As the clock ticks down toward a possible government shutdown, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, isn’t holding back.
On the Senate floor before 10 a.m. Friday, the senator gave a speech describing how American politics have reached the level at which “a small group of willful men and women who have a certain ideology”—read: the tea party and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas—have been able to take over the congressional budget debate in the last week. “Since they can’t get their way,” Harkin said, “they’re going to create this confusion and discourse and hope that the public will be so mixed up in who is to blame for this, that they’ll blame both sides.”
This isn’t just congressional business as usual, Harkin said. It’s much, much more dire:
It’s dangerous. It’s very dangerous. I believe, Mr. President, we are at one of the most dangerous points in our history right now. Every bit as dangerous as the break-up of the Union before the Civil War.
http://www.nationaljournal.com/congress/senator-says-politics-have-reached-civil-war-levels-20130927
McCain: Partisanship Worst He’s Ever Seen
WASHINGTON (AP) — Staring at the specter of a partial government shutdown, Sen. John McCain says he’s never seen anything like the harsh partisanship pervading much of Washington politics.
The Arizona Republican, serving his fifth term, says “we are dividing the Republican Party rather than attacking Democrats.”
http://washington.cbslocal.com/2013/09/27/mccain-partisanship-in-dc-is-worst-he-has-seen/
Daniel Henninger: Let ObamaCare Collapse
Congress can’t kill the entitlement state. Only the American people can.http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304526204579097443230322758.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_opinion