Wisconsin's Suicide Caucus—Ron Johnson, Four Wisc GOP Reps Vote for Gov Default

Paul Ryan leads Wisconsin Suicide Caucus; Now Looking to Slash
Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid as Their Next Crusade

Update - China's credit rating agency Dagong has downgraded the U.S. rating from A to A-, reports the Business Insider.

Five out of six members of the Wisconsin Republican congressional delegation voted not to open government, and avert an unprecedented financial default in a vote late last night.

This manner of Tea Party campaign is incredibly reckless action that has world economists wondering if Republican Party extremism will destroy the United States Dollar as the world's reserve currency.

Wisconsin Republicans did their worst.

U.S. Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin is one of only 18 senators to oppose the Senate bill opening government, and avoiding a government default that economists say would have thrown the United States back into a recession.

Reps. Sean Duffy (R-Ashland), Tom Petri (R-Fond du Lac), Paul Ryan (R-Janesville), James Sensenbrenner (R-Wauwatosa) all voted "No" in joining Sen. Johnson.

Rep. Reid Ribble (R- Green Bay) is the only Wisconsin Republican in Congress to vote Yes to opening the government and avoiding default.

The Republican-engineered shutdown is estimated to have cost the U.S. domestic economy and American families $Billions is lost income and economic production.

The House voted 285-144, with all 144 No votes coming from Republican members of Congress.

The Senate voted 81 to 18, with all 18 No votes coming from Republican members of Congress.

The shutdown, perilous to the American economy, is also seen as a political body blow to the Tea Party or suicide caucus to which most Wisconsin Republicans have attached themselves.

Around the world, there is relief as well as disbelief that Republicans would perpetrate the 16-day shutdown bringing the United States of America close to default and financial catastrophe.

James Meikle, Paul Lewis and Dan Roberts report in The Guardian:

Stock markets in Japan, China, Hong Kong and South Korea initially reflected relief after the Republicans finally capitulated in their failed attempt to undermine Obama's healthcare reforms. But in Asia and Europe stock markets overall displayed a muted reaction with traders apparently expecting another battle in Washington early in 2014.

The shutdown is estimated to have cost the US $24bn – £1.5bn a day – according to ratings agency Standard and Poor. China's official Xinhua news agency had accused Washington of jeopardising other countries' dollar assets. China is the US government's largest creditor.

Obama signed the necessary legislation to fend off a default shortly after midnight on Thursday after a Republican split in the House of Representatives. The bill had passed easily with broad bipartisan support in the Senate, where Democratic and Republican leaders forged the agreement. It offers a temporary fix, funding the government until 15 January and raising the debt ceiling until 7 February.

Military Groups to Call for End to Government Shutdown

Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Virginia): "We have to make a decision
that’s right long-term for the United States, and what may be
distasteful, unpleasant and not appropriate in the short run
may be something that has to be done," Griffith said after a meeting
of the House GOP, joining a long list of Republicans who have
dismissed the consequences of blowing through the debt ceiling
and causing a default on the nation’s payments.(ThinkProgress)

That will be enough now, Republican Party: Do your job.

A broad coalition of military groups is calling for the GOP shutdown to end now.

They will be meeting Tuesday morning, October 15th at the World War II Memorial.

This call comes as the GOP members of Congress contend to make the most imbecilic statement on the shutdown yet. From ThinkProgress:

Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA) offered a curious analogy this weekend, comparing the impending default to the American Revolution.

Griffith was asked about the fast-approaching debt ceiling, which if not raised, threatens to drag the U.S. economy back into a recession. He told The Hill on Saturday that he is not concerned with the economic consequences so long as he and his party get their way.

From the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America:

The Military Coalition, a coalition of 33 of the leading veterans and uniformed services organizations that represent more than 5.5 million members, are coming together with other leading veterans organizations at the World War II Memorial Tuesday morning to demand an end to the government shutdown.  The shutdown has been devastating for the nation’s military readiness and for the veterans, servicemembers, families and survivors in the uniformed services community.

Veterans who receive disability and GI Bill benefits and survivors who rely on survivor benefits don't know if they'll get their next check. National Guard and Reserve monthly training has been cancelled, affecting critical troop readiness and pay. Many services that military families count on daily are suspended. Veterans make up 27 percent of the federal workforce and don’t know when they will get to go back to work. The 435,000 veterans in the VA disability claims backlog have to wait even longer.

WHO: Speakers include leaders from the American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Disabled American Veterans, Jewish War Veterans, the Air Force Sergeants Association, the Reserve Officers Association, the National Military Family Association, and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.

WHEN: Tuesday, October 15th at 10 a.m. EDT

WHERE: World War II Memorial (17th Street SW)

GOP Gov Shutdown Devastates Veterans

The Republican-Tea Party government shutdown is far worse than Scott Walker appointing cronies with no veteran advocacy experience to non-profits only do watch as his cronies embezzle $10,000s.

From the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America

Americans are starting to grasp the full impact of the federal government shutdown on veterans and troops. Today, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki appeared before the House Committee on Veterans Affairs to discuss the impact of the shutdown on veterans. In his testimony, he said that if the shutdown continues, veterans won’t receive disability and GI Bill benefits on November 1.

The hearing also included testimony from Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, which called for Washington to end the shutdown that has a damaging effect on veterans and troops. IAVA continues to call for an end to the shutdown, and clarity for those veterans trapped in the uncertainty of how the shutdown will continue to affect their benefits and services. IAVA has launched a Change.org petition calling for Washington to put a stop to the political games and ensure that veterans get the care they need:

“Veterans are hurting and are tired of being used as political chew toys, said IAVA CEO and Founder Paul Rieckhoff. “They need Washington to end the shutdown so they can receive and benefit from the services and support they have earned. But until the government re-opens, our veterans deserve clear, reliable, and accurate information.” 

Tea Party Letter Indicts GOP on Shutdown

Rep. James Sensenbrenner signed Tea Party letter
calling for government shutdown

Update: A Federal Budget Crisis Months in the Planning (Stolberg, McIntire. NYT)

"More than a third of congressional Republicans told their leader on Thursday (August 2013) to shut down government rather than pay for the Obamacare health care law, according to the Associated Press."

So reads an August piece by Jennifer Jacobs in the Des Monies Register.

The corporate media is sticking to its who-is-to-blame blather, despite the fact we have known for months the GOP suicide caucus has called for a government shutdown.

The Tea Party letter calls explicitly for a government shutdown unless the Affordable Health Care Act is somehow repealed.

The Tea Party called for the shutdown; House Speaker John Boehner gave the Tea Party the shutdown; and is actively blocking an up-or-down vote on a bill ending the shutdown.

Every honest news headline should read some variation of:

Tea Party to Blame for Government Shutdown; 
John Boehner Still Blocking Vote to End Government Shutdown

"Harry Reid and his Democrats will have no incentive to compromise unless they know the Republicans are willing to take a hard stance -- even allowing the government to be shut down, if necessary -- in order to stop the catastrophically unworkable and unaffordable health care law from taking effect," the Tea Party-FreedomWorks, website says in pushing for supports for the shutdown letter.

In Wisconsin, Rep. James Sensenbrenner is the only member to have signed the August Tea Party letter.

Contempt for People Defines GOP Project

Update: See The White Man's Last Tantrum. "American pundits are missing the bigger point about the Republican shutdown of the U.S. government and the GOP’s threatened default on America’s credit. The real question is not what policy concessions the Tea Partiers may extract, but rather can a determined right-wing white minority ensure continuation of white supremacy in the United States?"

The reason Republicans lie repeatedly without shame is not just a lack of conscience.

Republicans are engaged in implementing their project to disenfranchise out-of-favor Americans, and lies are imperative.

The Project has been launched and every Republican will toe the line.

In Wisconsin—where Republicans hold sway in the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government through the injection of tens of millions of dollars into the GOP—one can see clearly the GOP objectives of repressing non-favored Americans by stripping people of their rights to organize, associate, and exercise community control of their local governments.

This American GOP social engineering project is fascistic; it's not just Greece or far-off countries where fascism is consciously pursued.

Women, college students, Americans of color, unions, environmentalists, attorneys enforcing rights of citizens, and citizen groups, earned social insurance programs; all are defects in Republican society to be corrected, problems to be solved.

Shut down the government, they are taking away our country. 

Misogyny, religious fanaticism and racism are the rallying cries for The Project: Engineering American society as a Republican homeland.

That's why shutting down the government, even threatening the world economy are acceptable as the scope and mission of The Project creeps outward.

One illustration, in Madison, Wisconsin one doesn't have to travel far to see in person the contempt the Republicans have for the black and brown citizens trying to pass themselves off as good Americans. The nerve.

Locally, in my neighborhood on the Madison-Fitchburg, Wisconsin border, the Meadowood Shopping Center represents a paradigm as hard-working people at the library, community center, and other small businesses contend with the racism inflamed by former Republican Dane County Supervisor David Blaska and the staff at GOP-infested Best Cleaners who just cannot stand the sight of black children walking past their establishment.

Call in some JPM security to yell and harass those children, a frequent occurrence.

The fact is Republicans do not regard black and brown Americans as full-blooded human beings, much less full-fledged citizens of the American republic.

"So long as I do not firmly and irrevocably possess the right to vote I do not possess myself. I cannot make up my mind — it is made up for me. I cannot live as a democratic citizen, observing the laws I have helped to enact — I can only submit to the edict of others," said Martin Luther King.

Submitting to the GOP edict.

This is the GOP project.

As long as you are alive and breathing in GOP land, your function is to submit to GOP edicts.

Challenge this project where you see it.

It may not appear so, but the GOP project is a house of cards.

Zero Wisconsin Republicans Call for Up-or-Down Vote to End Shutdown

Paul Ryan and GOP friends posture, but will not end shutdown;
or even call for a simple Up-or-Down vote. Yes or No? And what
the hell is Paul Ryan, House Budget Chair, doing? Staring into space?

GOP: Gov shutdown is irrational and destructive, but let's keep doing it.

We're not going to be disrespected," Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-Indiana.) told The Washington Examiner. "We have to get something out of this. And I don't know what that even is," notes the Huffington Post.

That's crazy.

ThinkProgress is keeping a running total of Republicans who differ from Stutzman and would vote to open government now, if Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) would allow a simple Up-or-Down vote to end the shut-down.

Boehner says:  No way.

And the entire Wisconsin Republican congressional delegation is with Boehner, following the most extremist and destructive Republicans in our nation's history.

Writes John Isreal:

Seventeen House Republicans have now indicated that they would support a 'clean' continuing resolution, like the one passed by the U.S. Senate, to reopen the government. If they joined with all 200 House Democrats, it is possible that they could give majority support to such a bill without any additional Republicans — if Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) allowed an up-or-down vote.

Cowards. The list of seventeen contains not one Republican from Wisconsin.

Take Rep. Reid Ribble (R-Sherwood):

From Kate Nocera:

Wisconsin Republican Reid Ribble called the shutdown strategy “irrational” and admitted that it would cause “risk to our economy.” And yet—out of loyalty to leadership, fear of a primary opponent or some other mysterious reason—he voted with the rest of his party for the “irrational” and economy-damaging strategy at every opportunity. You get zero credit for knowing the right thing if you keep doing the wrong thing anyway.