Hill GOP In Freakout Mode

You would think that the House GOP would have understood the lessons of history, specifically the political aftermath of the disastrous government shutdown of 17 years ago that hammered Newt Gingrich and Bob Dole. The more sane members of the caucus surely do – and politically drowning Republicans, knowing full well that their Tea Party extremists have thrown them an anchor, want a way out.

Republican efforts to resolve the fiscal standoff that has closed much of the federal government heated up Thursday, the third day of the shutdown, with new talks over a broad budget deal and an effort by more moderate House members to break the logjam.

Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, chairman of the House Budget Committee, has initiated conversations with senior House Republicans on a broad deficit reduction deal that would allow some increases to federal programs squeezed by the automatic cuts known as sequestration in exchange for long-term changes to programs like Medicare and Social Security. The package would most likely include instructions to try to move along efforts to simplify the tax code as well.

Aides described those talks as “conversations about conversations,” not true negotiations, and they favored the term “down payment” on the deficit over “grand bargain.”

Just what America needs: another “grand bargain” that leaves the middle class with less and billionaires with more. Reid has said there will be no negotiations; it’s time for progressive Democrats on the Hill to say not only that there will be no bargaining over entitlements (and remind GOPers that people who pay into these programs are entitled to full benefits) but that it’s time to broaden these programs.

By: dave-dr-gonzo

David Hirsch, a.k.a. Dave "Doctor" Gonzo*, is a renegade record producer, video producer, writer, reformed corporate shill, and still-registered lobbyist for non-one-percenter performing artists and musicians. He lives in a heavily fortified compound in one of Manhattan's less trendy neighborhoods.

* Hirsch is the third person to use the pseudonym, a not-so-veiled tribute to journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson, with the permission of his predecessors Gene Gaudette of American Politics Journal (currently webmaster and chief bottlewasher at Liberaland) and Stephen Meese at Smashmouth Politics.