From Rep. Billy Long’s (R-7) statement justifying a vote for a budgetary continuing resolution that seeks to delay Obamacare for a year, a vote that guarantees a government shutdown:

“Our military men and women put their lives on the line to protect our country and freedoms.  We owe it to them and their families to ensure they continue to receive their paychecks in the event of a government shutdown.”

Somebody needs to break it to Billy that he’s had two opportunities within the last week to ensure that our military men and women get what’s due to them, and he bungled both for no reason other than to make a stink about a duly enacted law that he and a few of his friends don’t like.

Maybe Billy doesn’t understand that votes have consequences and that this particular vote might very well create difficulties for lots of Americans, including the military members that he’s so worried about. This supposition may be correct since he doesn’t seem to understand that elections, such as the two that brought Barack Obama to the White House and then retained him in the presidency, should have meaningful consequences.

Or alternatively, maybe Billy just doesn’t like democracy. That’s right, democracy. The will of the people. Which is what 65 million Americans spelled out clearly last fall when they voted for the man who gave us Obamacare. Further, many of us who exercised our democratic perogative last November are also part of the ca. 69% of Americans who think Billy and his GOP pals should give the anti-Obamacare tantrums a rest. How democratic is it to thwart the will of the people?