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EDITOR OF REDSTATE

Is Barack Obama Obfuscating the Cause of the Shutdown?

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  April 7th, 2011 at 01:11 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

“The Democrats are so invested in the right to murder children they’ll let, to use the Democrats’ own rhetoric, old people starve.”

The leftwing partisans are in full spin mode now after weeks of privately hoping for a government shutdown (though I have wanted one too). For a taste of the spin, go to Talking Points Memo.

According to Talking Points Memo, Barack Obama and the Democrats are willing to shut down the government to protect killing kids and killing businesses. Yep.

The Democrats, according to Talking Points Memo, have decided that they will shutdown the government in order to prevent Republicans from defunding Planned Parenthood, restricting abortions in D.C., and stopping the EPA from enacting job killing carbon regulations. Harry Reid says much the same, but he is lying. The continuing resolution contains riders he is perfectly fine with.

First of all, Obama himself has in the past been okay with the D.C. abortion restrictions. From the Weekly Standard:

This policy, known as the Dornan amendment, has previously enjoyed bipartisan support: Indeed, Reid, Biden, Pelosi, and Obama have all voted for appropriations bills that included the Dornan amendment. President Obama signed the Dornan amendment into law in the fiscal year 2009 budget.

Second, there has been bipartisan opposition in Congress to the EPA doing an end run around Congress on cap-and-trade and carbon emissions regulations.

Third, the defunding of Planned Parenthood has been scrapped from the continuing resolution.

Fourth, here is Barack Obama’s own veto statement. In it, the administration says nothing about the riders Talking Points Memo alleges are the source of the problem. Nothing. In fact, Speaker Boehner notes, “In its veto threat, the White House didn’t cite a single policy objection. No policy reason not to pass this troop funding bill.”

Is the President being diplomatic? If so, is it because he does not want the American people to know he is willing to shut down the government to protect not just killing children, but funding the murder?

Interestingly, the Republicans want to make sure the Department of Defense is funded for the rest of the year. The Republicans want to make sure our troops in harms way are not part of the “hostage negotiations”.

But it seems more and more the Democrats are perfectly willing to take our troops hostage to a government shutdown. In any event, if Nancy Pelosi could accuse anyone of wanting to starve old people, she should look in the mirror.

The Democrats are so invested in the right to murder children they’ll let, to use the Democrats’ own rhetoric, old people starve. They’ll also let our troops sit on a battlefield unfunded too all for the sacrosanct right of abortion if you believe Talking Points Memo.

If you believe Barack Obama, he just wants to make sure our troops aren’t protected from a shutdown, riders be damned.

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  • redinwash

    “The Democrats, according to Talking Points Memo, have decided that they will shutdown the government in order to prevent Republicans from defunding Planned Parenthood, restricting abortions in D.C., and stopping the EPA from enacting job killing carbon regulations.”

    It’s extreme comments like this that get us nowhere. This statement can easily be flipped to say: “The Republicans have decided they will shutdown the government in order to prevent Democrats from funding family planning services and keeping our air free from pollution.”

    See how that works? If we want to be taken seriously this kind of rhetoric needs to be toned down.

  • veritaseequitas

    to Republicans ALL THE TIME. The problem lies in the fact that the Republicans have this insane need to take the high road and so are consistently trumped by Liberals, who, as most right thinking people are aware, have far less brain power, morals and ethics than do Conservatives. As shown by the recent protests in Wisconsin and by the so called leaders in DC, Liberals will say and do anything to get their way. I am really sick of all the self righteous attempts to stifle language. Before you start worrying about the sepck in your brother’s eye, worry about the plank in your own. We have free speech in this country – for the time being anyway, we need to use it to our advantage.

  • Donald Ayotte

    I heard it’s his favorite word. I know that one of the classes he took in college was Obfuscation 101. I heard he excelled in that class

  • slimmu

    But the post is factually incorrect, the administration is clear that it will sign a “clean Continuing Resolution” which simply means no policy riders. Remove the policy riders and the troops will get paid, its simple.

  • http://travismonitor.blogspot.com Freedoms Truth

    Howard Dean was practivally salivating for it on MSNBC. Sen Reid has done NOTHING to get to a real compromise.
    Both of these items that are claimed sticking points have majority support in BOTH Houses.

    As for claims such as … “the administration is clear that it will sign a ?clean Continuing Resolution? which simply means no policy riders. Remove the policy riders and the troops will get paid, its simple.” …

    I don’t believe them nor trust anything the Democrats say – they lied last week about a deal, they are lying about what’s in the budget, they are posturing up the wazoo. But I would be happy to be shown wrong, and that can be done easily:

    The Senate under Harry Reid could simply PASS THE CLEAN BILL THAT THEY WANT AND NEGOTIATE FROM THERE OR CHALLENGE THE HOUSE TO PASS THE SAME.

    If the Democrats wanted a deal without a shutdown, that is exactly what they would do. And it would work!

    Since they are not doing it … conclusion is clear: The Democrats want a shutdown.

    The Democrats need a ‘crisis’ and need political theatre to obscure the real fiscal crisis and help them politically. Or so they think. If there is Karma, they will be the ones correctly blamed for the shutdown.

  • slimmu

    Continuing Resolution with nothing but military and defense related expenditures by Rep. Hal Rogers R-KY. ALL the riders were added in the House. The House already had the opportunity to pass a clean resolution and failed.

    I just want to see our soldiers funded, I don’t care if it comes from the House or the Senate, but the fact that the House had the opportunity and failed is a tragedy.

  • libertyatstake

    Or are you one of those re-pube-i-cans from inside the beltway who has made a nice career of having his a$$ handed to him by the Left?

    d(^_^)b
    http://libertyatstake.blogspot.com/
    “Because the Only Good Progressive is a Failed Progressive”

  • usadying

    Instead they should ask, “Who’s celebrating?” Government workers have umpteen holidays per year, and we survive. Only progressives ask who is to blame because they want the government to run everything in our lives. For those of us who want them to get the hell out of our lives, this is a blessing.

  • bradleyjames

    Or are you one of those far-left-wing-liberal-progressives who has made such a lazy, nice career of receiving government hand-outs (courtesy of the
    hard-working taxpayers), which libs think they are entitled to without having to work for anything. Why should they/you have to work for what you need and want? Here is why. The mindset of a stauch liberal: Successful,wealthy people should be forced to share their money with anyone who has less money. Regardless of the fact that the vast majority of wealthy people have achieved success through hard work and dedication. They pursued a good college education. Many rich people were NOT born into wealth and many grew up in poverty. But they didn’t let that stop them from pursuing their dream’s to get out of poverty. A lot of them worked 1,2, and sometimes 3 jobs to work their way through college. (no scholarships, grants, freebies, NOTHING. After college they started at the bottom with entry level positions. From there they worked their way up the ladder to success through hard work and dedication. Was it easy or fun. No, of coarse not. But eventually their hard work paid off. They became successful. This why it’s so infuriating to listen to those people demand cradle-tograve hand-outs. Now of coarse there are exceptions to every rule. Some people and their situations do require help with basic needs, such as physical and or mental disabilities. Some people end up in situations (through no fault of their own) where they need some TEMPORARY help. Last but not least, EVERYONE makes mistakes that can sometimes require temporary assistance. Also, not every wealthy person has became rich legally.

    My problem is with people who abuse the system for hand-outs, especially when those “hand-outs” are paid for by the hard-working people. Even worse are people who think they are so entitled and should NEVER be made to work. Their mentality levels are beyond absurd and just blow the mind.

    So, libertatstake: Why don’t you explain why you think the government (taxpayer) owes entitlements to those who have done ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to deserve it. With the exception of certain people that I have already listed, who DO need and deserve it.