6 Things We've Learned About Democrats From The Government Shutdown

John Hawkins 

Democrats thought shutting down the government was going to be the smartest decision they ever made, but it's looking more like Napoleon's march into Russia every day. For the first time in years, the Republicans sound like reasonable, principled adults who are willing to compromise to help the country. Meanwhile, Democrats are coming across like arrogant Lords telling the rest of the rabble in flyover country what rights they're willing to allow them to have. Just look at what the public has already learned about the Democrats from the shutdown.

1) Harry Reid doesn't care about kids with cancer: It's no secret that Harry Reid isn't a very nice guy. After all, this is a man who once complained about the stench of tourists visiting Capitol Hill. However, Reid apparently isn't a big fan of little kids with cancer either.

“But if you can help one child who has cancer, why wouldn’t you do it?” (CNN's Dana Bash) asked. ...“Why would we want to do that?” Reid asked. “I have 1,100 people at Nellis Air Force Base that are sitting home. They have a few problems of their own.”

Did you catch that? Republicans want to fund existing programs to help kids with cancer while the Senate Majority Leader wants to hold those children hostage in an effort to force the GOP to give in to his other demands. Maybe we can interview the parents of some of those kids and see how they feel about Harry Reid using their dying children as bargaining chips in his political poker game. 2) Barack Obama is willing to deliberately tank the stock market for political reasons: In an interview with CNBC, Barack Obama tried to frighten Wall Street into selling stocks.

Told by CNBC’s John Harwood that Wall Street is “pretty calm” about the government shutdown and political infighting, Obama said: “…I think this time they [Wall Street] should be concerned.” During the first two hours of trading, the Dow fell by more than 100 points. This is what Obama wanted, except that he likely wishes it had fallen more.

Barack Obama knows that a lot of Americans would be hurt by a big sell-off, but as long as it doesn't affect his lavish golf outings and opulent vacations, he doesn't care. 3) Democrats don't care if Obamacare works or not: The Republicans have been pushing for a one year delay of Obamacare and if your ultimate goal is to repeal the law, that would be a mixed blessing. Yes, the law wouldn't go fully into effect for another year, but the law isn't ready to go live. People are losing their jobs and their insurance left and right, there are massive software glitches that are apparently months away from being fixed, and there are students facing 300% increases in premiums to get on the exchanges. It's funny to hear Democrats compare Obamacare to Apple. That would be a fair comparison if Apple's products were crap, if the public were forced to buy Apple’s iPhones, and if the company’s own employees wouldn't use an iPad unless someone else paid for it.
4) The Democrats absolutely, positively will not compromise: Barack Obama is terrible at governing, but great at shifting blame. Despite the fact that everything he touches turns into a steaming pile of....uhm, Harry Reid....he has still spent years pointing the finger of blame at Republicans for not compromising with him. Yet, the central message from the Democrats for the entire shutdown has been, "We will not compromise under any circumstances." Barack Obama is behaving like a child threatening to hold his breath until he turns blue unless he gets his way and he's doing it so publicly that even the mainstream media can't cover it up for him. 5) Democrats don't care about veterans: The way Democrats have treated our WWII veterans during the shutdown has been absolutely shameful. They blocked off an open air monument out of spite towards WWII vets. They even threatened to arrest these men for going to see the monument. If Republicans like Steve King hadn't gotten involved and the public hadn't raised a stink about their despicable behavior, some of these old veterans, who aren't in the best of health, might have died without ever getting to see a monument built to honor their incredible contributions to this country. 6) Democrats in Congress believe they should be exempt from Obamacare: When the Democrats were selling Obamacare to the public, they proudly said they'd be using the plan, too. However, Obama broke the law to make sure that the rest of us would pay 75% of the Obamacare bill for members of Congress and their aides. There was a lot of talk that Republicans were secretly in favor of this as well. However, when it came time to vote, the House voted to get rid of the Obamacare exemption and every Republican in the Senate went the same way while Democrats in the Senate unanimously went on the record demanding an exemption for themselves and their staffs. In other words, Obamacare isn’t good enough for Democrats in Congress, but they’re going to force you to take it whether you want it or not.