Congressional Republican Cruelty, Again

People not having access to affordable healthcare is a crisis. Defunding the social safety net is calamitous. The sequester is a disaster. And all of it is part of the Republican strategy to bring the federal government to its knees, "to reduce it to the size where [they] can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub."

Today: House Republicans set course for shutdown with anti-Obamacare bill.

Republicans in Congress have placed the US on a path to a potentially calamitous government shutdown over the federal budget, after voting through a measure on Friday that makes the continuing funding of the government contingent upon an attempt to derail President Barack Obama's signature healthcare initiative.

Leaders in the Republican-dominated House of Representatives immediately called on the Senate to back the bill, which would keep up government spending until mid-December but also withdraw funding for the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Democrats opposed the vote, arguing in a debate beforehand that Republicans were threatening to deny resources to vital agencies and playing a high-risk game that could place the entire US economy in jeopardy.

The resolution is expected to be blocked next week by leaders in the Democratic Senate; Obama has already said he will veto any such measure.

...There are just 10 days before the end of the federal fiscal year, after which government departments will run out of money. A showdown is expected to dominate Washington throughout next week. ...[T]he consequences of a failure to reach an agreement over the next week could be far-reaching. Economists are warning that the danger of a government shutdown or debt default could seriously damage the US, with ripples potentially impacting the wider global economy.

...However, House Republicans, whose agenda has been set by the conservative wing of the GOP, and who have been a thorn in the side of the Obama administration, are unperturbed.

Welp, that about sums it up. Holding the nation hostage to a garbage ideology the healthcare plank of which is "don't get sick if you can't pay for it" may have global consequences, but "House Republicans are unperturbed."

And, hey, if they do happen to get perturbed at any point and need some medical attention for their perturbation, it's no problem—since US taxpayers are already paying for them to have excellent healthcare.