Why They Did It: Government Shutdown and Opposition to Healthcare for All (and to Increased Taxes on Super-Rich)

Ezra Klein on why the Republicans shut down the U.S. government:

This is all about stopping a law that increases taxes on rich people and reduces subsidies to private insurers in Medicare in order to help low-income Americans buy health insurance. That's it.

Bill Boyarsky on the same:

Don’t write the Republicans off as totally crazy. They know that if Obamacare works, it will wreck chances for attaining their real goal—lowering taxes on the rich, wiping out regulations and widening even more the gap between the very rich and everyone else.

And John Boehner is a Catholic--the second Catholic Republican in history to hold the position of Speaker of the House? A Catholic who has stated publicly that he stands side by side with Pope Francis, but who is also standing at the head of a political movement that cuts food assistance to the indigent while doling out lavish subsidies to agribusiness; who is willing to shut down the American government rather than see millions of Americans without access to healthcare drawn into networks of healthcare provision; who serves the rich and penalizes the poor?

I'm very ashamed to call myself Catholic when people like Mr. Boehner are the face of my church in the American public square.

The graphic, "GOP Caduseus Nooseus" by Daryl Cagle of CagleCartoons, is from Truthdig.