It is Class warfare at one level

But before we get to that, I must comment here on RedStateVT's bemoaning that an uninsured woman with a 2 year old child obtained Health Insurance through ObamaCare.  I celebrate that an uninsured person now has affordable access to health care without using an ER and pushing the cost onto the insured.  He wonders where the father is and is upset that this woman will vote for Democrats forever.  I think that presumes a bit much.  If  you don't know the woman, you can make no presumptions about her.  Perhaps the father died in Afghanistan.  Perhaps the father is in jail.  Perhaps he has a minimum wage job without health insurance.

There are many motivations and belief's in the conservatives who actively oppose everything Obama wants to do just as there are many motivations and belief's in the people who support Obama.  Remember I am a Conservative Democrat who use to be a Liberal Republican.  The difference between my beliefs and those of today's GOP is that I believe in a functioning government, a safety net for the population, and protection of my definition of individual rights (until the Tea Party I had no idea how broad that concept could be).

We have delved into the role of unlimited money in politics before but Charles Blow (who drives RedStateVT batty, as does apparently NBC News which is a lot more objective than FoxNews).

I put the link here and then will quote the column.

Some Rich Conduct Class War



Earlier this year, John Boehner hashed out a deal with Harry Reid — or at least had “several” conversations about a deal — in which the Democrats would accept the Republicans’ budget numbers ($70 billion below what the Democrats wanted) in return for the speaker’s voting on a continuing resolution with no strings attached. 
      

The Republicans had won. But the speaker later reneged. He told George Stephanopoulos this weekend: “I and my members decided the threat of Obamacare and what was happening was so important that it was time for us to take a stand. And we took a stand.”

To be clear, his far-right members in their bright red districts — and their deep-pocketed backers — forced him to reconsider. 

      

Boehner is fighting his own battle — for his job and his legacy. He wants to appear in control of a caucus that is uncontrollable. The man who said last week of the government shutdown, “this isn’t some damn game,” is playing games. In fact, Politico reported Tuesday that many Republicans believe a massive budget deal is the best way to solve the current crisis, but Boehner has resisted, saying he wants to “put points on the board.” 

      

The president, for his part, has deployed a list of metaphors as long as his arm to describe the Republicans — from hostage takers to deadbeat homeowners — to get more of the public to understand his principle of not negotiating on keeping the government open or paying the government’s bills. He wants to break the crisis cycle while simultaneously defending the Affordable Care Act. He wants to rescue the government from the clutches of the nihilists.

But many Americans are too frustrated to ferret out the details. They see dysfunction in the system as a whole and they’re fed up with it. 

      

According to a Gallup poll released Wednesday, a third of Americans now cite dysfunctional government as the most important problem facing America today. That was the highest level ever recorded by Gallup, whose trend on the measure dates back to 1939, and dysfunction now ranks higher than the economy in general or unemployment and jobs in particular.

This is not a “both sides at fault” issue. It is a tremendously partisan one. 

      

And according to the Pew Research Center, 77 percent of Republicans believe the president should agree to a deal that includes changes in his health care law, and 75 percent of Democrats believe that Republicans should agree to a deal with no health care changes. Independents are nearly evenly divided between the two. 

      

Now the shutdown is beginning to bleed into the debate about whether to raise the debt limit, a debate that has brought out the Republican default deniers to further muddy the waters.

The government shutdown, as costly and futile as it is, would look like child’s play compared with a default. 

      

According to a Tuesday report in Bloomberg/Businessweek, one global market research firm estimates that the government shutdown “cost $1.6 billion last week in lost economic output” and “the office closures are now draining an average of $160 million each workday from the $15.7 trillion economy.” 

      

And if you think this is bad, consider that a default could trigger a full-blown recession. In a Wednesday report, CNN quoted the International Monetary Fund economist Olivier Blanchard as saying: “If there was a problem lifting the debt ceiling, it could well be what is now a recovery would turn into a recession or even worse.” 

      

And yet, a growing number of Republicans are questioning the possibility of default. Unbelievable.

Some Republicans have never met an inconvenient fact that they weren’t determined to deny. Evolution: didn’t happen. Climate change: not so much. Obama’s faith: doubt it. 

      

In some parts of the Republican universe, facts and fantasy merge, the truth doesn’t surface, it’s shaped, data must be made to conform to doxology, and accepted science borders on the heretical. This is how the money-rich are able to prey on the knowledge-poor. 

      

This denial is sinking in among the Republican rank and file. A Pew Research Center report issued Monday found that most Republicans believe that we can go past the debt limit deadline without major problems. 

      

This is bigger than Obamacare. This is about rich conservatives seeking to exert unlimited influence on our political system, and employing far-right Republicans who are animated, to varying degrees, by an innate hostility to this president, fear of diminishing influence and a disavowal of disagreeable truths. 

      

This is about the fragility of our democracy: the possibility that a government by the people may swiftly give way to a government dominated by dark money and dark motives.

It is difficult to fathom why the country is in its current position.  It is impossible for me to know how best to position a bond portfolio.  And if a professional bond manager doesn't know what to do because the GOP believes default is a viable option, then the world is certainly turned upside down because I thought the GOP was the party that supported business, was conservative and believed in the sanctity of contract obligations.  Oh, wait a minute, Donald Trump, the King of Defaulting on Contracts, is a Tea Party supporter.