The Republican Party Is Now Distilled Down To A Ransom Note To America

Suicide bomber vests strapped to their chests, congressional Republicans have a message for the American people: "Give us our way, or we'll blow the whole damn thing up!" And by their way, they're talking about a lot more than defunding the Affordable Care Act. Yesterday, the NY Times Editorial Board was aghast at the Republican demands-- and they called it what it is A Republican Ransom Note.

We’ll refrain from deliberately sabotaging the global economy, Speaker John Boehner and the other leaders said, if President Obama allows more oil drilling on federal lands. And drops regulations on greenhouse gases. And builds the Keystone XL oil pipeline. And stops paying for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. And makes it harder to sue for medical malpractice. And, of course, halts health care reform for a year.

The list would be laughable if the threat were not so serious. A failure to raise the debt ceiling would cause a default on government debt, shattering the world’s faith in Treasury bonds as an investment vehicle and almost certainly bringing on another economic downturn. Unlike a government shutdown, a default could leave the Treasury without enough money to pay Social Security benefits or the paychecks of troops.

...[T]he absurdity of the list shows just how important it is that Mr. Obama ignore every demand and force the House extremists to decide whether they really want to be responsible for an economic catastrophe. He made a mistake by negotiating in 2011, hoping to reach a grand bargain; that produced the corrosive sequester cuts.

To prevent the House from making every debt-ceiling increase an opportunity to issue extortionist demands for rejected policies they can achieve in no other way, the president has to put an end to the routine creation of emergencies once and for all by simply saying no.

Also in yesterday's Times was a piece by Ashley Parker on the Republican Party civil war over the Tea Party attempt to take over the whole kit'n'kaboodle. When you read this, keep in mind that just after it was published, these 25 Republicans voted against Ted Cruz's deranged filibuster that would have shut down the government:

• Lamar Alexander (TN)
• Kelly Ayotte (NH)
• John Barrasso (WY)
• Roy Blunt (MO)
• John Boozman (AR)
• Richard Burr (NC)
• Saxby Chambliss (GA)
• Jeff Chiesa (NJ)
• Dan Coats (IN)
• Tom Coburn (OK)
• Thad Cochran (MS)
• Susan Collins (ME)
• Bob Corker (TN)
• John Cornyn (TX)
• Lindsey Graham (SC)
• John Hoeven (ND)
• Johnny Isakson (SC)
• Mike Johanns (NE)
• Ron Johnson (WI)
• Mark Kirk (IL)
• John McCain (AZ)
• Mitch McConnell (KY)
• Lisa Murkowski (AK)
• John Thune (SD)
• Roger Wicker (MS)

That's not the Senate's Ted Cruz fan club. In the end, Cruz and Lee only persuaded 17 other Republicans to join them in their crackpot quest for glory. Mike Enzi (WY) was too scared of the Cheney daughter's primary challenge to do what he knew was right, the way Barrasso did. There's been chatter on the neo-Nazi fringe of the GOP all week about a primary against Thad Cochran. His vote against Cruz probably clinches it. Probably the most surprising vote was Ron Johnson's leaving his Tea Party brethren to vote with the mainstream conservatives. He must be really scared of losing his seat to a Democrat-- probably Russ Feingold-- in 2016.

Organizations leading the Defund Obamacare movement then turned their attention to the Senate. The Club for Growth, one of the groups leading the charge, on Tuesday issued a “Key Vote Alert” to senators, urging them to vote “no” on a measure that would remove the defunding proposal from a stopgap spending bill.

“This is just a test of if Republicans are for what they say they’re for, and if they’re willing to fight for what they say they’re for,” said Chris Chocola, president of the Club for Growth, which plans to “score” how lawmakers vote on the bill.

Within the ranks of Republican legislators, the frustration is palpable. House Republican leaders believe that the outside groups are pursuing a strategy that, while politically popular, is tactically unfeasible and could ultimately lead to Republicans being blamed for a government shutdown.

“They’re making a lot of money and they like making a lot of money and they like being players, but they are, in fact, jamming the leaders,” said Steven C. LaTourette, a moderate Republican from Ohio who retired from the House last year and was a close ally of Mr. Boehner. “They seize on an issue and they have litmus tests about who’s a good Republican and who’s pure and who’s not pure.  They used to do that in Salem, Mass., too, but it’s not fair.”

...In the Senate, the influence of outside groups reached a fever pitch during a closed-door meeting of all Republican senators Tuesday, when several members expressed their bitterness, anger and frustration at what they see as an orchestrated effort by Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, and outside groups to attack colleagues who disagree with their tactics in the fight against Mr. Obama’s health care law.

Many senators are particularly frustrated with the Senate Conservatives Fund, a group that has been running ads-- some of which featured Mr. Cruz and Senator Mike Lee, Republican of Utah-- that attack Republicans who are not supporting their Defund Obamacare movement. The group recently called Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, and Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Senate Republican, “turncoats.”

Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, referring to outside groups generally, said, “I’d be ashamed to have anything to do with them, to be honest with you.”

For Republicans in the House ready to abandon a more mainstream conservatism for a more radical and fascist orientation, the Chamber of Commerce and a couple hundred of its affiliates, had a little message Friday:

The undersigned 236 organizations urge the House of Representatives and the United States Senate to pass a Continuing Resolution to ensure the uninterrupted funding of the federal government into the next fiscal year and to act expeditiously to raise the nation’s debt limit.

We appreciate fully the importance of restraining federal spending, both discretionary spending and mandatory spending, to reduce federal budget deficits, contain the growth of federal debt, and thereby re-establish fiscal discipline in the near-term and for the long haul. However, with the U.S. economy continuing to underperform, the federal government needs to maintain its normal operations pending a successful outcome of broader budgetary reforms. It is not in the best interest of the employers, employees or the American people to risk a government shutdown that will be economically disruptive and create even more uncertainties for the U.S. economy. Likewise, we respectfully urge the Congress to raise the debt ceiling in a timely manner and remove any threat to the full faith and credit of the United States government.