Much of the banter a few miles from here has been about “a clean resolution” to end the government shutdown. The White House demanded any measure to fund the government and to avoid a debt limit default had to be “clean”—meaning no defunding Obamacare or delaying Obamacare or funding only certain parts of the government or–well–whatever Ted Cruz and tea party experts could come up with.
It didn’t happen but…..well, Mitch McConnell the go-to Senate Minority Leader added a 2.9 billion dollar improvement to the Olmsted Lock and Dam Authority on the Ohio River which just happens to be in his home state of Kentucky.
In these days of the obvious being called something else (i.e. in admitting defeat, Speaker of the House John Boehner tells America “we fought the good fight” instead of saying “this was a dumb idea”, Senator McConnell says “it’s not an earmark” because it save the taxpayers a lot of money. Ya think?
The thing of this is, after 16 days of too many speeches on the Senate and House floors instead of having conversations with the other side, there’s relief it’s over—and that comes from both sides.
Please tell me this could have had a simpler solution than it did. Please, also, tell me in 90 days we won’t go through this again. Talking to the other side might just be a good idea instead of to CSPAN.
I’m not taking either bet and I’m a positive guy.