House Republicans cheer mention of govt shutdown

by John Aravosis (DC) on 4/05/2011 10:50:00 AM

Republican congressmen gave a standing ovation to John Boehner when he mentioned possibly shutting down the federal government.

House Republicans huddled late Monday and, according to a GOP aide, gave the speaker an ovation when he informed them that he was advising the House Administration Committee to begin preparing for a possible shutdown. That process includes alerting lawmakers and senior staff about which employees would not report to work if no agreement is reached.

The danger is that a lot of these guys aren't playing chicken. They truly want to shut the government down, and keep it shut down. They don't care about the negative impact on the economic recovery. They don't care that the unemployed, and veterans, and others won't get their checks. The government doesn't exist to them, other than their means for getting a fat paycheck while bashing the hand that feeds them.

It's a dangerous situation for the President, who doesn't like to hold firm during negotiations. He's dealing with hostage takers who are all too willing to kill the hostage. And if he doesn't want them to keep taking more hostages, and slowly killing them, in the future, the President needs to expose these thugs once and for all.