We're facing the first federal government shutdown since 1995 and 1996 due to the stalled budget negotiations on Capitol Hill. The policy 'riders' that are being proffered by the Republican Tea Bagger movement as essential components to the current budget bill in Washington are nothing short of irresponsible.
The fiscal costs alone caused by the continued delays in reaching a budget settlement, coupled with the costs from the disruption resulting from the impending government shutdown at midnight tonight, will likely offset any savings that might have been achieved from the current budget negotiation process.
What we are seeing is the initial battle in an ideological war that Republican Tea Baggers are waging on government and society. It's clearly not about the money; it's all about the uncompromising Tea Bagger ideology.
President Obama says he believes a budget deal that will avert a government shutdown this weekend is still possible. He says failure to reach a deal would be disruptive at a moment when the economy is beginning to gain ground.
Obama and Congress remained billions of dollars apart and at odds over where to find savings. Boehner floated the possibility that he may seek as much as $40 billion in cuts, $7 billion more than the two sides have been discussing for the past week. Yet again moving the goal posts.
E.J. Dionne, a Columnist for the Washington Post, posted a recent opinion article that casts an interesting view of the current budget debacle.
The End of Progressive Government?
By E.J. Dionne Jr., Sunday, April 1, 2011
So far, our nation’s budget debate has been a desultory affair focused on whether a small slice of the federal government’s outlays should be cut by $33 billion or $61 billion, or whatever.
But Americans are about to learn how much is at stake in our larger budget fight, how radical the new conservatives in Washington are, and the extent to which some politicians would transfer even more resources from the have-nots and have-a-littles to the have-a-lots.
And you wonder: Will President Obama welcome the responsibility of engaging the country in this big argument, or will he shrink from it?
Will his political advisers remain robotically obsessed with poll results about the 2012 election, or will they embrace Obama’s historic obligation — and opportunity — to win the most important struggle over the role of government since the New Deal?
I highly recommend you read E.J. Dionne's entire The End of Progressive Government? article at the Washington Post website.
