Make No Mistake, This is a Republican Shutdown

Make No Mistake, This is a Republican Shutdown
FOX News and conservative radio like to make out the issue as “both sides are to blame,” or more commonly just casting blame solely on the Democrats, but that’s just not true.

The Republicans are to blame. Period.

The GOP say the Democrats won’t negotiate

But they admit they had 19 bi-partisan meetings prior to the shutdown in attempts to avert it. Obama invited all the republican representatives to the White House, but 214 republicans chose not to attend. Who’s really not coming to the table here?

The GOP says the Democrats are asking for too much

Which is also untrue. The current “clean funding bill” in congress is not what the Democrats wanted, but the one they ultimately agreed to. It’s $90 billion short of what the Democrats wanted.

House Speaker John Boehner says there aren’t enough votes

There’s only one way to know for sure, and that’s to allow a vote. He refuses to allow a vote. Why is that? It’s like at every step he’s trying to circumvent the democratic process.

The GOP says the Democrats could end the shutdown immediately

But we know the clean funding bill, the only bill in the house right now, would pass with bipartisan support if John Boehner and Eric Cantor would let it come to a vote. They simply refuse to even let congress vote on the very bill that would end it today. John Boehner admitted that he repeatedly agreed to support the clean funding bill, but later changed his mind in order to target Obamacare.

Further, it used to be true that the Democrats could force a vote on this issue, but late on the evening of September 30th, and very quietly at that, the Republicans passed an amendment that only House Majority leader Eric Cantor or his asignee can bring it to a vote.

The Republicans aren’t surprised by this shutdown, they planned it months in advance.