Chronicling The Hours Before The Shutdown

The Article: My Shutdown Diary by David Weigel in Slate.

The Text: Monday, Sept. 30, 2:08 p.m. If the House GOP’s Saturday night vote-a-rama had a point, it was pure PR. House Republicans were at work while Americans were watching baseball; Senate Democrats were AWOL. On Sunday, led by Conference Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a gaggle of House Republicans had stood between the Capitol and C-SPAN cameras and hectored Majority Leader Harry Reid’s Democrats for not moving the newest continuing resolution—the one with the one-year delay of the Affordable Care Act. “Come back and do what is required in a democracy!” said Arkansas Rep. Tim Griffin. “O Senate, where art thou?” asked Tennessee Rep. Marsha Blackburn.

The Senate was biding time until Reid brought it back to kill the resolution. Senators filed in to table it, all 54 Democrats versus all 46 Republicans. Arizona Sen. John McCain stuck around after his vote to tell reporters, who have rekindled their affection for him, why the House GOP was careening toward death and destruction.

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Obamacare Versus The Affordable Care Act

I can’t decide whether to laugh or burst into tears.

GOP Logic On The Economy And Obamacare

Don’t expect too much, guys: this is the same party whose so-called leaders invoke “Green Eggs and Ham” while filibustering.

When Journalists Press Politicians

Hours before the shutdown, a CNN journalist asks two Republican politicians if they’d be willing to forego their salaries as “non-essential members” of the federal workforce. Their response? Exactly what you’d expect: they didn’t give one.

Different Definitions Of “Incentives”

Strip the vulnerable so they’ll do anything to survive; give to those who live in excess so they’ll contribute more. Nice set of values there.