74 replies to this topic

[Spectacles]

I'm sure there's some dire result of a shutdown that I don't anticipate, but at the moment, I can't really bring myself to follow closely the absurdities in DC. You can only take so much.

But I hope that if the Tea Partiers in the House want to kick and scream and hold their breath until they turn blue, that this time no one will give in.

I have no idea what purpose this dysfunctional government serves anyway--other than drama. I have never seen a stupider bunch of crackpots in elected office--and that's saying a lot since lord knows we've elected some doozies over the years, both parties, but the GOP has become the Know Nothings of the 21st century.  Even poor Boehner seems baffled by the ill-informed fanatics Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh have cultivated for the party over the years.

And that Obama has negotiated with them time and time again baffles me. What has he gained politically for these endless, silly waltzes around raising the debt ceiling? Certainly not respect. Worse, when you negotiate with crazy people, you legitimize their point of view. And appeasing a bunch of people who think science is the devil and facts in general aren't facts unless Rush, FoxNews pundits and other right-wing alternatives to the "lamestream media" say so is not doing the country a lot of good.

Anyway...I hope no one blinks this time and the government shuts down.
Maybe then we-the-people will consider the need to elect rational people next time around.....Nah, won't happen.

[Omega]

I'd have to do cost-benefit analysis. What happens if the government shuts down, exactly? What horrors will be inflicted?

[FarscapeOne]

I'm trying very hard to come up with things the government is doing that would make me worried if they shut down.

All I have to show for it is a massive headache for thinking so hard and coming up with nothing.  So for that reason alone, I hope their asses shut down.

[Themis]

I thought a shut down would mean that checks wouldn't go out - salary checks, social security checks (or transfers to bank accounts - I don't think they send checks any more).

[CJ AEGIS]

Spectacles, on 18 September 2013 - 06:03 PM, said:

I'm sure there's some dire result of a shutdown that I don't anticipate, but at the moment, I can't really bring myself to follow closely the absurdities in DC.

Worse impact will be no pay for Federal employees and to military personell.  Some major issues will likely occur with training for the military and also deployments.  It really messes with naval deployments... not that the current cuts haven't already done that.  CDC will likely shutdown disease monitoring too... and only respond to outbreaks.

Edited by CJ AEGIS, 18 September 2013 - 10:50 PM.

[Balderdash]

And on a more personal level , as a government worker, I'll get some unexpected time off depending on
how long the shutdown is I could lose more than pay.  Year after year they use this club over the heads
of people who really have no say so over a damned thing and I am tired of the bullying tactics.

[Nonny]

Arrrr, me hearties, I say we take the tea blighters and keelhaul em!          


  

[FarscapeOne]

For some strange reason, I feel like having rum now...

[Elara]

I'm torn. On one hand, I don't care if the government shuts down, but on the other, I'll have no money, no way to pay bills. I find that kind of sucky. IF they lose all their pay when it shuts down, then I am actually willing to go without. Unfortunately, it would only hurt the lower classes in office, the upper classes, are well off enough, that it would have no effect. So, I guess that has me not too thrilled with the idea.
hmmm... maybe if all their assets (bank accounts, stocks, only get to have groceries on hand, down to one car and the gas it holds, etc...) were frozen while the government was shut down. Then I'd be for it, 100%.

FarscapeOne, on 19 September 2013 - 10:26 AM, said:

For some strange reason, I feel like having rum now...

There's probably plenty of that, just no chocolate.

[Jim Gamma]

Please note that this is from memory and I may be wrong... wasn't there a shut down a few years ago? My boss at work remembers going to Paris and a member of a US Government Agency was there; when the freeze happened, the American had to basically stop everything work-related, but be ready to continue as soon as funding was reinstated.

I'm not sure if she was permitted to leave her hotel room during scheduled hours, as she could've been called back into the conference they were attending at any point, but I assume they'd already paid for her flight home, so she could've still done that if she hadn't been recalled by the end of the conference...

Fortunately the freeze didn't last that long.

Edited by Jim Gamma, 24 September 2013 - 12:23 PM.

[Spectacles]

[offworlder]

well how can we because,

sure the congressman who is also a millionaire parner in a corp law firm, and maybe divorce or 'I am the wronged party' attorney, class action lawsuit types, can afford to dip into savings and keep the home and fam going... but what about the Gs13 who making a salary, what are they, maybe 73 000 somthing whichever, and the wife lost her job in a firm reshuffle with overextending, you know how those corps do, so the fam have the mortgage in 'suburb glen ferns' or what have you, and the kids college funds have been infused because hey the oldest kid is now 16, and the memberships and the insurances, so the savings are not exactly much this year, and now how do they keep the payments of everything up?

ps,
i like to get my us news, someone taught me years ago to do this, from outside us, sources... uk are watching this thing closely, not only coz they have tons O resident foreign corrs, but also, intrinsically connected to USA acts and trends.
http://www.bbc.co.uk...canada-24306933

Edited by offworlder, 27 September 2013 - 05:16 PM.

[Spectacles]

Just above everyone outside the GOP Tea-bubble is pointing and laughing at this seriously unhinged faction of the Republican party.

Read this. It's short and kinda funny but not really:

http://nymag.com/dai...thing-ever.html

But the GOP has a problem. And since they're one of two political parties running the country, so do the rest of us.

[BklnScott]

Well, looks like it's gonna happen.  A lot of republican congressmen are gonna lose their seats over this next year - unless sense prevails at the eleventh hour.  Stay tuned!

Someone told me the 90s were back last week.  Now I believe it.

[Nonny]

Sadly, not the ones with safe seats due to gerrymandering.  

[BklnScott]

The definition of "safe" seats changed drastically during the last shut down - if this happens, and drags on, we will be celebrating the return of Speaker Pelosi in January 2015 ... and Obama's final two years will be undivided government.

[FarscapeOne]

Posted in the wrong spot.

Edited by FarscapeOne, 28 September 2013 - 07:16 PM.

[Spectacles]

I can't believe they're doing this. They really ARE stupid and deluded.

[Spectacles]

Good article on the GOP's Ahab-like obsession with Obamacare, why they've whipped themselves into such a frenzy over it that they're ready to die on this hill. It's really a strange thing to watch....The GOP House members who are hellbent on kamikazi-ing over defunding Obamacare represent a definite minority of citizens in this country. And yet here they go, over the cliff, threatening to take the rest of the government with them. Unreal.


http://nymag.com/new...re-plot-2013-9/

[ShotenStar]

What happens when the government shuts down?  One of the largest employers in some areas (I'm in Maryland, where that is definitely the case) can't make payroll and can't pay contractors for goods and services (some of these are small and/or minority/woman owned). Just like when a large manufacturing plant shutdowns, the impacts ripple through the entire local economy.  In the case of the US Federal Government, while 'essential / emergency' personnel may continue to work (and may or may not be paid for that work after the fact), non-essential services are closed.  Want to go to a National Park? Not happening.  What to sell your latest and greatest product to a government agency?  Don't think so.  

My personal experience comes from the last time the GOP had a fit of the stupids and shut down the government.  For the first one, I was on sick leave following major surgery in the weeks prior to the shutdown.  I was told that in order to have any chance of being paid for those shutdown days, I had to be in 'work status', not on leave of any type.  So I had to come off sick leave early and be at work with bandages still in place in order to protect my income.  For the second time, I had been working with a contractor, organizing several thousands of dollars worth of property improvements.  While we could have elected to pay for this from savings, the uncertainties of how long the shutdown would last and whether or not we would be paid for the time caused us to delay the work for many weeks.  We were impacted and we passed that impact down the line to the small business contractor.

*star*, who becomes more and more liberal as she ages