NYT Editorial: If the federal government shuts down at midnight on Friday – which seems likely unless negotiations take a sudden turn toward rationality – it will not be because of disagreements over spending. It will be because Republicans are refusing to budge on these ideological demands:
• No federal financing for Planned Parenthood because it performs abortions. Instead, state administration of federal family planning funds, which means that Republican governors and legislatures will not spend them.
• No local financing for abortion services in the District of Columbia.
• No foreign aid to countries that might use the money for abortion or family planning. And no aid to the United Nations Population Fund, which supports family-planning services.
• No regulation of greenhouse gases by the Environmental Protection Agency.
• No funds for health care reform or the new consumer protection bureau established in the wake of the financial collapse.
Abortion. Environmental protection. Health care. Nothing to do with jobs or the economy; instead, all the hoary greatest hits of the Republican Party, only this time it has the power to wreak national havoc: furloughing 800,000 federal workers, suspending paychecks for soldiers and punishing millions of Americans who will have to wait for tax refunds, Social Security applications, small-business loans, and even most city services in Washington. The damage to a brittle economy will be substantial.
Democrats have already gone much too far in giving in to the House demands for spending cuts. The $33 billion that they have agreed to cut will pull an enormous amount of money from the economy at exactly the wrong time, and will damage dozens of vital programs.
But it turns out that all those excessive cuts they volunteered were worth far less to the Republicans than the policy riders that are the real holdup to a deal. After President Obama appeared on television late Wednesday night to urge the two sides to keep talking, negotiators say, the issue of the spending cuts barely even came up. All the talk was about the abortion demands and the other issues.
Democrats in the White House and the Senate say they will not give in to this policy extortion, and we hope they do not weaken. These issues have no place in a stopgap spending bill a few minutes from midnight.
….The lack of seriousness in the House is reflected in the taunting bill it passed on Thursday to keep the government open for another week at an absurdly high cost of $12 billion in cuts and the ban on District of Columbia abortion financing. The Senate and the White House said it was a nonstarter. Many of the same House members who earlier had said they would refuse to approve another short-term spending bill voted for this one, clearly hoping they could use its inevitable failure in the Senate to blame the Democrats for the shutdown. What could be more cynical?
The public is not going to be fooled once it sees what the Republicans, pushed by Tea Party members, were really holding out for. There are a few hours left to stop this dangerous game, and for the Republicans to start doing their job, which, if they’ve forgotten, is to serve the American people.
Full editorial here
The Obama Diary 
“The public is not going to be fooled once it sees what the Republicans, pushed by Tea Party members, were really holding out for”
Well that’s IF our very serious media tells the truth.
And there you have it gobrooklyn… the ap headlines and even some on msn this week have not been clear on that at all.. they’ve made it appear that negotiations were all in good faith by the repubs and that the President/democrats were equally at fault for not giving in. We’ve have increasingly obviously biased ‘reporters’ making up crap as they go along, and I’m afraid too many Americans are being fooled.
sherijr….John Boehner and the Tea-Republicans are trying to bring down thie President. They don’t want the economy to continue to improve, because if it does, it would be harder to defeat this President. So if a shutdown would help them reach that goal, then let the shutdown come. They think the people would blame the President. But I am hoping and praying that the people will not be fooled by these Tea-Republicans in 2012, like they were in 2010. These Tea-Republicans aren’t concern about the middle class and the poor, they only care about the rich, but they want to tell the poor and middle class what to do. And you are so right about those sorry ass media.
They have never had any intention of serving the American people……they only want to force their will on the American people! Democracy has no meaning for them, we are just supposed to do as they want each and every day. Doesn’t matter what their will of the day is, we must do it or pay the price!
I took at peek at CNN this morning,to find them saying that Democrats are also flying with the hyperbolic rhetoric and their example was to quote Loretta Sanchez talking about real people and real lives being used as Republicans as ideological pawns. Then they spent the next five minutes showing real people and the effect on their real lives as they are being used by Republcians as ideological pawns. It was surreal. They’re now polling people for comments about whether the military is being used as an ideological pawn…
So,if Republicans succeed in shutting down the government today because they have an evil social agenda, then how do they plan to end the shutdown once they’re in the shutdown period, since the tea party has stated that the problem with Newt’s shutdown was that he gave in too early? Didn’t they say during the campaign that if they shut down the government, they’ll stand firm and won’t back down?
The Republicans spent a lot of time talking about “uncertainty” for businesses, who are supposed to be able to handle uncertainty and utilize scenario planning to manage the uncertainty. What about the uncertainty that they are imposing on real people who are now anxious about paying their mortgages or rent and worried about how they’re going to feed their children? Clearly, that kind of uncertainty means nothing to them. They don’t mind about military personnel on the battlefield who are now splitting their thoughts between the guy firing at them, and the fact that their families might go hungry on Monday or get kicked out of their homes when they can’t pay their rent. This morning, I’vewatched person after person make a statement of how afraid and anxious they are about what they will do after midnight today.
If the recovery was all about regaining consumer confidence, then how can Republicans say that what they’re doing will support the recovery?
Republicans are despicable. I no longer can look at someone who says they are a modern-day Republican and think of them as anything other than evil. They have no conscience. They care nothing for their fellow man. The love of money is supreme to them. I hate what they are doing.
Well said Theo.. I agree. I, however stopped having trust or respect for anyone calling themself a republican a long time ago. In my opinion they have always been just like they are today.. they’ve just been a bit more cautious in carrying out their agenda for the most part. They’ve always believed in equality for themselves, free speech for themselves.. helping themselves.. its the majority of this country they’re against- with a Black Man running the Oval Office- they’ve merely become (in my opinion) more brazen in showing their asses to the whole world.
I rely on the govt for everything: my VA care, my disability, my son’s medicaid/foodstamps. And today I’m concerned about the many others with no cushion who’re going to be genuinely harmed by a govt shut-down. On the otherhand.. there is a part of me that says: go ahead and do it mofos.. seal your own destiny/fate here – because a govt shutdown, particularly a prolonged one will also take down the republican party for a good long time… depending on how many people they harm with it. So I am torn.
Lord Jesus, we are praying and asking that you will make our enemy our foot stool. Lord Jesus, I pray that you deliver us out of this hostage situation. Lord I pray that YOUR will be done, Lord although some of us are retired and Is living on fixed Incomes, but our Father God, we’re going to hold on until you bless us. Have Mercy, on your People, Lord Jesus. Let this be a teachable moment for all of us, Lord. Father God, we feel like we are at the crossroad, and Lord Jesus, we’re going to be still, and bear the pain, but yet realizing that you are God, and that all of our help comes from you. Help your People and hear our prayers. Have Mercy on us, In your Precious name, Thank you for listening to us, and we thank you for the privilege to call upon your name. Lord give us the strength to wait on you Lord, as you bless us. Amen, and Amen