Rust Never Sleeps

[WilliamPitt]

Capitol Building. (Photo: via Shutterstock)

Rust Never Sleeps
By William Rivers Pitt
Truthout | Op-Ed

Thursday 17 October 2013

"Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe."

- Abraham Lincoln

At exactly 10:11 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday night, the 218th vote required to forestall the wrath of stupid people was cast in the US House of Representatives.

Whoop de freakin' do.

I honestly don't know where to begin. The breadth and depth of this land mass of abject Fail is genuinely breathtaking. The right-wing trucker protesters coming to "arrest" Congress who were chased off by a traffic cop. The Confederate flags waved in front of the White House that houses a Black family, folded into a veteran's protest that got co-opted by Sarah Palin and Ted Cruz, who yowled about not using veterans as pawns even as they shoved veterans out of the way in order to get in front of the red lights of the news cameras.

Heritage Action, the activist wing of the Heritage Foundation, has been the hood ornament of the "Defund Obamacare" movement since President Obama won re-election in 2012. The final attempt by House Speaker John Boehner earlier this week to present a legislative alternative to a Senate takeover of the process - thus salvaging a shred of integrity for himself and the chamber he allegedly leads - was dashed to bits by a letter from Heritage Action warning against any concessions. That one letter scattered his caucus like geese. Just after 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday morning, however, Heritage Action CEO Michael Needham presented himself on Fox News, of all places, and said, "Everybody understands that we'll not be able to repeal this law until 2017."

Wait, what?

Yup.

(snip)

And so much for the bullshit.

According to Standard & Poor's, this nest of gibberish cost the country $24 billion. An analysis by the much-respected Macroeconomic Advisers puts the total tab for all the budget/debt limit/shutdown mayhem unleashed by the GOP since 2010 at $700 billion, with an additional cost of 900,000 jobs. Very smart people are making the point that the larger damage has already been done, default or otherwise. On the smaller scale, millions of people - government workers, veterans, the disabled, the poor, children - have already felt the lash, and got a full taste of genuine fear when it looked like they were actually going to put the car into the wall.

Anyone you know who has the gall to call this a "victory" is an idiot. Aside from the actual pain this thing caused is the fact that all the Democrats won in the end is a few months of government, and a few months of not looking economic Armageddon in the teeth. The GOP just got a budget CR that operates at the sequestration level they set the last time we spun this Merry-Go-Round, and a faction of their party will try this hostage-taking thing again after the New Year to get even more. Of course they will.

This was a zero-sum gain, and a lot of people lost, badly. It was a nifty exercise in disaster capitalism, more proof of the power of the shock doctrine, and nothing more. Whoever tries to tell you otherwise is selling something.

Finally, anyone who says this mess spells the end of the Tea Party phenomenon is fooling themselves. If anything, the re-branded right-wing created by the Koch Brothers and pimped by CNN will greet the dawn on Thursday morning re-invested in the idea that Jesus hates the poor, women and all brown people, just goddamn because. They see themselves as victims even when they win. Ted Cruz, Sarah Palin and the rest of the sharpies will be there to egg them on and pick their pockets. Mark my words: these people have learned no lessons, ceded no ground, and are not going anywhere anytime soon.

Also, there is there is still the Trans-Pacific Partnership to contend with, plus Chained CPI and Medicare means testing (both of which Mr. Obama floated not long ago, which will make an appearance in the budget debate, count on it), plus the Keystone XL pipeline, plus the ongoing voter restriction efforts, plus the all-important 2014 midterm elections, plus, and plus, and plus, and plus, etc.

Take this to heart, friends and neighbors: rust never sleeps, and there is never, ever any rest for the weary.

The rest: http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/19468-rust-never-sleeps

[daleanime]

1. We get it William.....

Its time to roll up our sleeves and go to work.

[JEB]

2. Thanks for posting. Absolutely agree and so does

this article: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/10/17

[grasswire]

3. no rest for the weary OR THE WICKED. nt

[2naSalit]

4. So true

and so frustratingly sad.

I'm getting too old for this crap but I have no choice but to keep working to keep what little freedom I have.

Well stated, Mr. Pitt. And thank you.

[nutsnberries]

5. you had me at the title, Mr.Pitt

[WilliamPitt]

6. Up

[nutsnberries]

7. kickin' it

[scarletwoman]

8. Good piece of writing, Will. Kick. (nt)

[hedda_foil]

9. One of your "Best of Will Pitt" pieces.

You nailed it.