Another 1995-style government shutdown? Grover Norquist would be delighted

Another 1995-style government shutdown?


By JEANNE CUMMINGS | 11/18/10 9:36 PM EST Updated: 11/19/10 7:40 AM EST

Grover Norquist wants a do-over.

The head of the influential Americans for Tax Reform is encouraging the new House Republican majority to adopt a take-no-prisoners approach to federal spending — and if that leads to a 1995-style government shutdown, so be it.

Midterm voters “were voting to stop the Obama spendathon, and that’s what people were sent to Washington to do,” Norquist said in an interview for POLITICO’s “Taxing America” video series.

“That’s what all the freshmen are going to do. That’s what the fight’s going to be about,” he said of the party’s majority-makers, who are spoiling for a showdown with President Barack Obama. The president “will be less popular if — in the service of overspending and wasting people’s money — he closes the government down, as opposed to now, when he’s just wasting people’s money.”

But veterans of that 1995 fight – and in particular incoming House Speaker John Boehner – are ambivalent about Norquist’s shut-it-down push. They saw what a setback the shutdown turned out to be for the party, and Boehner in particular doesn’t sound eager for the same thing to happen to his Republican caucus.

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http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/45223.html#ixzz15jfjQLHm

And they will, thanks in no small measure to Norquist and the other morons. They will turn this into a "NO SURRENDER!!11!!121!@!ZOMGWTFBBQ!" moment, essentially putting the Republicans who know better into a lose-lose situation. It would be fun to watch if so much weren't at stake.

Here, the GOP did not back down in 1995, and kept things shut down for months. The democrats took over both House and senate in 1996.

How did it work out here? Did Al Gore get re-elected in 2004?

After two days of Newt's 'shutdown' Clinton's poll ratings shot up to the highest of his presidency, and the GOP congress' ratings took a nosedive. The first shutdown lasted 2 days. The second one about 3 weeks.

The shutdown damaged Bob Dole and the GOP to the point that it assured Clinton's reelection.

She was in Australia, I was in the US. We had plans for her to be with me here while I delivered my first child. A child that took 16 years to come by so it was pretty important event to so many of us. I have no family here, In-laws were more useless to me than a butter knife trying to cut down a tree. Husband was iffy to return in time. The government shut down, and she couldn't get her visa to get out here. waaaaah, I wanted my mom here. I didn't want to go through this alone. There was no good reasons to have had to go through labor and delivery alone. I had the ability to have family around....they took that away.

So I understand this is a self centered reason to want the government to stay open, but damn it, it was important to me. This type of family separation is going to happen thousands of times over. People are not going to get checks for food and rent, they are not going to get their medical approval through for cancer treatments. It's important for the Reps to shut down gov't because.......?