So federal government services were shut down at midnight EST Monday night. At least 800,000 jobs have been furloughed (i.e no work, no pay); another one million will be forced to continue working without pay until the shutdown is resolved.
And all this, because the House Republicans don't like the Affordable Care Act.
That's right — the House Republicans shut down the government because they oppose universal health care. Which for the rest of the world, is the equivalent of crazypants gibberspeak.
Seriously, House Republicans, what are you thinking? The bill passed almost four years ago. If you were looking for a mandate to overturn it, you had the 2012 election, in which, oh wait, you got served (and pretty handily). Even the Supreme Court has validated the law as constitutional. The Supreme Cour! They've got Scalia!
Plus, it's a law to provide universal health care. Think about that: you're opposing people's right to have health coverage. It's the social justice equivalent of opposing Disneyland — in fact it's weirder, because you can at least imagine someone saying they don't like giant smiling mice. Who in their right mind would say 'I just don't like the idea of people having health care'?
Now, maybe we shouldn't be surprised. I mean, we watched grade schoolers get gunned down almost a year ago and still you guys (and many of your Democrat colleagues) couldn't agree to basic background checks and a ban on assault weapons. And btw, over 50 per cent of Americans wanted these measures.
Read that again, boyo, because the last time over 50 per cent of Americans wanted stronger gun laws was in Eighteen Twenty NEVER. But still you didn't pass it.
(Oh, and in case you're counting, there have quite a few shootings since then, including one a few weeks ago in your own backyard. But no, please, protect my right to be mentally ill or pissed off or just plain bored and still be able to purchase an AK-47 for a little aw shucks boys will be boys random gunplay. Please.)
It's been nice, too, these first few days of the shutdown, to see so many of you on television mocking those of us who claimed the skies would be rent and plagues of locusts would fall if you shut down the government. You really showed us. Especially the nine million low-income women and children at risk who have stopped receiving the supplemental vouchers they need