Sarah Huckabee Sanders really IS the perfect spokesman for the ugliest tyrant on the planet: Donald J. Trump. She has an uncanny ability to lie with a straight face and is too dumb to care when she twists history into a pretzel in order to accommodate her lying liar boss.
So let's just put the truth out there: If there is a government shutdown this weekend, it's entirely the fault of Republicans and the racist, nativist White House, spurred on by their state propaganda channel, Fox News.
This is not a topic for debate. It is simply a fact. Republicans can either come to the table and make concessions to get Democrats' votes, or they can shut down the government.
And may I remind everyone that it was not Democrats who called African countries "shitholes"? It wasn't Democrats who blew up a bipartisan compromise.
No, it was the likes of Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham, and Donald Effing Trump.
So when Sarah Huckabee "Lies are my native language" Sanders says this...
"Republicans don't have 60 votes. Democrats either need to decide that they are going to come here to do their jobs and govern and put our national security ahead of their own personal political agenda agendas or they are not. It's really simple. That's a decision you're going to have to ask the democrats what's more important. National security or political agendas?"
...I immediately utter three words: Merrick Fcking Garland, while reminding Sarah Huckabee Sanders that this has absolutely NOTHING to do with national security. Hell, even Republicans agreed with that when they shut down the government in 2013 because they wanted to repeal the ACA and chose their political agenda over governing. Remember Ted Cruz saying it was the only pathway to winning back the Senate in 2014?
Republicans control the Senate, the House and the White House. It is, therefore, incumbent upon them to arrive at a spending bill which can garner enough votes to pass and be sent to Trump. They are in charge here, not Democrats.
Right now, Republicans have a problem. A BIG problem, and it's in their own party. Look, for example, at the fit the "Freedom Caucus" is throwing over in the House. This is happening for two reasons: First, because Paul Ryan will not bring a clean DREAM Act to the floor unless a majority of Republicans will support it, and second, because the Freedom Caucus exists to destroy, not govern.
Tuesday night, the leader of the Freedom Caucus emerged from a meeting of the hard right group to say its members — and other GOP lawmakers— want the short-term bill to contain added money for the military.
“There’s not enough support to pass it with GOP-only votes in the House,” the group’s leader, Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., told reporters.
Oh. Well, if they want Dems I guess they're going to have to give Dems something to vote for.
There are so many times Republicans chose their political agenda over governing. How about 2011, when they played brinksmanship games with the debt ceiling and threatened to default on our national debt, resulting in the downgrade of our bond rating?
Or, repealing the ACA 60 times simply because they could?
And yes, blocking Merrick Garland from even receiving a hearing because they decided that Supreme Court appointment belonged to a conservative judge.
Republicans own all those things. And they will also own a government shutdown, as will Trump.
Do not let the lying liar at the podium distract you.
