What the Government Shutdown Really Means
There has so much back and forth about what the shutdown of the Federal government really means, that I figured that as someone who stands to be furloughed, I would add in my two cents.
Besides the cancellation of the Cherry Blossom Parade, the shuttering of the Smithsonian, and the closing of parks and monuments, it also means that I won’t get paid, which could mean I won’t be able to make my mortgage payment next month, pay my credit card bills, or buy groceries. It means I need to delay some needed dental work, because even though I have health insurance, the dental benefits are minimal and I have large out-of-pocket costs. It means delaying taking the dog and cats to the vet. It means that the work I do to prepare for our annual financial report to Congress and the public will not get done, because I can be fired if I decide to work during the furlough.
It means that for the 3rd time since I became a civil servant, my livelihood and finances are being tossed around like a football, without any concern for the damage that will be done. I believe that being a civil servant is an honorable profession. I serve the public. I’ve heard so much bellyaching by the teabaggers that this is the Democratic Senate’s fault because they didn’t pass the appropriation bills last fall. I call BULLSHIT! Nothing got done in the Senate because you had Head Bagger Jim DeMint and his lapdog Mitch McConnell playing politics with and running filibuster after filibuster on all of the spending measures. And you also had a spineless Harry Reid, who just threw in the towel instead of fighting these jerks. And now you have a weak-kneed John Boehner who lets the teabaggers in his caucus call the shots, instead of being a real speaker (sort of like Sam Rayburn and John Nance Garner) who didn’t let these greenhorns run the show. The Orange Man just caved to the whack jobs standing outside the Capitol yesterday shouting “shut it down.”
When I was a kid, I was in awe of Congress. I had the utmost respect for the institution. But after 25+ years as a Federal employee (hell, it was after 3 years), I discovered that Congress is made up of 515 little dictators and 20 people who actually give a damn about their constituents (and I include John Carney in this group of 20). Each has an agenda and they use Federal employees and the District of Columbia as their laboratories, to see if the can stop needle exchange, freeze wages, take away bargaining rights, gut whistleblower protections, force a city government to issue school vouchers, and on and on and on. If one of these schmucks ever tried to push through one of these little experiments in their home district, they’d be out of a job.
So here’s my reform proposal: On October 1 of each year, if an appropriations bill is not in place, Members of Congress and their staff are docked a days pay for each day that passes before a spending bill is enacted. No more continuing resolutions. Executive branch employees who lose pay will be made whole; Congress and their staffs would not.
I will make the most of what could be my last day working for a while (I have a formal EEO complaint against my agency to file). And anyone who emails me after 4:30 PM tomorrow will get the following message:
I have been furloughed because the teabaggers in Congress don’t care about the American public or government workers, only about scoring political points. I will reply to your inquiry when I return to work. If you have questions about the furlough, please call 202-225-0600 and ask to speak to John Boehner.
Tags: John Boehner, Paul Ryan, Republican Hypocrisy, Republican Liars, Teabaggers
MJ, here’s an idea. If on Oct.1st there is no appropriations bill in place, then it automatically reverts back to the previous year’s. And is locked in for a year. If those government growing socialist liberals thought they couldn’t increase spending each year, then they might get off the dime and compromise.
Frank, the only way that would work is if the costs of running programs and paying contractors, paying for food for hospitals and prisons, gas, etc., also would stay at the same rates as the previous year. Alas, your simplistic solutions to everything betray you as the teabagging fool you are.
The President has offered compromise after compromise. But you have idiots like Alan West (who was just on CNN) saying it was the teabag way or the highway.
Great post MJ and thanks for sharing.
From today’s NYT, Paul Krugman doesn’t care much for the Republican plan for gov’t fiscal foolishness . . .
“So the pundits who praised this proposal when it was released were punked. The G.O.P. budget plan isn’t a good-faith effort to put America’s fiscal house in order; it’s voodoo economics, with an extra dose of fantasy, and a large helping of mean-spiritedness.”
Is it really true that the R’s are sticking on defunding Planned Parenthood? Is that why they want to shut down the government? It is still all about the uterus police?
Modern Republicanism 101. Uterus policing is the only valid role for the federal government.
It boils down to this – the teabaggers have hijacked the GOP. And we all remember what happened the last time a small group of people hijacked something. These teabag congresspeople and their followers are no better than the 9/11 hijackers, IMO.
@MJ “…no better than the 9/11 hijackers, IMO.”
At least the Tea Baggers are still on the plane that they’re flying into our government. I suspect that this will be the effective end of the Tea Party… and a well deserved end, too.
The Tea Party is more like the irresponsible teen who keeps crashing the family car. It’s not until the third time that the parents — or more accurately the insurance company, played by big business in our analogy — put the kibosh on the behavior.
Im just glad it didnt take very long for the flame-out. I knew eventually the Tbaggers would show their true colors and the American people would poses enough collective cognitive ability to recognize they are bad. I thought it might take a year or 2…. turns out they are even less intelligent and even more radical than i thought.
somebody call the waaaambulance.
wrong usage of that phrase, dipshit. I am happy that the Tbaggers are burning themselves alive in the fires of retarded ideology.
Maybe he needs the waaaambulance for himself.
The teabaggers seem to be completely successful in their role of being the far right that Obama has pre-pledged to compromise with.
Let’s see what happens. Will Obama sell Planned Parenthood down the river, along with the women it provides health care for?
If he does, it will be a teabagger victory and a stunning vindication of Republican extremist hardball tactics: Ask for more than you expect to get, then settle for the difference. Something Obama still doesn’t get.
When Obama was elected, did you ever believe you would see a bill for Medicare repeal even being considered?
It took a lot of hard work on Democrats’ part to strip the taboo and remove the Republican fear of attacking Medicare and Social Security.
“It took a lot of hard work on Democrats’ part to strip the taboo and remove the Republican fear of attacking Medicare and Social Security.”
..and they will likely pay the price. When the elderly abandon the Republican Party in droves, the political landscape will look sharply different. The recent GOP attack on the AARP was an attempt to stem this, but it will get ugly. The attack ads will be brutally effective.
The attack ads will be brutally effective.
You have not been paying attention. Whatever Republican policy is signed by Obama (whether that means putting health care in private hands, cutting taxes for the rich, defunding Planned Parenthood, voucherizing Medicare and Social Security) will be done as part of a compromise deal, which Obama will proudly list as an accomplishment, and we will be required to celebrate as a win (or be deemed ‘purists.’)
When you compromise, you own both halves of the compromise.
Sorry. When the AARP decides to fight back with attack ads, it wont matter what Obama has done.
When the AARP decides to fight back with attack ads, it wont matter what Obama has done.
If there is a budget cut with his name on it, Obama will be in the line of fire too.
Uhhh. No. Obama is not the one who is trying to destroy the AARP. Why would they attack him and diminish the effectiveness of their message? The target is clear.
Here are some furlough numbers – http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0411/040811Kl1.htm
MJ, I am sorry, I thought your idea was to force the Washington crowd to pass a budget. If they were forced to work with last years numbers, you can bet they would.
Now let me ask, are you guys playing a drinking game? Am I supposed to take a shot everytime someone use the word teabagger? Oh wait. Okay. I find it funny that people who so ‘vehemently support the homosexual community, would so overuse the phrase teabagger. May God’s blessing be on this house.
Anon: Your absolutely correct. Everytime the baggers negiotated, Obama said, “We will give you that”…Obama is no FDR nor invested in the New Deal. Teabaggers will shut down every program for the people they possibly can. So the big question is what did the Obama dems “give away to appease these monsters”. Planned Parenthood a shell game. So the dems could say, “see how we stood up for women”! Sorry, I dont buy any of the bs, the dems want to shut down programs for the poor too! Its a shell game. As long as we have only two parties, we the people will never get real leadership. Under Corporate Democrats and evil baggers, the 1%, for the l% by the l% are winning. Progressives better get mobilized and organized and push back against these corporate dems. If we dont wait until the 2012 budget comes up…we will be standing on street corners selling apples.
Frank, in your simplistic, bizarro, teabagger world, where everyone rides magic unicorns, your proposal would work. But governments operate hospitals, prisons, vehicle fleets, schools, and other operations for the welfare of their citizens. In your world, the costs for operating these are flat, so you see no reason to increase spending.
But in the real world that the vast majority of us live in, we know that food costs more than it did last year, gas costs more, drugs cost more, school supplies cost more. So in order to maintain the same level of service, budgets need to increase to cover those costs. Sure, “they” could “work with last year’s numbers,” but at what cost? What would you cut? Oh wait, I know the answer to that – women’s health care.
I thought you were all about creating jobs. Isn’t that the reason your side won control of the House in November? Apparently, your side lied and it really was about starting the cultural war all over again. Guess you’ll never learn that most of us have moved past that.
As for the origin of the use of teabagger, Frank, go here. You can send your complaints to FAUX News and Roger Ailes. Just be sure you’re not driving after all of those shots – Sheriff Jeff might arrest you.
It comes down to pragmatics, really… and the lack of adequate intelligence being given to the voters.
Obama is no FDR. But neither is his Congress (constitutionally mandated to pass legislation) the Congress of FDR… FDR was able to get his bills passed on a 51% majority. FDR had 65 favorable to his point of view. For some insane and yet unexplained reason, Obama had to have 60% to pass anything… and so, even with 59 Senators, and a full House in his favor, he had to have some watering down of effective legislation. His true worth, is that despite this limitation, he was able to get health care passed; that despite this handicap, he was able to re-enforce common sense requirements upon Wall Street, that despite the odds otherwise, he was able to get us out of Iraq.
Yes, you can blame Obama for not being FDR. Of course here in Delaware one could get away with it, because it seems like only here, do our voters have the common sense and the actual ability to separate those who would work for us, from those who would work for the “Ministry of Magic”……
And to those who chide Obama for not pushing harder…. I’m curious as to how they react with their superiors in their own work place.. the spot where THEY have everything on the line… Do they go to their supervisors, demanding they get a 10% raise, or if not, they’ll quit? If they can and do, they are lucky to work in such a place. Most of us would fear that antagonizing those who hired us, would get us fired. Do they emphatically demand their their way be done, constantly over the wishes of their supervisor..? I doubt not. I would venture to suppose that they would pick and choose their battles, putting their credibility on line only if they felt they had the option to win, and letting those they couldn’t, slide by without a fight…
Such then, the antics of our current chief of staff can be seen in new light… His boss is the America People… and they have, just shown the true measure of their support, by electing a lot of Republicans to the House…
Instead of bashing Obama, the most effective way to impact change, is to bash those who publicly use “magical formulas” to pretend they know what is best for America. Challenge those supporters directly. You won’t change their minds but you will impact others to begin questioning their motives based off what you say.
There is a problem in America and it lies with information. Americans want change. They show it. They went hard on Republicans in 2006 and 2008… Then, simply because they were the challengers, they supported them in 2010!
Americans are not getting correct information in their daily lives on how, what, why, and when we need to address changes to improve those things keeping us down…. It should be quite obvious to historians, that government was good, as cited in all the comments above, when standards were in place to insure that our media told the truth to the American People… It will be easy for historians to see, that as soon as we allowed lies to go unchallenged, our nation became incapable of governing.
Bottom line: Our government is designed to follow the moral compass of its people.. When one group is allowed to hold a magnet next to that compass, affecting its outcome, we in the nation, will get skewed results….. And we have, ever since 2000.
There are two different approaches to the dissemination of information. The one we grew up with, is this one: ” Here is what happened: interpret it at your will”… Today, we get “here is what YOU need to do about what WE say happened!” a little hard for those from the past vision, to take seriously.
That helps explain why Delaware steered a different course away from the rest of America. Simply put, here at least, we have a community that probably that spends 1 or 2 minutes scanning the News Journal for headlines, then spends 1-2 hours on the net chasing down the real story…. This blog being one source of connections to real info….
A blog is flawed just like a newspaper. We know that. But when reading a blog there is no illusion that it’s news has the sanctity of a newspaper. Therefore when we read a blog, we take its opinions worth a grain of salt, and we make up our own mind,…. just like we used to back when ‘things’ were better…..
Here’s a question for Frank – do you even know what a continuing resolution is and what the funding base is used for a CR?
Kavips – While there are a few grains of truth in there, I don’t think I’ve ever read anything from you that was so full of bullshit. I can’t parse it out right now but I will, and your fanny will be hurting from the paddling for a fortnight.
“find it funny that people who so ‘vehemently support the homosexual community, would so overuse the phrase teabagger. May God’s blessing be on this house.”
the teabaggers brought the pejorative on themselves. You also dont have to be gay to teabag someone so any homosexual overtones oyu detect in that are pure projection. We can also use the classic conservative defense of “well we didnt mean it THAT way”
why cant you just face that there is FINALLY a good insult for conservatives and live with it. you people managed to turn “liberal” into an insult. so keep on steepin, teabag.
@ Frank Knotts- In the immortal utterings of Woody Woodpecker:
” Ha,ha,ha,HA,ha. Ha,ha,ha,HA,ha. HA,HA,HA,HA,HA!”
Take that you filthy,low-down,testicle-swilling TEABAG SCUMBAG !!!
I can only speak for myself, but I call teabaggers “teabaggers” and “teabaz” because they don’t seem to like it.
@jason – me too….. 🙂
me 3. i seriously LOVE that conservative white people FINALLY have a name they hate being called.
Teabaggers reap what they sow (derision and scorn). The party of selfishness and racism deserves even worse.
Question for MJ. Do you know what a private sector job is? Or do you think we all should just suck from the paps of government? And thank you MJ for that brilliant lesson in economics. Did you think of that all by yourself? I know you find it more productive to deride those you disagree with. But I know, that you know, what I am saying. But then again maybe you don’t get it. Those like yourself believe there is no such thing as a justified cut in government spending, except of course unless it is defence spending. You may call me anything you like if it creates some false sense of superiority for you. Unfortunately, you are little more than a liberal cliche. Maybe you could bring back one of the classics, “NEOCON”, that was always one of the favorites.