Haven't we been telling you that?

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Johnny Isakson: Shutdown was 'a dumb idea'
By Jim Galloway, October 12, 2013

The moving parts are many, and bound to change over a volatile weekend. But on Friday afternoon, U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson left the White House expressing some hope that Washington had finally stumbled upon a path out of its homemade swamp.

“When you’re talking, you keep talking,” he told reporters, no doubt plucking the phrase from his days as a real estate man who pushed countless parties to the closing table.

Isakson, who participated in quiet, bipartisan budget talks this summer, was among several Senate Republicans who met with President Barack Obama for nearly two hours.

What House Republicans will and won’t accept remains something of a mystery. But on the 11th day of a federal shutdown, with a compounding crisis looming over whether the U.S. government should pay its bills, Isakson pronounced the ‘we-won’t-move’ phase of negotiations to be done and gone.

Later in the day, Isakson was on CNN. “Those who thought shutdown was a good idea now know it’s not a very good idea. In fact, it’s a dumb idea,” he said.

An end to the stalemate has national import. But for Isakson, it has personal resonance, too.

Last month, in a speech on the U.S. Senate floor, Isakson took his career in hand – he’s up for re-election in 2016 — and warned his fellow Republicans that attempting to defund Obamacare by linking that demand to the continued operation of the federal government was a mistake for which his party would pay.

While no friend to the Affordable Care Act, Isakson pointed out that a shutdown would have no effect on its implementation. “A great percentage of that is mandatory funding,” Isakson said. “If you shut the government down, you’re actually encouraging Obamacare, and discouraging our government to function as it should.”

Ditto, he implied, for diddling with the need to raise the federal debt ceiling.

However prophetic that might now seem, for tea party enthusiasts within the Republican camp, Isakson’s radical support for economic stability hasn’t gone down well.

Since that speech, Gov. Nathan Deal has been Isakson’s best and most public friend. This week, the governor warned of dire consequences for the state should Congress refuse to raise the debt-ceiling. And he invited Isakson to tailgate with him in Athens before Saturday’s Bulldog game with Missouri.

The response to the invitation, posted on the governor’s Facebook page, was cruel. “I would not cross the street to throw water on (Isakson) if he was on fire,” was one of the more civilized comments.

Isakson ended up canceling his Athens appearance – pointing to weekend votes scheduled in the Senate.

But the harsh response the senator has received from some quarters underscores what’s been missing from the D.C. debate – the voice of Georgia’s business community. This is the group most likely to pay the price for thousands of unemployed federal workers, unawarded federal contracts, and reduced faith in the U.S. dollar.

Perhaps “missing” isn’t the right word. But certainly business reaction has been subdued in Georgia, for several likely reasons. To express support for Isakson is to risk antagonizing some GOP members of this state’s House delegation, who pushed the “default-or-bust” tactic. And remember that Georgia’s business leadership had its posterior solidly kicked by tea party forces just 14 months ago, over a statewide transportation sales tax.

Nonetheless, just four days after Isakson’s speech that warned against the all-or-nothing drive to defund Obamacare, the Georgia Chamber of Commerce – the most powerful business force in the state - signed onto a letter that backed Isakson’s hand.

“(W)ith the U.S. economy continuing to underperform, the federal government needs to maintain its normal operations pending a successful outcome of broader budgetary reforms,” the letter said.

Earl Rogers, president and CEO of the Georgia Hospital Association, said Friday that he’s been informed by state officials that, should Congress fail to raise the debt-ceiling, millions of dollars in Medicaid payments to hospitals could be curtailed as quickly as Nov. 1.

“We want to see this shutdown resolved and the debt ceiling raised,” Rogers said. This was his first public statement on the matter, although Rogers said his organization has been in constant contact with members of Congress.

In a quick survey of business types, John Fleming of the Georgia Retail Association perhaps expressed the most frustration. Congress settled its last fiscal crisis during the height of the 2012 Christmas shopping season. And it may do so again this year.

“So we really do wish this would be resolved. We had been looking at a pretty good year, but if you take the wind out of our sails right before the biggest shopping season of the year, it’s going to hurt,” Fleming said. “I guess the message from retailers is, ‘Guys, quit scaring the shoppers.’”

If that’s the message, however quiet, now being delivered to Congress, then perhaps Isakson’s message wasn’t as risky as it once sounded.
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