Everyone’s buzzing tonight about the (sigh) government shutdown, brought on by the Republican controlled House Of Representatives 43rd attempt at defunding Obamacare. A lot of people are wondering just how the government can “shut down” and what exactly caused it.
Now, Uproxx rarely likes to get all Politico, but the real cause of the government shutdown is former Sunday school teacher and restaurateur Mark Meadows, a representative from North Carolina. After Speaker Of The House John Boehner spoke out against using the “government shutdown” option in their fight to defund Obamacare around mid-August, Meadows sent out this letter with the help of some 50+ Republican representatives. The New Yorker calls that group the “Suicide Caucus” as they would rather shut the entire government down than try to reason with the other side.
Now, this is the 43rd time (really!) that the GOP has tried to defund Obamacare, but this is also their biggest “Hail Mary” option so far. We are gonna stay politically neutral here, but the New Yorker has a fascinating profile on the “Suicide Caucus” here and CNN has a pretty decent article on Meadows here if you’d like to check it out.
Pretty crazy how one guy can effectively shut down the entire government.
(Image: Jadpoet)