Came across another tidbit that confirms Obama and Reid’s strategy for budget talks.

Shortly before President Barack Obama was re-elected, he confided to John Podesta, an informal adviser, a vow he was making for his second term: He would never again bargain with Republicans to extend the U.S. debt limit.

The stand Obama has taken on the latest fight over the government shutdown and borrowing limit — refusing to tie policy conditions to raising the debt ceiling — is an attempt to repair some of the damage that he and his aides believe he sustained by making concessions to Republicans to avert a default two years ago, according to former top administration officials and advisers.

Blomberg

Anybody wondering who really is causing all this shutdown pain isn’t paying attention to the facts.

Now, I here that 6 Democrats and 6 Republicans in the Senate have proposed a compromise and Reid won’t even look at it. It’s still my way or the highway for the Obama and Reid.

Did you notice that not one response addressed what you were showing them?

“Of course I’m tempted [to sign those bills] because you’d like to think that you could solve at least some of the problems…but here’s the problem. What you’ve seen are bills that come up wherever Republicans are feeling political pressure, they put a bill forward. And if there’s no political heat, if there’s no television story on it, then nothing happens.”

I could put up a dozen more examples to add to what you’ve listed.

In a conflict over how much power a government should have, it’s being demonstrated right in front of us what a government that controls everything will do when it wants to punish a populace that isn’t falling in line fast enough.

This is what the government does when it controls property. We saw what the IRS did against political opponents, however much dirt has been kicked over it.

What would they do to retaliate against opposition if they controlled all our health care?

This is kind of funny, though. And a little encouraging.

It’s kind of depressing that the arguments here and elsewhere are all about the battles, and nobody wants to discuss what the war has been about: how big and powerful government should be, and how the hell we’re going to pay for a bigger one when we can’t pay for the one we’ve got.

Most Americans disapprove of the way Obama is handling his job, the poll suggests, with 53 percent unhappy with his performance and 37 percent approving of it. Congress is scraping rock bottom, with a ghastly approval rating of 5 percent.

Indeed, anyone making headlines in the dispute has earned poor marks for his or her trouble, whether it’s Democrat Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, or Republican John Boehner, the House speaker, both with a favorability rating of 18 percent.

AP

Even some democrats are unhappy with the bull.

An unusual confrontation took place on the U.S. Capitol steps Wednesday when District Mayor Vincent C. Gray crashed a news conference held by Senate Democrats and asked Majority Leader Harry Reid to exempt the city from the ongoing shutdown.
“Sir, we are not a department of the government,” Gray told Reid moments after the mayor concluded his own press event about 50 yards from where Reid held one. “We’re simply trying to be able to spend our own money.”
“I’m on your side, don’t screw it up, okay? Don’t screw it up,” Reid (Nev.) told his fellow Democrat.
The intraparty tension comes after the Republican-controlled House voted last week to pass a bill allowing the District to use its locally raised tax funds to maintain operations until Dec. 15. But Democrats, including Reid and President Obama, have held fast in opposition to piecemeal funding bills, saying Republicans must come to a deal to fund the entire government, not just favored segments.

After Reid left the steps, Gray got into a heated exchange with Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), who attempted to explain the Hill Democrats’ position to the mayor. “We’ve got to open up this government for all the good people, in D.C., Maryland, Virginia,” she said.
Gray replied to Boxer: “We’re just asking to spend our own money — our own money, not the federal money.”

Washington Post

Yeah, the administration has the people’s best interest in mind. Maybe that’s why his poll numbers have tanked to record lows.
Kicking senior citizens out of their own paid off homes just because it sits on federal land and closing off private companies that use no federal monies stinks of vindictiveness. The smell of Obama’s government closures is wreaking so bad he is reversing some of them which just goes to show it’s backfiring.