There’s hardly much more to be said about the all-too-likely government shutdown, or the possibility of an even more terrifying default on our debt obligations. But even so, I firmly believe it’s a good idea to repeat this as often as possible so everybody understands it: Republicans in Congress are drawing their line in the sand, throwing thousands of government works temporarily out of work and threatening the entire world economy, not over a fiendish Democratic plan to confiscate all guns in the country, or to raise income tax rates to where they were in the 1960s, or to get involved in another costly war, or even a plan by President Obama to become dictator for life. No, they are fighting to the death over a plan to give poor people better access to health insurance.
And they are using the words of real heroes in the most offensive way possible to do it.