The
little clocks in the corner of cable TV screens are gone, and pundits go on to
the political postmortems. Next week: the World Series, where there will be only
one winner and one loser.
In
Washington, nothing is that simple. Paul Ryan voted no and will lead four
Republicans on the conference committee on budget resolution with the Senate. Score
him eyes wide open for 2016.
Mitch McConnell, facing a tough reelection campaign, did bat his eyes but only after
a wink to his constituents by getting a $3 billion earmark for a Kentucky dam.
Other
pork consolations, however, vanish as the final vote failed to eliminate an
Obamacare tax on medical devices, which gives makers and doctors a license to
steal an estimated “$26 billion in excessive spending a year.”
A New York Times editorial tallies the score: “The Republican Party slunk away on Wednesday from its failed, ruinous
strategy to get its way through the use of havoc. Hours away from an inevitable
market crash, it approved a deal that could have been achieved months ago had a
few more lawmakers set aside their animus. President Obama signed the bill
reopening the government and lifting the debt ceiling early Thursday
morning.
“The
health care reform law will not be defunded or delayed. No taxes will be cut,
and the deal calls for no new cuts to federal spending or limits to social
welfare programs. The only things Republicans achieved were billions of dollars
in damage to the economy, harm to the nation’s reputation and a rock-bottom
public approval rating.”
But
Boehner is still asking for instant replay: “We fought the good fight. We just
didn’t win.”
No,
sanity did but, like the World Series, the games will go on but without a limit
to how long they will last.
No comments:
Post a Comment