All arguments are not equal. Every claim is not worth believing.

From now until the government shutdown ends, politicians from both parties will do their best to confuse the issues in order to appear to be the reasonable, responsible party.

So here are the facts you need to know about the failure to approve a fiscal 2014 budget and the upcoming debt ceiling.

First, the current shutdown is a result of republicans demanding a reversal or delay of a law they hate, popularly known as Obamacare. Without some concessions on Obamacare republicans[JGC1] refuse to pass a budget extension.

The result of that refusal is a partial shutdown of government services as money runs out to fund those services.

House republicans have made several offers to negotiate with senate democrats which the democrats have refused, so no discussions are taking place to resolve the shutdown.

Those are the facts.

But the details matter as much as the events and those details do not paint a picture that permits the typical rule of congressional politics “a pox on both their houses.”

The most important detail is that if a clean continuing resolution to advance the budget for several months was allowed to be voted on in the House of Representatives (without any Obamacare restrictions) it would most likely pass with the combined votes of most democrats and some republicans.

So why is that vote not taken, sent to the senate where it would also pass and forwarded to the president where it would be signed?

While no one can speak with certainty, the reason is most likely about two House republican groups, the leadership, specifically Speaker Boehner, and the House Tea Party members.

Speaker Boehner could call for such a vote, but has refused to because he does not wish to advance any bill without a majority of his own party supporting the bill. This is a party decision known as the Hastert rule and is subjective.

But on a deeper level the Speaker serves at the pleasure of House party members, and Boehner would likely lose his speakership if he passed the budget bill this simple way.

The House Tea Party members, a group that numbers between 30 and 60 refuse to cooperate because they claim an ideological inability to allow Obamacare to go forward.

That is the political dilemma.

The other relevant facts are these:

One: Since most of Obamacare is already funded, the budget has little effect on its funding and operation.

Two: While republicans fight against Obamacare several have indicated their objection is not that it will fail but that it will succeed and Americans will like the new healthcare law.

Three: In a not unrelated issue, several republicans, as early as the 2010 primaries, advocated that, if they won a majority in the House, they would shut down the government.

Four: While the federal budget has always been debatable in congress, never before this month has any group of legislators sought to de-fund laws passed.

Five: Many Republicans have suggested continuing this stalemate until the debt ceiling vote in mid-October. Should that date pass without resolution the national credit rating will likely fall, costing significant tax money to go to interest payments.

Those are the facts and they suggest that, regardless of the claims you may hear, the shutdown is the product of a small group of republicans and the House leadership.

But on one issue the Tea Party members are, for once at least, right. That is that on this there can be no compromise. For if a small minority can force congress to void or ignore laws passed, then the precedent is in place forever, and government can never function again.

Imagine a Republican president with a democratic house where, using these same tactics, the democrats demand expansion of abortion rights, increases in corporate tax rates, and any other democratic priority as a rule for funding government services.

It will happen and laws will be no more than suggestions to be overturned by any minority willing to destroy government to have their will.

These are the facts.

 

Jim Crawford is a retired educator and political enthusiast living here in the Tri-State.