not see himself as owing any higher duty to the country or the constitution than he owes to himself and his own narrow concerns. He just doesn't. He can't appeal to the better nature of his tea party caucus because he doesn't expect them to have one. No one on that side of the aisle has been asked to sacrifice for the good of someone else--that would be completely against their randian faux christianity anyway. So he has neither a better nature himself, nor any way to appeal to their better angels. All he can do is shake his head and whine about how uncomfortable all this makes him. He will not let himself be fired in a modern day "saturday night massacre." He will not move to the center and tell them to fuck off.
I learned my department was being eliminated and I was being laid off at the age of 58 - and after absolutely zero response on the job market, I was able to secure an in-house transfer to a position earning 30% less that my old salary. I sent out hundreds of applications - no bites. I refused to believe it at first, but finally had to admit that it had to have been age discrimination, in part.
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