Bernie's Time Machine: The Ghost of Shutdowns Past

When Republicans were the ones causing a government shutdown, and they didn't like me calling out how bad of an idea it was.

“In Mr. Cruz’s world, charging over the hill and running into the enemy’s bayonets is a noble thing to do.”

A little over twelve years ago, the country was headed toward another government shutdown — this one created by Republicans. It was a political stunt, pushed hard by then freshman-senator, Ted Cruz. Cruz claimed it would defund or delay the unpopular Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare), but politically savvy people understood that that was never going to happen (the Democrats held the presidency and U.S. Senate).

Still, some media-conservatives were pushing the idea hard, including Eric Bolling on Fox News (where I was a contributor). He aligned with Cruz and chastised Republicans who weren’t on-board with the senator’s doomed idea as “RINOs” and “fake conservatives.” (Bolling was presenting himself as a Constitution-waving conservative purist at the time; he went on to drop the role a few years later).

I wrote about the shutdown situation on this very website, including what I thought about Cruz and Bolling. The column blew up!