Tim Carney: "GOP Establishment created its own crisis of authority"

[Recursion]

Tim's one of the few conservatives who's still sometimes worth reading. Here's his take on the current GOP implosion:

The defunders say that if they can't get the whole cake, maybe they can get a slice. Facing an Obamacare defunding or a government shutdown, Democrats and the White House might negotiate down to a delay of the individual mandate, they say. Or maybe Dems will cave and preserve sequester-driven budget cuts in hopes of killing this whole “defund” thing.

Slashing or delaying pieces of Obamacare are realistic conservative goals, as is saving the sequester. Is threatening a government shutdown over defunding Obamacare the best way to get there, or is there a more effective approach?

...

The Bush era saw the GOP Establishment repeatedly saying “trust us,” and “just because we have different tactics doesn’t mean we don’t share your principles.” And often things turned out well for the Establishment, but not for the conservatives.

Take the 2003 bill expanding Medicare to cover prescription drugs. Conservatives didn't like creating a new entitlement. Republican leaders promised that the GOP would be better off passing it — otherwise Democrats would take over government and pass an even bigger expansion of Medicare. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich warned GOP members, “Don't go home without it."

So, there's that.

[abelenkpe]

1. Save the sequester?

Reps want to make sure they can continue to damage the economy?

[LondonReign2]

2. Well of course they do

Until they get an R in the White House, then they'll reverse 180 and not a single person in the main stream media will call them out on their hypocrisy.

Remember how important fiscal responsibility is to them when Clinton and Obama are in the White House and how utterly unimportant it is to them when Reagan or a Bush is in office?

Same thing here -- crashing the economy in the name of fiscal responsibility is their strategy, until a Repub is in charge again. Then "deficits don't matter" as The Dick himself snarled.