This week’s News 10 Wingmen segment takes on the (very partial) shutdown of the federal government (minute marker 21:58 in the first video below):

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The extended conversation is available in the video below.  What I found most interesting was the fact that both Bill Rappleye and Bob Plain seemed to buy into this notion that the federal government addresses issues in neat sequence, resolving one matter and then moving on to the next.  Actually, I suspect Bob would ultimately admit that progressive policies are pushed relentlessly at every opportunity; he’d probably even encourage it.

But to the idea that the American people (by way of federal representation) have already had the ObamaCare debate, therefore making it inappropriate to inject it into debates about continuing resolutions, debt ceilings, and whatever else:  That simply isn’t how our government is designed to work.  Indeed, the observation that struck me as an “I should have said that” on my drive away from the studio was that ObamaCare only passed in the first place with the help of kickbacks and buy-offs that gained individual politicians and voting blocs in the “yes” column to pass the bill.

If we put it in the terms that are currently being used in the mainstream media, individual Democrat politicians and special interests were holding ObamaCare hostage in order to extract concessions on issues that the American people weren’t even considering.  That fact brings into sharp relief what’s actually going on here; what progressives, Democrats, and the media don’t like is that the Republicans in the House of Representatives had winning leverage going into this debate. It took both sides to wind up with a government shutdown, and both sides could have averted it by capitulating to a greater or lesser extent. 

So, if you put them on a scale, what do you get?  The House GOP would likely have caved after taking some minor cards from Barack “I Will Not Negotiate” Obama.  Meanwhile, the Obama administration has been actively (as in expending supposedly scarce government resources) trying to ratchet up the pain felt by the American people.

Who are the radical extremists, here?

Extended Wingmen discussion below.

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