Treason

Treason is defined as "Violation of allegiance toward one's country…especially the betrayal of one's country by waging war against it or purposely acting to aid its enemies." It is also defined as "A betrayal of trust or confidence."

Speaker John Boehner has committed treason

John Boehner should be charged with Treason. And every member of the House of Representatives who have decided that, in order to repeal a law they don't like, they will prevent the government of the United States from fulfilling its obligations—which they voted to create. Boehner and the Republicans have violated their allegiance to the United States. Our government is in a partial shutdown. Frankly, I'm unhappy with that. The shutdown should be total. Troops ought not to be paid. No processing should happen. All actions of the American government should be suspended, including check processing for members of Congress and the President.

Here are the Republican arguments: Firstly, they want to call the Affordable Care Act a Bill. It is not. It is a law. It was passed by a majority of Congress and signed by the President. Done. Second, Republicans say that the Affordable Care Act was never debated or there was, somehow, insufficient debate. There was lots of debate. I attended one public meeting that was hosted by the US Chamber of Commerce. And they had a guy in the front of the room who sold everyone a huge pack of lies that I haven't trusted any statement from the US Chamber since then.

The United States Supreme Court affirmed the Constitutional
status of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare.

Republicans are now saying that the United States Supreme Court rewrote the law. The US Supreme Court interpreted the law (that is what they do, you know) and they interpreted the fine in the "required to carry insurance" part of the law as a tax, since it is collected by the US taxing authority, the IRS.

In face, pretty much everything Republicans and their masters have said about the Affordable Care Act is false. It has created jobs. It has improved health care for Americans. And it's just about to make health insurance more affordable for everyone.

Now, these folks who have decided to hold government operations and government payment of debts hostage to a bill that is passed, signed and is law that is in effect right now.  They didn't like it when it was passed, but it was passed by the majority party in Congress. And, the way laws work, you have to get a repeal all the way through Congress and have a President sign the repeal. That is the way it works.

But, for these Republicans, that's not good enough. They believe that one house in our bicameral legislature ought to be able to repeal a law if they just pass the repeal enough times. So far, it's been 40.

This treason being done by the Republican Party is aiding our enemies. One enemy that is being helped out here is the international terrorists. We have put all investigations of their activities on hold. Additionally, since the necessary staff must accompany the President to the APEC summit and the government is shut down, China (which isn't exactly an enemy) will get the head of the table. Our views won't be considered.

Now, what if the shoe were on the other foot? What if Democrats repeatedly passed the repeal of a Republican-supported law in just one house of Congress. Let's say, 40 times. What if Democrats halted all functions of government and halted payment of our debts because they didn't like that Republican law. What if that Republican law were upheld by the Supreme Court?

There would be a bloodbath. Republicans would be screaming bloody murder, encouraging their base to take up arms against any Democrat they could find. And when Republicans demonized Democrats under 6 years of Bush II, they did that unchecked. And Democrats, then in the minority, didn't resort to Treason. Why? Because Democrats understand that majorities aren't permanent. If you change the rules such that a minority is not able to do something in Congress, the other party will do the same to you when you are in the minority.

Senator Lindsay Graham knows the
Republicans may be a permanent minority party
if they run out of "Angry White Men."

So what's going on now? I think there are two things happening. One is that Republicans know they will be called out as liars for how they have demonized the Affordable Care Act. And the other is that Republicans know that 1.5 Million more people in the United States voted for Democrats than Republicans in the House of Representatives and that, despite the fact that Republicans completely gerrymandered districts to create ultra-safe districts for themselves, they are, in the words of Senator Lindsay Graham, running out of angry, white men. Senator Graham was urging Republicans to widen their tent, but the effect the TEA Party is having on the party is that their tent is actually getting more narrow.

Republicans stand to be a permanent minority party once again. So they feel like they don't have to pay any attention to the law of impermanent majority and they can just play dirty from here on out.

Last time we did that, we had a Civil War. And the people that won that had demographics on their side.They were also the states that paid the most into the Federal Treasury.