Cruz’s mouth has done more harm than good, as he continually tries to talk his way into the favor of Congress and the American public. He wasted Senate floor time with a 21-hour fake filibuster, offended World War II vets, and tried to scare up terrorist-hysteria before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
All in all, he’s proven himself to be a complete dope. Even his own party is disgusted with him, and now they are pressing him to explain how he’s going to fix this mess. Cruz has yet to announce any inkling of a clear course of action. However, their chagrin is only surpassed by the outrage from people and businesses affected by the government shutdown.
The shutdown has put about 800,000 people out of work, unpaid, and over 80 percent of the country thinks the shutdown is a bad idea, according to a New York Times/CBS poll. National vice president of the American Federation of Government Employees, Jane Nygaard, who represents federation members in the Midwest, noted that “people are outraged” about the government temporarily stripping them of work.
She also indicated that “members likely blame the tea-party Republicans in the House of Representatives for the shutdown.”
“They had a chance,” said Nygaard. “If they didn’t want Obamacare they could have elected Romney as president, but they didn’t do that. The American public didn’t do that.”
The shutdown hurts more than workers.
Along with the 800,000 out-of-work government employees, who won’t get retroactively paid for time lost, nearly 1.3 million more will have their paychecks delayed. The state of Maryland has a high population of federal government workers, and because of the shutdown, it has been estimated that a $5 million loss in revenue generated by income and sales tax could affect the state. Not only will state governments suffer, but small businesses will also hurt.
Anyone wanting to start a new business in the very near future will have to wait because the Small Business Administration, which provides new loans to small startups, has been shutdown. The SBA does more than lend money to would-be small business owners, but they also “help small firms win government contracts, help veteran-owned businesses, and boost international trade.”
If the shutdown continues for more than three months, 41 percent of businesses earning less than $5 million a year will have to scale back their hiring.
In light of all these horrendous effects of Cruz’s shutdown, he has actually now begun to renege. Surely, he knew what the effects of a government shutdown would be, like shutting down national monuments and parks, but he still pushed for it and got it. But when World War II veterans were barred from visiting the World War II Memorial earlier this week, his tune changed.
After what happened at the World War II memorial, Cruz released a statement. First, he tried to blame Obama for the unfairness experienced by the vets: “Obama is so set on imposing his destructive, far-left ideology that his government is literally barricading World War II veterans out of their memorial,” even though Cruz wanted the shutdown.
And if “our veterans deserve much better,” then why even pursue a government shutdown that he would have, or should have, known would deny them access to their memorial?
So far, the Democrats have done pretty well at standing their ground against the GOP during the shutdown. It’s a good move because it puts pressure on the Republicans to come up with a solution to mend a wound they created, and overwhelming disapproval from the American public creates even more urgency.
President Obama has been stepping up his efforts in placing the blame of the shutdown at the Republicans’ feet. Since the shutdown started, Obama has been railing against the GOP by noting the sudden lack of payment to our government employees.
“This time is not because of a once in a lifetime recession,” said Obama, speaking at a construction company in Rockville, Md. “This isn’t happening because of some financial crisis. It’s happening because of a reckless, Republican shutdown in Washington.”
“That’s right,” shouted an audience member.
Josh is a writer and researcher with Ring of Fire. Follow him on Twitter @dnJdeli.
