A $24 billion dollar tab isn’t the only thing that Americans are picking up as the post-GOP shutdown dust begins to settle. The feud between the GOP establishment and the insurrectionists Tea Party caucus was already D.C.’s least kept secret, but it has now officially boiled over.
After five years of doing nothing but trying to defund the Affordable Care Act, beltway pundits and journalists became accustomed to “cut and paste” coverage of the GOP. 11th Commandment be damned, those days are over. Senator John McCain’s “Wacko Birds” are circling the GOP establishment like a vulture waiting for an animal to die.
The most heated rhetoric from inside the ranks elected GOP members is aimed directly at the problem: Sen. Ted Cruz (R) TX. GOP Rep. Peter King hit the hardest, calling Cruz an outright fraud. Even the GOP’s traditional handlers/funding sources like Heritage Foundation are under assault.
For his part, Ted Cruz has shown complete disregard for the GOP Leadership in both the House and the Senate. First, he instigated the costly shutdown by ginning up the House Tea Party rebellion. Then he scuttled every deal that would have ended the costly government shutdown and prevented the debt ceiling crisis, which put the entire global economy at risk.
The Progressive in me would love to just pop some popcorn and watch the GOP burn in the fire they started. But, Ted Cruz wants to do it all over again so progressive and conservative Americans alike must stay engaged and united as we continue to make our voices heard in opposition to the Tea Party’s delusional views of reality.
The Tea Party will no doubt be little more than another embarrassing footnote in American history after the next couple of election cycles, but the clear and present danger they represent to the American and global economies must not be ignored.
We, the actual People, must step in and save the world from these radical right-wing Republican Tea Party “patriots”.
