The House Is To Blame
The Constitution mandates that spending bills originate in the House of Representatives. The current Congress has had 9 full months to pass the necessary spending bills but they have failed which is why a Continuing Resolution is necessary.
This House only meets three days a week, and has taken recesses that last weeks whenever they feel like it. They have spent less time doing their job than the pre-school students they resemble. Given their lack of productivity taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay them more than minimum wage for the hours they are actually doing the job they were elected to do.
The House hasn’t done its job, and now it wants to extort the Senate and President to take actions they don’t want to take in the same bill that has to be passed to because of the failure by the House.
It is very bad policy to negotiate with extortionists or terrorists.
The entire blame for this mess belongs to the Republicans in the House. They caused the problem, and they are blocking the solution. They want to prove they will shut down the government and they will default on the National Debt unless they get what they want.
19 comments
Let me write in defense of preschool children, who often have a better sense of their own best interest (and when to stop whining about it) than anyone in the House GOP. The comparison is unfair to small children!
Some have said the GOP will pay for this. I’m not sure. I’ve thought the same thing in the past, only to see them lie their way out of a jam after they’ve done their worst. IMHO, the American voter needs a course in hardball politics so they will put a stop to this crap.
Meanwhile, I’m holding onto my Medicare application…
You are making the right decision about holding on to the application because it is too easy for things to get lost when there is more than the usual turmoil at SSA offices.
I had to submit the same records twice at the local office because no one locally noticed how faint the copies were. They had been apparently trying to save money on supplies and reduced their toner usage.
That was a special problem associated with military service during a specific time period, the rest of the process was fairly smooth on-line and that sped up the time I spent in the office.
Essentially 10% of the members of the House are screwing everything up.
This is all about one house of Congress attempting to override the results of the last election by holding a gun to their own head. Apparently the fact that Obama won with over 50% of the vote and that the election was largely a referendum on Obamacare doesn’t matter to them. Don’t like the results of the last election? Why, stage a coup via a temper tantrum!
If Obama and the Senate give in to this, they will basically have ended constitutional government in the United States, because we have a word for places where a minority rules over a majority via threats. That word is “tyranny”.
– Badtux the Bummed Penguin
If Obama allows them to get away with this, then he is just another Repug in sheep skin.
Bill Clinton dissects the shutdown strategy (video):
Bill Clinton on the shutdown: ‘There are times when you have to call people’s bluff’
Maybe people will finally wake up. *shrug*
Oh, and Jon Stewart did one of his rare “Special Presentations”about it (I think he’s annoyed!) 🙂
By William Morris via YouTube:
Jon Stewart Shreds GOP Over Obamacare: ‘Utter Insanity,’ ‘It’s a F*cking Law!’
One comment there from an Aussie (It’s very good!):
The Republicans in the USA seem a lot like the Liberals in Australia, i.e., angry, old, belligerent white men with an overblown sense of self-entitlement and a casual disregard for human-rights.
yeah, really! 😉 🙂
Also, Rachael Maddow (Raw Story):
Rachel Maddow blasts GOP intransigence: ‘Elect Republicans and they will burn the place down’
There is a big difference between what Gingrich did when he shutdown the government and what is happening now. Gingrich was battling Democrats, but Boehner is battling his own party.
The votes exist in the House to end this, but the Republicans won’t put it to a vote. There are competing House and Senate budgets passed, but the Republicans won’t appoint member to a conference committee to resolve the differences.
The situation is a mental health problem, not a political problem.
This sums it up for me.
Multimillionaire Republican lawmaker says government shutdown ‘is my idea of fun’
The problem is the complete morons that elect these absolute narcissist sociopath’s. Yes. It’s definitely a “mental health problem” m8. But it doesn’t start at the top.
And Sen. Elizabeth Warren (I really like her! She’s the sanest elected member in the entire US Federal Government!)
Elizabeth Warren compares compromise on government shutdown to negotiating with hostage takers
I like this comment: 😉
The Teapublicans’ idea of “compromise” is to begin by holding a gun loaded with a magazine clip of 100 rounds of ammo to the head of Dems, then they “compromise” by using a 30 round magazine clip. Fascists don’t compromise.
I’d like to “compromise” with the Teapublicans… I’d start by adding a ban on all assault weapons to the spending bill. If they don’t like that, then I’d add a requirement for universal background checks in all 50 states and that straw purchasers would be charged with a Class C Felony (up to 25 years, but at least 10). Oh wait, while I’m at it, I’d remove all subsidies for Big Oil. Then I’d sneak in a provision that prohibits insurance coverage for Viagra, cuz, ya know, men are such sluts.
I agree! 😆
So, I just watched Prez Obama’s speech in the Rose Garden. He waffled on a bit, but he did manage to hit some of the nails. First time I’ve actually thought he seemed like a Prez since being elected (the 1st time). I still think he’s too much of a right-wing ass-kisser… But who knows. *shrug* Anything is possible.
The basic problem is that Cruz is only one who has any real influence on the House Republicans. Boehner can’t make a deal because he isn’t in control of anything. There is anarchy in the House Republican caucus.
The bill on offer from the Senate is a compromise – it continues funding at the reduced level of the Sequester, not the full level of the budget that was put in place for the last fiscal year. This reduced budget is the result of the last deal. It was supposed to be the ‘poison pill’ that would cause Congress to pass a real budget, but the House refuses to do it.
If I had been Majority Leader of the Senate I would have substituted a bill so laden with goodies that it would have taken a fork lift to deliver it to the House. That’s how you start negotiations, not with the bare minimums. You have to include things that you are willing to give up to make the media think you are being reasonable.
We ran out of statesmen a while ago, and now it looks like we have run out of politicians.
I still think he’s too much of a right-wing ass-kisser
Yes, but if Obama gives in on this, his presidency is essentially over. Allowing one house of Congress to dictate the terms of his Presidency renders him basically a figurehead and he might as well resign.
Back during the Clinton shutdown, the budget that Clinton vetoed was passed by *both* houses of Congress. It was not a case of one house of Congress attempting to dictate to the President. Bill Clinton is a right-wing ass-kisser too, but even with *both* houses of Congress voting against him he wasn’t willing to give up Presidential power. The notion that Obama will do so with only *one* house of Congress against him doesn’t pass the smell test.
At least Clinton had some limit’s, and wasn’t a complete sociopath. (Though he did go somewhat “Power Mad!”) 😉
Been meaning to post this quote for some time. I think it sum’s up the *Teapublican’ts* perfectly.
“Men never do evil so completely or cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.”
— Blaise Pascal
That, Badtux, is why I don’t see a role for Zero in this part of the opera that the US government has become. This is a battle between the House and the Senate, not Congress and the President.
If they pass something he doesn’t want, then he gets a duet, but he is just part of the chorus for the moment.
I’m going to use that quote in my next post, Kryten.
But the veto threat, Bryan, is what’s going to keep the Senate in line. The Senate isn’t going to arrive at a compromise with the House that they *know* Obama will veto. It ain’t happenin’. It would be the biggest waste of time since Miley Cyrus twerked at the VMA’s.
Obama has a big stick here (the veto pen), and if he doesn’t credibly threaten to use it if the Senate gives in to House blackmail, he might as well resign, pack up, move back to Chicago, and let Joe Biden run things.
This feels institutional at this point. The Democratic leaders of the Senate know Obama won’t allow anything to endanger his main accomplishment. He won’t compromise, and the Senate is getting tired of being pushed by the House, when the House refuses to go to conference on the budget bills.
Republicans in swing districts are sweating bullets, because they are facing primary challenges if they break ranks, and probable loss at the election if they don’t.
When the VA pensions and Social Security checks stop going out, all hell is going to break loose.
I’m watching “F-Troop” (DVD)! One of the best things out of the USA evah!! 😈 (and so much more rational and sane than the USA the past decade or so!) 😉 😆
Then, I think I’ll watch “Get Smart”! Max is a genius compared to the US Gov!
Hmmm… Maybe “Gilligan’s Island” after (’cause that’s where you’re headed)…
And maybe “Dennis the Menace” after that (or maybe “Welcome Back, Kotter”)… Ehhh… Why not both! And then, to sum it all up… “Happy Day’s”!
Ooooh!! There are soooo many 50’s & 60’s TV shows I could add! Ahhh… they were the heyday’s of the great ol’ US of A! So sad… too bad… Bye, Bye!
Oh… “The Monkey’s”! “The Twilight Zone”! “Lost in Space” “It’s About Time”! “Mission Imposible”! “The Flintsones”… “Beverly Hillbillies”! “Car 54, Where Are You?”… Noooo there are too many!! Make it stop!! Oh, the pain… the pain! (guess who?) 😉
My Gawd! The USA was soooo prophetic back then! LMAO
😈
The SSA is funded outside of the budget process so Social Security checks will continue going out, Bryan. But the VA pension checks definitely won’t.
If by “this feels institutional at this point” you are referring to Arkham Asylum, yeah :). The only thing we’re lacking is insane cackling. Though the smell of whiskey from the House floor may indicate that we’ll get that shortly. (According to observers in the gallery, a number of members of the Republican caucus are completely soused at this point… and who can blame them?).
Like… This, you mean? 😉
Alan Grayson: Republicans are rejecting Obamacare out of drunken anger
Oooh!! And guess who’s baaaack??! Tbogg! The Snarkmeister! Wahoo! I missed his blogging. 😀 (He has a new blog on The Raw Story called “panic in funland.” with an appropriate banner background. 😀
John Boehner’s private email sexytexts revealed
And lastly (‘çause I can only put 3 links ya know) 😉 😀 Jon Stewart, again:
Jon Stewart destroys callous Fox News host: F*ck you for mocking the poor
There are still some decent and sane Americans… and they are not all commenter’s on this blog. 😉
I had a moment of panic there, Badtux, because ssa.gov was down for awhile. Despite separate funding they are cutting some services apparently because they share some resources with other agencies that are shutting down.
As far as the checks go, if the debt limit isn’t raised, Treasury can’t write the checks until they get the money to cover them, so there may be delays. Knocking a half-million people off the tax rolls certainly doesn’t help the situation.
This is sort of a cross between Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Twilight Zone, Kryten – both other-worldly and macabre.
Yes, a lot of the people who were in House have ‘tweeted’ about the obvious inebriation, that Grayson identified as ‘the usual suspects’. Nothing like having a government controlled by drunken whackoes.
Well, the IRS should be getting quarterly payments around now, so the Treasury should have enough cash on hand to meet Social Security payments at least. Incoming money for SS is still greater than outlay.
The debt ceiling issue is going to be the biggie though. Treasury is not prohibited from issuing new bonds to replace old ones on a one-for-one basis so a debt default seems unlikely, but the rest of government stays shut down until that ceiling is raised.
The Treasury is shifting money all over hell and beyond to cover bills and avoid the limit, but it won’t last forever, and the shutdown isn’t as much help as people may believe in reducing the bills because payments lag the bills. Eventually the shutdown will ease pressure, but not immediately.
Congress has no idea how things really work, and the whackoes are living in a separate universe, so they will never understand.