Andrew Sullivan goes from
this:
When you think of the actual Americans that the Tea Party is playing with, like so many pawns on a chessboard, the repulsiveness of the ego of Ted Cruz and the fanaticism of Erick Erickson becomes even clearer. For them, for all their protestations to the contrary, this was a game. And nameless, struggling Americans were the losers.
To
this, just 17 minutes later:
One way out of this would be for Obama to go big, to propose in these new talks a Bowles-Simpson-style deal in which major tax reform and entitlement cuts are exchanged for much higher revenues.
Those entitlement cuts aren't just numbers on a spreadsheet, they affect "nameless, struggling Americans," making losers out of them. What was horrid and unconscionable during the government shutdown is just as horrid and unconscionable when delivered by a functional government.