Americans Held Hostage by Tea Party

Barring a midnight miracle, right as the clock strikes 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday morning, the United States government will be technically shut down. The House of Representatives voted in favor of a bill to delay health care reform by one year and repeal a medical devices tax financing part of this health care expansion. In adopting these measures, attached to others that would permit the government to continue to operate, the House guarantees that thousands of government employees will be laid off starting Tuesday. “The American people will not be extorted by Tea Party anarchists,” deplored Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Even The Wall Street Journal, an ally to conservatives, compared partisans of the federal government shutdown to kamikazes. Evidently, the tea party sees things differently. For Mike Lee, Ted Cruz and their conservative colleagues in Congress, forcing the government to lay off hundreds of government employees is a way of reminding citizens that the Obama law on health care reform is a bad law, and they are convinced that a majority of Americans agree with them.

Nonetheless, Republicans, always delighted by the thought of undermining a Barack Obama project, also know that they could pay dearly for their intransigence during the next midterm elections. Seventeen years ago, the same behavior encouraged by Newt Gingrich showed itself to be catastrophic for the GOP, giving the hand back to Bill Clinton. Americans, while not enthusiastic about health insurance, are not responsive to blackmail.

Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, had two options: finance “Obamacare,” allow the government to continue to function, and risk a conservative rebellion of his party, or provoke an administrative shutdown. He made his choice, hoping that the price to be paid in the next elections will not be too heavy. Citizens will decide.