I think every American should be outraged by the tactics being used by a small group of Congressmen that have lead to our government shutdown.
Let us be clear about what is at stake here. These tactics are dangerous and will continue to be abused if not stopped now. Whether you agree with the Affordable Health Care Act or not, this is not a good way to go about it. What we have here is a minority group who feels passionately about a subject, but was not granted the numbers by voters to persue the changing of this law by the means granted within the Constitution. So instead they have resorted to extortion. They have said "You must agree to our demands, and in exchange we will give you a two month extension on allowing the government to keep running". They feel that since they have been gracious enough to alter those demands, that this shows they are "negotiating", but in the end, they are still holding all of us hostage, and changing the demands does not change what they are doing.
Let us say, for the sake of arguement, that their demands were met. Do you think it would stop there? This same group has already expressed interest before in turning Social Security over to Wall Street by privatizing it. They do not, however, have the support in congress to do so. So what happens if, during the next crisis (which is just under two weeks away when we reach the debt ceiling) they say "You will agree to privatizing Social Security or we will not allow the debt ceiling to increase", something that has never been done in the history of the U.S. Will we then give into those demands as well?
And of course, we know, if the Repubs are successful at a tactic, sooner or later there will be a radical group on the left who decides to "even the playing field" and adopt the same tactics. What happens when a radical group of democrats gets a sizable minority and suddenly says "You will agree to ban all guns, or we will shut the government down". Then, if they get pushback, they may follow the current Republican playbook and say "Okay, we'll agree to just ban all handguns. That proves we've been willing to negotiate, and if you disagree with us then the shutdown is your fault!".
The constituion has clearly laid out guidelines for passing, adjusting, and repealing laws. It requires the House, the Senate, and the President (or a huge majority of the House and Senate over ridding the President) to all agree on something before it can happen. This keeps us safe from the whims of a minority. But this new tactic puts us all in jeopardy as a nation. There can be no negotiations. This is an abuse of power and will only get worse until it is stopped.
