Thursday, April 7, 2011

On a purely political level...

Taking this stance on the Continuing Resolution might be a mistake. Are they that afraid of a government shutdown that they're willing to take the blame for it. Their reasons are comprehensible: funding just the part of government that anti-government fanatics like is a terrible policy and will have bad consequences. But if the shutdown is going to happen anyway, isn't it better to have a longer one that the other side gets blamed for than a shorter one that you are blamed for?

As for the policy riders, they've already given up on closing Gitmo (which is a travesty, but unavoidable due to public opinion, gutless Democrats, and Republican demagoguery) and is it really worth coming out the loser here not to throw D.C. under the bus on abortion funding? They've only got three electoral votes, are used to getting thrown under the bus, and will still have a 99.99999999999999999999% chance of voting Democrat in the next election anyway. Especially if what The Weekly Standard says is true and Obama already threw D.C. under the bus on that issue in 2009.

The biggest objection is that they could come back next week and demand another 12 billion and the full funding of another Tea Party approved department (say, DHS or Justice). Then they'd either have to hold their ground and say no, and risk being blamed, or put themselves in an even worse position when the government shuts down.

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