Want to know why this is happening? The bottom line? This.

[WilliamPitt]

Cruz PAC Doubles Fundraising In Lead Up To Shutdown
By Daniel Strauss – October 15, 2013, 5:47 PM EDT
TPM

The joint fundraising committee for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) reported doubling its fundraising in the third quarter compared to the previous quarter.

The Ted Cruz Victory Committee reported raising $797,450 from the beginning of July to the end of September. That's roughly double the committee raised compared to from the beginning of April to the end of June when it reported raising $410,030, according to financial disclosure reports. The committee is a joint fundraising committee of his re-election committee, Ted Cruz for Senate, and his leadership PAC, The Jobs Growth and Freedom Fund.

The joint fundraising committee reported having $378,696 cash on hand.

The rest: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/cruz-pac-fundraising-doubles-in-third-quarter

...which I underscored on the first of October:

William Rivers Pitt | The Fundraising Message That Ate America

(snip)

As I am not beloved by the denizens of the far right, I am not on any of their fundraising email lists...but I am going to assume that Republicans all across the country have spent the last 48 hours watching their in-boxes fill up with JESUS IS LORD COMMUNISTS AND SOCIALISTS WANT TO TAKE YOUR GUNS AND FETUSES OBAMACARE IS A TROJAN HORSE FOR SHARIA LAW KENYA BIRTH CERTIFICATE HILLARY CLINTON GIVE US MONEY OR GOD WILL MAKE YOU GAY WHAAAAARGARBLE messages.

Because money. Period, end of file, turn off the lights when you leave...oh, wait, they're already off.

That's why I think this happened, and it started a while ago. Certain influential Republicans in the House and Senate, along with the outside groups that sustain them, figured out that slapping "Repeal Obamacare!" into a direct-mail fundraising message was better than winning the lottery, so they kept at it, and kept at it, and kept at it, and O my Lord, how the money rolled in...until the monster they created stomped out of the laboratory and began tearing up the joint.

And so here we are, smack dab in the middle of the most irrational, damaging, stupid, reckless, feckless fundraising drive in the history of currency.

One last thought: if you're one of those cute folks who believe quaint notions like "consequences" and "pain" will somehow exorcise The Crazy from the Republican Party, do me and everyone you know a big favor and slap yourself soundly across the face.

This isn't an endgame. It's just getting started. Next stop: default.

Buckle up.

The rest: http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/19158-the-fundraising-message-that-ate-america

Someone said money is the root of all evil. Boy howdy, did they hit the nail on the head.

[blkmusclmachine]

1. Republican Economic Terrorism.

[gopiscrap]

7. Exactly

[TBF]

2. You're spot on with this -

this guy has delusions of grandeur. He wants to be president more than anything else, this is something folks in Texas are well aware of ....

[Blue_Roses]

37. well, we are now, but at the time when he and David Dewhurst

were fighting over this spot, I never thought Ted Cruz had a chance. From the look of David Dewhurst's shocked face on election night, neither did he.

I guess the lesson from this is: Never under-estimate the "looney" candidate, ESPECIALLY if they have looney supporters!

[Art_from_Ark]

38. Monty Python did a sketch about Mr. Cruz once

[TBF]

39. That's a really good point -

he did take us by surprise and he is a very scary individual.

[Buddaman]

3. And after the default? nt

[robinlynne]

15. after the default, the economic woes get blamed on Obama, just as they were before.

[NCLefty]

34. Crappy economy we left you there, Mr Obama-be a shame if it got worse while you were still president

[bemildred]

4. Yep. nt

[displacedtexan]

5. Add 25 years of wingnut radio/TV & a decade+ of internet echo chamber nonsense

Truly heavy sigh. Simply because it's not nice to call a liar a liar.

[Maraya1969]

6. Won't all those donors be really sad when Cruz is kicked to the road at his next election.

I don't think many people are going to forget this. And if we default? Forget about it!

[calimary]

10. You may be overestimating the presence of any brain matter inside their skulls.

In many of these people, the closest I can figure is - there just doesn't seem to be any.

[Maraya1969]

23. Well you do have a point there.

[MichiganVote]

8. Yup. What can you depend on in DC?-Me first, always.

[tillikum]

9. Nah, sorry man. this is a probe into the global economic systems fragility.

like a dry ice bomb in an airport bathroom.

[roamer65]

11. The goal is destruction of representative democracy in the US.

Congress is in the way of a fascist teabagger dictatorship, therefore has to be dealt with much like the Nazis dealt with the Reichstag in 1933.

That is the teabagger game.

[Scuba]

12. Another grifter, risking the nation's People to rake in a few dollars. Now his PAC can buy his book.

[Common Sense Party]

13. And nonsensical gerrymandering.

BTW, in the Bible it does not say "Money is the root of all evil."

The warning is: "The LOVE OF MONEY is the root of all evil." (1 Timothy 6:10)

And the Warshington pols love their money.

[spinbaby]

14. Let me check today's mail...

We get all that crap in the mail because my husband is a registered Republican and an NRA member. So here are the highlights of today's mailbag:

1st item:

"Congressional Research Survey of 10,000,000 Voters on Obamacare" with a stated purpose "To Help UNDO and REPEAL ObamaCare." It asks for a donation.

2nd item:

From "Rob Maness, Colonel, United States Air Force (ret.), Veteran of the Global War on Terrorism, Bronze Star Medal Recipient" asking for a donation to defeat "Too Liberal for Louisiana" Mary Landrieu.

3rd item:

From "Attorneys at Law, AMERICAN CIVIL RIGHTS UNION" stating on the envelope "Lawsuit Information Enclosed." It contains a "2013 National Opinion Research Survey of 1,000,000 Registered Voters Concerning Barack Obama's Assault on America's Constitutional Democracy." Please send an "IMMEDIATE DONATION REPLY" to "End Voter Fraud."

4th item:

From The Heritage Foundation containing an eight-page rambling letter asking for a $100, $1,000, or $10,000 donation for some unspecified but presumably patriotic purpose.

[Curmudgeoness]

18. Wow, those "surveys" sure have a large number of surveyed.

Red flag, red flag, red flag. Never, in the history of polls, has anyone ever surveyed a million people, let alone 10 million. LOL. Even a viral internet poll doesn't get that many participants.

So, did all this 10 million voters say that they are opposed to Obamacare?

How can you stand to see all those emails????

[spinbaby]

24. Oh, they're not emails

Snail mail every one. We get pounds of the stuff, which we do derive some amusement from because it costs them to mail it.

My husband is registered Republican because his family's always been Republican and he's in the NRA because the club he where shoots skeet requires it. Apparently this combo is enough to get us on every wingnut mailing list.

[Curmudgeoness]

26. I can't remember what it was

that I donated money to, but I ended up getting so many mailings from Republicans and the NRA and anti-abortion and all sorts of things that were so far from what I believed that I was amazed. They definitely sold their mailing list to the wrong person when they sold mine. This was years ago, and all I know is that I really should still remember who it was, since it is something that I would never want to donate to again.

But I guess I didn't donate again. It finally stopped and has never started again. Creepy.

[Sparkly]

16. I think it's money, but it goes way beyond that.

(Tin foil hat on)

The Koch brothers are billionaires. They vowed $60 million to feat Obama. They've donated at least $500k to Heritage Action.

Koch industries spans 50 countries. Halliburton and KBR, Berkshire Hathaway... It's cliché, but it's true: This is a global economy. Fewer and fewer multinational corporations & conglomerates own EVERYthing.

And you know what's inconvenient for all of them? We are. They've spent fortunes fighting EPA regulations, and calling global warming a hoax. They've spent fortunes convincing workers that labor unions are bad. And they've spent about 40 years creating this pseudo-religious, pseudo-patriotic, hateful group determined to take down the American government.

How can anybody believe they care about the economy when they're obviously working to bring it down?

What they want: Desperate American labor willing to work for third-world wages, bowing down with gratitude to the nice rich man who gave them a job. They want a permanent underclass, worldwide, for desperate, dirt cheap labor that doesn't demand pesky "socialist" things like governments of the people or healthcare.

That's the only thing I can come up with.

[daleo]

17. No tinfoil hat there

That's just the class struggle, you are describing. It really does exist.

[2naSalit]

25. That's what I

have concluded... no tin foil hat, I'm already living it. It's what I wake up to every day.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

36. You got it. This is the gist of it:

What they want: Desperate American labor willing to work for third-world wages, bowing down with gratitude to the nice rich man who gave them a job.

[annabanana]

40. What's "inconvenient for all of them"?

Government, that's what. Any assemblage designed to gain the greater good for anyone but THEM ALONE.

So that's pretty much any legitimate government anywhere in the world, and until the UN gets teeth, or the IWW is reborn as a viable international entity, we are facing a near-insurmountable obstacle.

[libodem]

42. Sounds like

You spent a day inside my head. You poor dear.

[eppur_se_muova]

19. Actually ... "For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil" (1 Timothy 6:10)

Gotta get the word "love" in there.

[marble falls]

20. He's running for Fox TV. Passing a clean bill will be his exscuse to quit the Senate. And ....

get a show on Fox.

[redwitch]

21. Amen.

Boy howdy, did YOU hit the nail on the head! One of your best Will, thanks.

[BeatleBoot]

22. I have been saying this from the beginning, Will

Drag this thing out until the end and get as many donations as possible...it was their entire scene...

[weissmam]

27. ask Karl Rove about money

The GOP spent between 200 and 300 million on the last election and they got creamed , at some point the money doesn't matter

[bhikkhu]

28. If money is number one, stupidity is number two

put them both together, and...well, everyone here knows what you get.

[B Calm]

30. bingo

[jazzimov]

29. I think they legitimately wanted to get rid of ACA

because after Medicare was passed by Democrats, Democrats controlled Congress for the next 30 years (there was a brief period where where the Senate was run by Repubs from 1981 - 87, but Dems still controlled the House).

I believe that Republicans remember that, and after the ACA fully goes into effect so many people will love that Dems will control Congress for the next 30 years.

So, again, it's the love of money because they want to keep their cushy, profitable jobs, but it's also about Power.

[dreamnightwind]

35. Sounds right to me

I think they're besides themselves that Obama actually got that legislation passed, because, like you say, if it works well, people will remember which party got it done, and furthermore, Obama did it by incorporating "their" (Heritage's) plan and getting the credit for himself and his party. That puts the R's in a real bad place, and they're determined to not let that stand.

Personally, I'm not so sure the ACA will work out all that well, but the parts of it that worry me are problems the R's would be blind to. A market is the wrong model for healthcare, it should be a universal human right, funded to whatever extent the taxpayers are willing to fund their own healthcare, en masse through the general tax fund, not through individual policies from a private insurer.

Many of the R's probably think the ACA will work beautifully (which it might, we'll see), all to the political benefit of Dems.

[Demeter]

31. Love of money is the root of all evil--commonly known as GREED

1 Timothy 6:10

9 But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

http://biblehub.com/1_timothy/6-10.htm

[Skittles]

33. Reagan made greed and idiocy fashionable

these teabagging bastards are the inevitable result

[libodem]

43. Spot on sistah

I will help you kick their Reagan emulating asses. Let me at 'em!!!

[AnotherMcIntosh]

32. There is money to be made

by anyone who controls the Federal government and determines

(1) the priviledges that can be extended to the super-rich and
(2) what laws are or are not enforced.

I hope that we can see the end of the Tea-baggers.

I also hope that we won't be threatened further with the Keystone pipeline, the chained-CPI, the TPP, and the appointment of more Republicans to high-level positions in the Obama Administration.

In any event, it is too soon to tell.

[bluedeathray]

41. Well stated Bro Pitt

I'll be there in the trenches. Look for the big ugly guy with tactical skills.