In August of 2011, the Republican-controlled house forced a crisis over the Federal debt ceiling. As a result of a complicated compromise, Federal spending was drastically reduced through the sequester process.
At the end of 2012, there was another crisis -- the so-called "fiscal cliff" -- regarding the expiration of the Bush tax cuts and the onset of a series of spending cuts. On January 1, 2013, the House of Representatives passed compromise legislation to avert the crisis. However, a majority of House Republicans and all Tea-Party members voted against the bill.
The latest crisis threatens to shutdown the government on October 1st, when the next fiscal year begins. On September 9, when Congress returns from its summer vacation, negotiations will begin on a new Federal budget and raising the debt limit. What happens next will depend upon the strength of the Tea Party. If they have their way, the Federal government will close its doors.
Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz joined by 14 other Tea-Party Senators advocate shutting down the government. In addition, CNN reported, "a bloc of about 71 House Republicans say they will refuse to vote for a measure that funds the government if it continues to fund the Affordable Care Act."
This is one of a number of issues where the Tea-Party partisans threaten the GOP leadership because they don't feel the Republican old guard are pushing the Tea-Party positions on Obamacare, immigration, and the Contract From America, in general. But while these extreme positions are popular with the Tea-Party base, they aren't swaying other voters. For example, a recent Hart Research poll found that only 36 percent of respondents wanted to repeal Obamacare.
This Tea-Party extremism has run into opposition from orthodox Republicans such as Arizona Senator John McCain,"Those of us who have been around for a while know what happens when there's the threat of a shutdown of the government: It's the Congress that gets blamed." Republican strategist Karl Rove agreed, "[the shutdown] is the one strategy" that might be able to guarantee that the Democrats pick up seats in the Congress in 2014."
In 2010, after the Tea Party slid onto the political stage, Republicans embraced the snake. Then the violent gerrymandering that accompanied the rise of the Tea Party, promoted the radicalization of the GOP. How, in many areas of the country, the Republican who wins the primary is the overwhelming favorite to win the general election. The GOP voters who turn out for the primary are usually the most conservative., often Tea-Party members To win their support candidates ratchet up the stakes by taking increasingly radical positions and the Tea-Party has disproportionate influence. As a consequence, Republicans are engaged in a political civil war.
The GOP is suffering the consequences that Aesop wrote about 2500 years ago. Republicans who wholeheartedly embraced a poisonous snake now seem to be shocked that it's biting them.
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