And this whole fooferaw is a smokescreen anyway. If the Republican'ts want to cut spending, let 'em pass a budget that does so. Oh, yeah... they did pass the Ryan budget, which voucherized Medicare and slashed a lot of other expenditures, then sent it off to the Senate to die. As they knew it would.

It was a safe vote -- vote your ideology, then let it wander off into limbo, while you get back to the important things, like defunding Planned Parenthood, accompanied by statements "not intended to be factual".

Republican'ts are really good at running for office, but shitty at running an office. Politics, yes; governing, not so much. And the old saw about polics being "the art of the possible" goes out the window in the highly-charged atmosphere these cretins seem to like. The Republican't approach is closer to a fringe party in Italy, or some other parliamentary system, where narrow special interests get served by a narrow, special-interest party.

I don't want the US to turn into Italy, thank you very much. Big-tent parties where you can have wide variance of opinion suits me much better than what they seem to be promoting -- ideological purity, "get your ass in line" discipline, talking point recitation in place of serious discussion (you get a lot of that here, from a few posters), and narrow, narrow views on what the country needs.

We're going into a period of austerity when the economy needs a shot in the arm. God help us.

Bob