New details have come to light that not only has the Republican Party been  planning to shut down the Government for months but also that Majority Leader Eric Cantor quietly on Sept. 30 helped change the House of Representatives rules to guarantee that Republicans could keep the government closed regardless if a bipartisan majority found a way to re-open the government.

According to Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), the ranking member of the House Budget Committee, “What people don’t know is that they rigged the rules of the House to keep the government shut down. This is a blatant effort to make sure that the Senate bill did not come up for a vote” and a near certainty the government will stay shut down until Republicans deem the public has suffered enough damage. Apparently that was part of the conservative’s plan all along according to the right’s talking heads who exposed the Republican ploy to make federal employees suffer.

According to regular House rules, if there is an impasse on a bill or resolution between the House and Senate, a motion to dispose of any amendment shall be privileged that simply means “any motion from any member should be allowed to proceed to end the gridlock.” However, Republicans changed the rule by adding that “any motion may be offered only by the Majority Leader or his designee” that guaranteed even though the Democratic Senate caved and met House Republican budget demands, only Eric Cantor had the power to stop the shutdown by allowing a vote to end the closure after it began.

John Boehner has continually lied that he did not want a government shutdown and continued his lies when Republicans offered to raise the debt limit for 6 weeks, but only if they can keep the government closed.

This has been a set up from the start by the entire Republican Party.  Don’t be fooled.

To quote LBJ: “You can tell a caucus from a cactus because, with a cactus, all the pricks are on the outside.”