What exactly is it the Tea Party wants to accomplish by shutting down our government? The House Tea Party caucus, led by Ted Cruz R-TX, and includes Speaker Boehner and the Majority leader Eric Cantor, wants to stop the implementation of the Health Care Act on October 1. They think the way to do that is simply cut the funding.
There is one terrible by-product of this nonsense, however, and it will make a lot of American lives miserable in the bargain. If the right-wing have their way, they will shut down the government as they did in 2011. People expecting Social Security checks and government employee paychecks will probably be at risk. The way they will do it is force the repeal of the Health Care Act by holding it hostage. If Congress doesn’t repeal “Obamacare” they will not raise the debt ceiling.
What would be the impact of a government shutdown you might ask? According to Raw News Media, there are five disastrous outcomes that will impact our economy if the Tea Party succeeds.
Here’s what will happen with three of them. First, there will be a suspension of approval of applications for small business loans. The Small Business Administration would be out of business. Second, our museums, monument, and parks would close. Washington tourism would be gone just like Yosemite National Park. Third, the National Institute of Health would not take any new patients of begin new clinical trials.
It is noteworthy to know that this freshman senator, Ted Cruz, has nothing to lose if he runs again in Texas. His gerrymandered district will re-elect him. They want him to shut the government down. Cruz might just do it. Our credit will be brought down another notch as it was in 2011 and the Dow may drop more than 15 points this time.
Let’s take a look at some of the dangerous games Cruz and his cronies Speaker Boehner and Eric Cantor are playing. Reuters reports that “Republicans in the House of Representatives set in motion on Wednesday a plan that ultimately could avert a federal government shutdown on October 1, turning a later battle over the debt ceiling into the main event in the conservative struggle against President Barack Obama’s healthcare program.”
To put all guessing aside, this is what the Fed chairman Ben Bernanke said at a recent news conference, “A government shutdown, and perhaps even more so a failure to raise the debt limit, could have very serious consequences for the financial markets and for the economy.” This is a person in charge of the American dollar. A person who knows what the consequences will be if Ted Cruz and his ilk have their way.
Friday, House Republicans celebrated. Reuters further reported that House Republicans “Notch[ed] their 42nd vote against ‘Obamacare’ and knowing full well the Democratic Senate will reject it, Republicans in the House cast their votes, staged a noisy celebration in front of a placard declaring: ‘SenateMustAct,’ and then left town for several days to give time for the Senate to demolish its work.”
The President said it well when he told a group of business leaders, “You have never seen in the history of the United States the debt ceiling or the threat of not raising the debt ceiling being used to extort a President or a governing party.” Extort is exactly what the “Cruz Cronies” did.
Richard Andrew is guest blogger for Ring of Fire.
