Choke It, Starve It, Shrink It: What That Government Shutdown Talk

Choke It, Starve It, Shrink It: What That Government Shutdown Talk Is Really About
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/09/choke-it-starve-it-shrink-it-what-government-shutdown-hints-are-really-about.php?ref=fpi

Now that we know the Republicans have settled on a campaign strategy pledging to "defund" health care reform if they win back Congressional power, it's time to take a look at what that actually means. Could it be a precursor to a Republican showdown with President Obama repeating the 1995 and 1996 government shutdowns?

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said he thinks the Republicans are hinting at shutdown with their promises to defund everything.

"They want to shrink it to where it doesn't work, and then when it doesn't work, they go, 'Look! It doesn't work, get rid of it.' And that's been their strategy all along," Trumka told TPM Thursday after speaking to reporters at a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. "They don't talk about how to make things effective; they talk about how to get rid of them."

The push to shut down the government that Dick Morris floated to conservatives last week is picking up some steam. Democrats who experienced the shutdown in 1995 and 1996 told TPM it was disastrous and it would be "un-American" to force people to endure another one.

I think they have lost their minds.