If You’re Going to Shut it Down, SHUT IT DOWN
The silly brinksmanship played in Washington these days has become as idiotic as it has harmful. NO country on the planet runs itself like the US. We don’t do budget reconciliation and planning. We do “continuing resolutions” so the government can limp along for another few days. We regularly hold (the sick, poor children, immigrants, minorities, education) fill in the blank here _________ hostage for cynical political purposes. It stupid. It’s destructive. It costs billions in economic slowing. It hurts everyday Americans.
But here’s the problem – Republicans use government shutdowns now as a political weapon, but it’s not really a shut down anymore. In 2013, after Ted Cruz led the idiotic shutdown, President Obama shutdown the national park system and other services. The shock to the system drove both sides to the table, even though it took 16 days to do so. During this shutdown, though, Trump is trying to make it invisible to everyday Americans. The parks, or at least most of them, are staying open. Other essential services are being maintained. The only people hurt in the short term are the poor, the sick, the old, and the voiceless. After all, who cares about them, right?
Shutdown is now just another tool the Republicans cynically use to put pressure on the opposition. The public, though, because so many services are maintained (even though government employees don’t get paid), there’s no price that most Americans pay. Because of that, many people, who have no idea how government actually works say “Shut the government down. It doesn’t affect me anyway.” I say, let’s make the government shutdown an actual shutdown. Shut down the military. Shut down the air traffic control system. Shut down customs, border security, national parks, social security, medicare, education, everything. The way to stop this kind of nonsense is to make it real to every person. The costs to the economy and everyday Americans would be so severe that politicians wouldn’t dare to use it as a political tool.
I’m pretty sick of the politics of self destruction we’ve seen develop the last 20 years. It’s time to stop it.
Actually I could handle a shutdown as you propose. I can still buy groceries, pay my bills, I don’t plan to go on trips anywhere or anyhow. I would miss my annuities and SS and Medicare for a while, but … so would a lot of impecunious people who voted for Trump. Don’t ever give them back THEIR missed “entitlements”.
1A government shutdown that actually shut down everything the government does would be the shortest shutdown in US history, and probably the last–especially if it removed the Secret Service protection from the President, et al. Hmmmmm. . . .
Not a bad idea.
2Yeah, my sister works for NASA, no paycheck for her. But the scumsuckers who have been behind this problem since the 1990s (thank you Newt Gingrich, you worthless sack of self-aggrandizing garbage; you’re still not as smart as Henry Kissinger, and your wife DESPERATELY needs a new hairstylist) are STILL GETTING PAID. If the government is shut down, the Congress, the White House staff, SCOTUS and their staff-none of those people ought to get paid. It is unbelievable that we the people continue to allow this crap.
3Donnie tweets himself in the foot. Again. No party for him this weekend. No golf either. That saved us a bunch of money flying his carcass, fees for cart rentals for the Secret Service and other SS associated fees. We should do this every weekend. Now with his trip to Davos pending Wednesday, he can save face and sign what is placed before him for the ‘sake’ of the country. We so need him there. Not.
For sixteen years plus the months since September when Donnie derailed DACA, snacilbupeR in Congress could have passed immigration reform. Now Lyin’ Ryan claims those few weeks until March are what he really needs. While other prime hostage taker, McTurdle McConnell thinks maybe it has been forgotten how he pocketed the Obama nomination of Merrick Garland. Maybe Marco Rubio still has his copy of the immigration reform he sold out to his political donors. But hey, Democrats should really trust them, simply sign the CR and DACA will “get done next week.” 16×52 of lies+4×4 of lies with a few thousand lies from Dotard45 sure inspires trust.
From a late night comedian: “Donnie is blaming Minority Leader Chuck Schumer consistent with his pattern of blaming a minority for anything and everything.”
4Take away the orange moron’s Secret Service, Diet coke waiter, White House household staff (let him make his own bed, and fry his own cheese burgers), Air Force One, White House Physician…. He’d be helpless.
5Most likely all of the government workers who are furloughed will get paid as they did the last time, if Congress again inserts a retroactive pay clause in the new bill. So for workers it’s more like a vacation of an unknown duration, meaning they can’t plan anything, and because they don’t know when their next paycheck will be issued, they may not have extra money to use the extra free time as a vacation anyway.
In the end, it costs money to close the government, more money to reopen it, so a shutdown doesn’t save money, it’s more expensive than if they just kept things up and running in the first place.
6Ok, you cesspool dwelling morons, no more perks for you! No paychecks, posh government offices or paid staffers! Get your own phones that we’d make sure rang off the hook. Make your own coffee. And, oh no! Do ALL the work yourselves. FREE! Add that to a huge helping of angry as swatted hornet constituents and there’d never be another. BTW does the thought of mcturdle and Ryan doing the above bring a chuckle ?
7@Tilphousia: Yes. Yes, it does. All of Congress should be working for free, until they clean up the mess they made.
8On a related note, that’s the way I wanted the Dems to handle the constant GOP threats to filibuster. Instead of caving, let them go ahead and filibuster. Go to the mattresses. Tie up the chamber and let everybody know that the GOP has brought the Senate’s work to a halt again… and again… and again. Take it off the table as a tool they want to use to stop every damn bill that the Dems proposed. I said that to Steny Hoyer and he sighed and said they couldn’t afford to tie the place up for that long. Seems to me that if the GOP was blocking every Dem bill, they couldn’t afford not to tie it up.
9Meanwhile, down at Mar-A-Pendejo, the Repuke elite were indisposed and very upset that things like the caviar had been “cost-reduced” at the $100,000/couple inauguration anniversary 1%’er circlejerk.
What would they expect from the nouveau-riche, super tacky SOBOTUS but an inferior spread (yeah, right, counting his Russki ‘obligations’, he’s way underwater).
[this Putin-Pet pic is worth looking at:
https://images.dailykos.com/images/497837/large/0874548448f39fdae942309e81ee36bf–putin-funny-trump-funny.jpg?1516483852 ]
“Mar-a-Lago guests paying $100k or more per couple to attend Trump’s inauguration anniversary political fundraising fala (sic), which Eric & Don Jr attended in President Trump’s stead due to the shutdown are apparently traumatized by scooping caviar with plastic spoons. pic.twitter.com/vcwcExYpX2
— Anna Massoglia (@annalecta) January 21, 2018”
Bring out the effen GUILLOTINES, damnit…to hell with the baskets, we’ll need acres of dumpsters to haul ’em (the two bits/ea) away…(promise we’ll use the fancy gilded ones on these types, the teabaggers, etc., get the plain varnished ones)
10And don’t fly VP Dense back from whatever part of the Middle East he’s messing up today. Let them deal with him for a while. He’d fit right in with the sexist fundamentalist branch of the Saudis, for example
But could we please keep NIH and CDC open and fully staffed? The current flu season looks pretty serious, and shutting down NIH’s ongoing medical research is a really really dumb idea.
11Keep it shut down until the pain really starts to bite into voters everyday lives. The electorate is not going to learn to avoid this without pain.
Also, the Dems making ‘concessions’ which allows Trump and his team to move the goalposts. He does it consistently and the Dems consistently fall for it. The next time a Dem expresses surprise and outrage at being betrayed, he/she should be turfed for stupidity. Let’s just call it the Charlie Brown party instead of the Democratic Party.
12Much like W told us to go to the malls and go about our daily lives. 😛
Me? I live in NoVA, and though I don’t work for the feds or a fed contractor, I have friends who get screwed every time this nonsense happens.
I was a Senate Page when I was 16. On the Republican side. Believe it or not.
My Uncle Marty was friends with Barry Goldwater, and I was blessed to spend a summer rounding up Republicans for votes, fetching water for speakers, putting copies of the Congressional Record on everyone’s desk first thing in the morning, escorting visitors to the waiting room and carrying messages all over the Capitol.
My political ideology was still forming and, though I leaned Liberal, Jimmy Carter was not my choice; I preferred Gerald Ford (not knowing how poison he was due to his pardon of Richard Nixon).
Why am I going on about this? Well, when I was a Senate Page, the Senate included Republican members like Jacob Javits, Clifford Case, Charles Percy, Bill Roth, Bob Stafford, Pete Domenici, Lowell Weicker and Bob Dole. There were Liberal and Moderate Republicans back then! Honest!
I didn’t stay in touch with Senator Goldwater during the remainder of his career and his retirement, but I do know he had a change of heart on many of his stances. He was willing to admit he was wrong!
That’s the difference I see between the Republicans I knew as a teenager (granted, not a wonderful perspective…) and the Republicans as I see them now. They’re not willing to admit when they’re wrong!
Neither are we!
Our current leadership has gone beyond their expiration date. It’s time to pass the torch to a new generation (freely robbing JFK’s speechwriter, here). We boomers need to get out of the way and follow our Millennial nieces, nephews and other-gendered relatives, friends and people who will inherit the Earth we so mismanaged.
I hope and pray that the Republican Party will go back to its roots and, once again, become the party of freedom for all people – not just certain Christians of European descent.
I’ll still be a Democrat, but I’d welcome a loyal opposition that won’t cut their nose off to spite their face.
Like Jacob Javits.
Like Charles Percy.
Like Lowell Weicker.
Much love to all.
13Pence was on tv this evening bloviating his way through a visit to armed service personnel ins one forsaken part of the world where he lead everyone to think that the military is not getting paid because of the shutdown. I’ve never seen a shutdown that puts the military at this sort of risk. What world is Pence romping around in?
14Agreed
15Start with Wall street. Shut it down while SEC goes home.
Oh and all business loans over night trades etc. get shut down since regulators aren’t on the job.
Then by shutting down air traffic control essentially grounding all flights then move to shutting down any industry (petro/ chemicals/ mining) that require full time inspection staff. No inspections no production.
Malarkey, I agree that we need a loyal opposition. My husband and I feel that we should not both be strong fans of the same thing at the same time, so that there’s always someone to say, “You want to spend how much on what now?” It’s much the same thing with government. You need a rational, moderate opposition to keep you from going off the deep end occasionally, and they need the same thing for the same reason. The problem is that since about 1980 the GOP, especially the leadership, has fallen out of the rightwing crazy tree and hit every branch on the way down. This has dragged the US political “center” so far to the right that the Democrats are considered more conservative than most conservative parties in western Europe. The trend may move back toward the former center eventually, but it will take a long time. For now, there are very few politicians anywhere near the center, and nearly all of them are Democrats trying to pass in red districts.
16Leave Marine One parked on the White House grounds with the keys in the ignition during the shut down.
17Well, not only the poor and sick. GIs don’t get paid, and many, probably most, of the lower-rated ones (E1-E4) don’t make enough to pay their bills anyway.
Rent’s due for most people in less than a week
18Mitch McConnell has no intention of ever approving DACA. That is why he is baiting with CHIP, a program which has more domestic support and would more likely be eventually approved by the right wing flighties.
If they agree to a ‘cooling off period’ he will settle by offering the present package in order to open government again and giving DACA its stand-alone vote later on down the line.
DACA, standing alone, will then be defeated, and Trump will get to experience his Stormy Daniels-type ecstasy when he begins deporting darker skinned people.
McConnell is ruthless and heartless. He has a glaring conflict of interest with his wife earning the household almost $200K from Trump. That violates the Senate’s Conflict of Interest rule. Please read it.
19Having a wee bit o’ a blizzard has shut down stuff around NW iowa this very day. Who needs gubmint to shut down when Nature does it better and fer free, until the cleanup begins.
20Aggieland Liz- is Calista Gingrich still sporting that “helmet” she had several years ago?
21Not transparent to me, today. Nor to the telemarketing industry! I got a bother call and went to report it on the “Do Not Call” registry. Guess what? The web site is down!
“Due to the government shutdown, we are unable to offer this website service at this time. We will resume normal operations when the government is funded.”
I think the telemarketers have figured this out…
22The energy the republicans expend silencing opposition to their outright theft of the country is breathtaking.
When a single party controls the entire government and does nothing but hurt people and quash resistance, what do you call it? It’s not governing. It’s ruling.
23