March 29, 2024

Obama’s Government Shutdown is Backfiring

President Barack Obama ordered a partial shutdown of the federal government shortly after midnight on October 1, 2013. On September 30, 2013, the Republican-majority House of Representatives voted 228-201 to fund the government for two months while delaying the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare. The Democratic-majority Senate voted 54-46 to reject that deal, just as it had done earlier in the day with a similar measure that would have postponed Obamacare. This is the 18th time that the federal government has experienced a shut down due to the inability of both chambers of Congress to reach an agreement on spending. The last time the federal government had a shut down, it lasted for a total of 28 days between November 1995 and January 1996.

Earlier, on September 30, President Obama said in a televised address that he would not negotiate over the implementation of the healthcare law. The president stated “one faction, of one party, in one house of Congress, in one branch of government does not get to shut down the entire government just to re-fight the results of an election.” It is interesting that Obama refuses to negotiate with Congress, yet is willing to negotiate with Iran, Russia and Syria. Perhaps, Obama has forgotten or does not care that in our Republic, our Founders incorporated in our Constitution a separation of the three branches powers in order to limit the executive branch from abusing its authority. As president, Barack Obama has the obligation to negotiate with Congress and not to act as a dictator.

obama will not negotiateFor several days, the Obama White House and members of his party in Congress have been blasting Republicans in the House of Representative and the Senate for being reckless. Following Saul Alinsky’s book, Rules for Radicals, Obama’s supporters have been using serious accusations and ridicule against those who are opposed and refuse to fund Obamacare.

Senior White House adviser, Dan Pfeiffer, called Republicans suicide bombers, arsonists, and kidnappers. He stated the following: “What we are not for is negotiating with people with a bomb strapped to their chest… We are not going to do that. It is not a negotiation if I show up at your house and say give me everything inside or I am going to burn it down.” Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, called Tea Party members “terrorists” and “anarchists.” Former Vice President Al Gore accused those opposed to Obamacare of being “political terrorists.”

joe garciaOn October 1, 2013 U.S. Representative Joe Garcia, Democrat from Miami Dade County, Florida, from the floor of the House of Representatives also joined in attacking his fellow Republican House members. He said that some Republican Party members of the House of Representatives wanted to vote for the continuing funding of the government. He added the following: “Unfortunately they’ve been taken hostage by extremist elements in their party. We just need our colleagues to step up, push aside these extremist elements, this Taliban.” The National Republican Congressional Committee and the Republican Party of Florida were incensed at this terrorism-related rhetoric by Congressman Garcia. The Chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, Lenny Curry, stated the following: “Congressman Joe Garcia’s remarks on the floor of the United States House of Representatives, equating some of his colleagues to the Taliban, are reprehensible and disgusting. Congressman Garcia needs to apologize to his colleagues and all Floridians.” Congressman Garcia eventually apologized for his shameful remarks.

The former community organizer from Chicago and now White House “Agitator-in-Chief” believes firmly that citizens and politicians who oppose his misguided policies are his enemies. As such, his opponents must be demonized constantly for daring to oppose Obama’s radical and collectivist agenda. Obama learned well the teachings of his spiritual leader, Saul Alinsky, as his son proudly stated that President Obama was his father’s greatest disciple.

alinskyAlinsky, the founder of the modern community organizing movement, preached to his radicals and Marxist followers that those who are opposed to them, must be destroyed by using ridicule and character assassination. Alinsky urged his radical disciples to wage constant war against their opponents. He wrote in Rules for Radicals that radicals should not talk to opponents since it “humanize them.” Alinsky told radicals to lie and use deceit, as often as possible, to push their radical agenda. Alinsky wrote in Rules for Radicals, a book that he dedicated to Lucifer, the following : “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. It is almost impossible to counteract ridicule.” Thus, the White House and Congressional Democrats have refused to negotiate with Republicans and have used ridicule and incendiary statements against them, such as the ones employed by Obama’s preacher of 20 years, Jeremiah Wright, of the United Church of Christ in Chicago.

Lost in this negative and incendiary rhetoric is the fact that defunding Obamacare by the Republicans in the House of Representatives is the right thing to do, as they are acting on behalf of the majority of Americans, who are opposed this train wreck healthcare law. So when patriotic Americans are called suicide bombers, hostage-takers, murderers, terrorists, arsonists, and kidnappers, this is another indication of the disdain and hatred that President Obama has for conservative and religious individuals and organizations. It is another manifestation of his desire to take us down a road to a tyrannical socialist society.

The failure of the president and the Democratic majority in the Senate to compromise with the Republicans in the House of Representatives has brought the partial shutdown of the federal government for the first time in 17 years. The failure of Congress to agree on a spending bill resulted that 800,000 federal employees are being furlough as of October 1, 2013 and all others will have to work without pay. Later, 400,000 federal employees were brought back to work, many of them at the Pentagon. The military, and services such as Social Security and Medicare, are not affected by the shutdown. National parks and national museums and other nonessential services will be closed.

President Obama talks about how the Republicans have failed to understand the results of his victory in 2008 and that elections have consequences. However, Obama fails to understand that from 2010 to the present, the American people have elected a Republican majority in the House of Representatives. Those that voted for Republicans in the House of Representative want their views represented by their elected leaders. One of their main issues is abolishing Obamacare. They know the law is unworkable, as some Democrats who were in favor and voted for the law, are now also in agreement. It was Democratic Senator Max Baucus who called Obamacare “a train wreck.”

delayedThe president himself had to postpone the employer mandate for one year since he realized it would have brought massive unemployment. The majority of small businesses and corporations would have had to reduce hours and lay off workers because they could not afford the enormous cost of the health insurance under Obamacare. Shamefully, the White House and Congress exempted their employees, as well as themselves, from Obamacare. The unions that supported Obama do not want Obamacare now, nor do the vast majority of American people.

Speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner, Republican from Ohio, stated the following: “The House has made its position clear: keep the government running and ensure basic fairness for all Americans under Obamacare. Unfortunately, Senate Democrats chose to shut down the government rather than discuss or even recognize Obamacare’s failures. The best path forward right now is for both chambers to convene a formal conference committee where we can resolve our differences, and to move forward on important legislation that gets control of spending and strengthen our economy. That is the system the Founders set up for us, and it is what the American people expect us to do.”

The new plan of House of Representatives calls for the two houses of Congress to appoint lawmakers to sit down and work on a compromise bill that would fund the government. The bill includes a provision that would delay by one year the Obamacare mandate that individuals must purchase health insurance, a proposal defund obamacarethat the Senate has rejected repeatedly. The measure also includes a provision that eliminate special subsidies paid to Congress and Congressional staff to help purchase health insurance in the newly created exchanges. Boehner explained that “the House has voted to keep the government open, but we also want basic fairness for all Americans under Obamacare.” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid dismissed the new GOP plan and stated that the House Republicans are being dominated by “the Tea Party, the anarchist of this country.”

House Speaker John Boehner on October 1, 2013 blamed President Barack Obama for the government shutdown. He wrote in USA Today the following: “The president isn’t telling the whole story when it comes to the government shutdown. The fact is that Washington Democrats have slammed the door on reopening the government by refusing to engage in bipartisan talks. And, as stories across the country highlight the devastating impact of Obama care on families and small businesses, they continue to reject our calls for fairness for all Americans.” Speaker Boehner explained the House Republican efforts to keep the government operating and blasted the Democrats and President Obama for the refusal to negotiate on any spending plan that included Obamacare language.

Senator Ted Cruz, Republican from Texas, who had conducted earlier a 21-hour filibuster against Obamacare said, along with other lawmakers, that he would forgo his salary during the shutdown and contribute the money to charity. Senator Cruz said that “elected leaders should not be treated better than the American people, which is precisely why hard-working Americans deserve the same Obamacare exception that President Obama has already granted members of Congress.”

Senator Marco Rubio, Republican from Florida, called the government shutdown as nothing less than a “spectacle of failed leadership.” Senator Rubio stated the following: “Across our country, Americans are as disgusted as I am by the latest Washington spectacle of failed leadership. I hear it every day from Americans hurting and wondering whether anyone in Washington even cares about people like them who continue working hard and sacrificing, only to keep falling behind. While Washington debates how to keep the government open, too few are talking about how to keep the American dream alive for the majority of Americans threatened by Washington’s dysfunction and intrusion into our economy and lives.”

Barack Obama is sadistic and vindictive president

obama vindictiveThe White House’s plan during the government shutdown is to maximize pain on Americans and to blame the Republicans. In a very revealing article, “The Sadistic Strategy of Obama and Reid” published by WND October 4, 2013, Pat Buchanan  pointed out that the president and his advisers, taking a page out of Saul Alinsky’s book Rules for Radicals, want “to maximize the people’s pain to maximize the political damage to the enemy, the Republican Party.” Buchanan explained that when the president was asked the question that if there was any danger of America defaulting on her debt, he perversely said that yes there is such a peril. His intent was to panic the stock market.

Pat Buchanan also gave the example of the closing of the World War II Memorial by setting up steel barriers and crime scene tape to keep elderly veterans from visiting the site. He said “what kind of sick mind does something like that?” The incident provoked members of Congress, the veterans, and members of their families to personally pulled aside the barriers so that these veterans could visit the site, some of whom may have been there for the last time due to their advanced age.

When the House of Representatives sent a bill to the Senate to provide funding for life-saving cancer treatment, keeping open all memorials and monuments, all tourists sites  in Washington D.C., all programs for America’s veterans and other vitally needed services, the Democratic majority of the Senate quickly rejected the bill. A few days before, the pro-Obama newspaper The Washington Post criticized Republicans that they were endangering the nation’s health by failing to fund the NIH. But when the Senate rejected the House bill to fund the NIH, The Washington Post was silent. Obviously, the concern of The Washington Post was not the funding of the NIH, but to follow the line of attack of the White House of bashing the Republican Party.

Obama also ordered the cemetery at the beaches at Normandy, France be closed indefinitely. The president even closed ocean national parks, making it illegal to swim or dive in the ocean. For example, in Miami, Florida, it is very popular to go by boats to the Biscayne National Park over the Columbus Day weekend to swim and dive in the ocean around Elliott Key. It was announced that National Park rangers will be there to kick out the people and their boats. The Grand Canyon in Arizona was closed even though the state of Arizona offer to pay for the salaries of the Rangers.

While World War II veterans were denied the use of the mall to visit the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. However, the president allowed on October 8, 2013, thousands of illegal aliens to use the mall for a demonstration in favor of amnesty. Obama provided many officers, a platform with microphones. Incredibly and shamefully veterans who fought for freedom cannot use the mall, but those that entered the nation illegally are welcome to use the mall with assistance with park rangers and police. What kind of country is this?

Several Democratic politicians, such as Nancy Pelosi, the former Speaker of the House addressed the protesters. Six extreme radical Democratic members of Congress sat on the streets near the Capitol in an act of civil disobedience in support of amnesty for illegal aliens. They were arrested. Socialist Puerto Rican congressman Luis Gutierrez from Illinois and socialist Mexican-American Raul Grijalva from Arizona where detained after screaming “Si se Puede” (Yes, we can). The others were arrested were congressmen Charles Rangel from New York, John Lewis from Georgia, and Keith Ellison from Minnesota, the only Muslim in Congress.

Unbelievably, the Pentagon froze the death benefits to the families of fallen military personnel who died in combat. The Pentagon pays out $100,000 within three days of the death of soldiers. But it said the shutdown meant there is no authority now to pay the money. Republicans in Congress blasted the military and said that the Congress gave the Defense Department broad authority to continue paying bills such death payments in a law passed just before the government shutdown of October 1, 2013.

Barack Obama wanted to inflict maximum pain on the American people and blame it on the Republican Party. However, this tactic is backfiring on the president since he’s been seen by more and more people as a spiteful, sadistic, and dysfunctional president. A recent poll revealed that only 37% of Americans approve the job that the president is doing. More and more people are complaining about this irresponsible and vindictive president.

On October 8, 2013 the president again blamed the Republicans in Congress for the government shutdown and insisted one more that he would not negotiate with them. Obama called the Republicans “irresponsible hostage-takers” and his allies in Congress and the media continued to insult Republicans in Congress. Speaker of the House John Boehner, Republican from Ohio, responded immediately and scolded Obama for his remarks, saying the president must negotiate before they pass the bills. He said Congress and the White House had negotiated on government funding and the debt limit dozens of times over the years, resulting in “significant policy changes that would, in fact, reduce spending and put us on a saner fiscal path.” John Boehner added the following: “It’s time to have that conversation. Not next week, not next month. The conversation must to start today. I am hopeful, whether it’s the president or Democrat leaders here in the Congress, we can begin that conversation.”

On October 11 through October 13 hundreds of truckers are descending upon Washington, D.C. in massive protest demonstration. The truckers are calling their protest Truckers Riding for the Constitution. They are demanding that the president be removed from office for his constant violations of the Constitution. Barack Obama clearly has a great disdain and contempt for our Constitution. In 2001 Obama said “the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties full of constraints imposed upon us by our Founding Fathers.”

shut downThe president and his allies in the Senate have issued the order that either Obamacare is fully funded and left untouched in the continuing resolution to fund the government, or they would shut down the government and blame the Republican Party. The president has made a very clear that he would not accept piecemeal funding of vitally needed services. It’s either all or nothing, regardless of the pain inflicted on the American people. In fact, the more pain the better. As Buchanan explained “Harry Reid and Barack Obama do not want to ease the pain of the people, they want to intensify that pain, ratchet it up, maximize it, to put maximum pressure on and do maximum damage to the GOP. The conclusion according to Buchanan is that “the Obama-Reid strategy is, in a word, sadistic.”

The Republican-dominated House of Representatives wanted to delay the Obamacare for one year but Obama and Reid rejected that bill. However, both Obama and Reid are out of step with Americans. A recent Fox News poll revealed that 57% of Americans wanted to delay the healthcare law for one year and 39% were opposed.

Mathew Staver wrote an article entitled “Spin: White House Winning Shutdown Crisis” on the Liberty Counsel Newsletter on October 4, 2013. He explained that the White House has arrogantly said that the administration is “winning” the shutdown crisis and that Republicans are ready to cave in to their pressure. Staver pointed out that “this is the same condescending, dismissive, and manipulative tactic President Obama has used on Americans throughout his presidency.” He also wrote that established media continues to be complicit in advancing the Obama propaganda.

Mathew Staver expressed great concern at the results of a poll conducted by Fox News which revealed that 88% of Americans say that the government is in charge of the people. And that only 8% of Americans feel that the people are in charge of the government. Staver pointed out the following: “This is the total antithesis of what our Founding Fathers- and the generations between them and us- fought and died for. Today’s lawmakers were elected to serve the American people-not the other way around! When we serve the government, the American ideal is totally lost.” Sadly, this is another example of Obama’s road to a totalitarian society.

Obamacare begins in the nation

Senator Marco Rubio explained that “on October 1, 2013, Obamacare began to take root in Americans’ lives and marked among the most invasive intrusions into our workplaces, health plans, and religious freedoms that we have ever seen. Obamacare hurts everyone but especially the very people who live week-to-week, for whom being moved to part-time and losing work hours can be a devastating hit for their families.”

laying-off-obamacare-workers-health-careOn the same day that the federal government had a partial government shutdown, the Obamacare new insurance exchanges were started. However, this was not the grand opening that President Barack Obama wanted or envisioned. Americans are being encouraged to shop for, compare and purchase insurance online. The White House employees were also affected by the partial government shutdown and many of them were placed on furlough. So, Obama with an a skeleton crew working in the White House could not be in any mood to celebrate the start of his most signature piece of legislation, the monstrosity law known as Obamacare.

The launching of Obamacare’s new insurance exchanges on October 1, 2013 proved to be a disaster. It was plagued by technical glitches as millions tried to unsuccessfully enroll in the exchanges. Individuals, trying to sign up online for the Obamacare’s health insurance exchanges in order to compare various insurance plans, received numerous error messages asking them to please wait. The widespread technical problems across the nation brought a great deal of frustration as millions of people were unable to enroll on the online exchanges that sell subsidized health plans. These glitches will likely complicate the Obama administration’s efforts to sell the unpopular health law to a skeptical public.

Obama tried to go on damage control due to be scandal of the colossal failure of the insurance exchanges. He said “what’s happened is the website got overwhelmed by the volume.” This was a very poor excuse since the government has several years to prepare. The persistent glitches are a sign of government incompetence of major proportions. After all the president knew that there were 48 million uninsured Americans (about 3.8 million in Florida). Computer experts said that it wasn’t only volume that brought about the glitches. They believe that they are probably code problems and other issues with the insurance exchanges. More than likely, the Obama administration was completely unprepared to implement Obamacare on October 1. The delay of implementation by one year was, after all, a great idea and Obama should have accepted it.

 


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