Can Someone Explain?
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There you go, Vapor.
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Your thoughts, heck?
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It's mostly theater at this point, with them haggling over Planned Parenthood and the reach of the EPA. But to borrow one of Tupa's themes, I suppose we should expect this nonsense while we frown on it. Right now it seems that Boehner would have been happy to make a deal. After all, the Democrats have already given him more than he originally asked for. But he can't because the Tea Party wing is f'ing crazy and they have a made up figure in their head ($100 billion, which sure sounds well thought out and specific to me) and they're pushing Boehner for more cuts. So, he's going to have to appear like he's at least pretending to be on their side. But hey, this is what happens when you hand your party over to the unserious and the loons in order to win elections.
As you know, non-defense discretionary isn't where the money is. Which isn't to say you couldn't trim in there, but this simply isn't going to get us where we need to go. It's entitlements and defense. This is just nibbling around the edges, and the most vulnerable - those without a powerful political constituency - are always the first to see their piece cut. For some people, these cuts will really hurt. And they won't address the real problem. It's not pointless, but it is whatever comes after that.
Of course, the real problem with the real problem is that every time they poll Americans about what the real problem is, they think it's something other than what the real problem is. There's very little awareness about what actually causes the deficit, or what the government spends money on. (Just read the guys in here.) There's no constituency for cutting what needs to be cut, and lots of constituencies for cutting programs that don't need to be cut, or shouldn't be cut.
So we get this: a small scale culture war over funding Planned Parenthood and NPR, even though Planned Parenthood already can't spend federal money on abortions, and NPR adds up to .01% of the budget. The NEA makes up .004% of the budget. Think about how much time we waste talking about these things. In a discussion about the budget. Then try not to shoot yourself.
Or another fun way to look at it: The entire NEA budget for a year costs about the same as one F-22. Not to fly the F-22, mind you. Just to make it. Just to make one. And we have 168 of them. It's cost $65 billion dollars to build our fleet of F-22s. And we're going to make more. And then we're going to make a few hundred F-35s. ...And we're fighting about cutting $33 billion from things like Head Start, Pell Grants, Food Stamps, Home Heating Oil Assistance, and NPR.
The best part, of course: The F-22 has never been used once in combat. Not in Iraq. Not in Afghanistan. Not in Libya. Because it doesn't work in any of these theaters. It's entirely useless to the three wars we're fighting.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to get back to the debate about funding Planned Parenthood because they do family planning, which is horrible and must be stopped. Or something.
PS - If you want the politics of it, Obama will win in a government shutdown. Because next to the Republicans he'll seem like the reasonable one every time.
It's not that hard to seem more reasonable than today's Republican Party.
But let's hope we don't get there. This would be a mind-numbingly stupid thing to do, especially as the economy is recovering.
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Theater indeed.
But the numbers are ridiculous.
It's like someone about to lose a 300,000$ home and negotiating with the bank over whether or not to switch from Marlboros to a generic brand of cigartettes.
And while we wring our hands over Planned Parenthood and NPR keep in mind that the president would veto a measure that touches those two Democrat sacred (and cash) cows.
WSS
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It's a bunch of children running the country. Everyone needs to not vote Republican or Democrat next election, it's not a wasted vote. Everyone gets caught up in the party they are affiliated with and they do not look at the issues. Meanwhile, congress is stealing from the American people. They keep us busy by arguing about party affiliation while they do shit like this. It's all marketing, like Chevy vs Ford. We need to take the power back.
Luck is Tim Couch. Big, Dumb Goofy, slow thinking QB - Ghoolie, 2-28-12 -
Favorite part of the possible shut down is that soldiers pay checks will be delayed but congress will still get theirs. Why should the men and women defending this country get paid? I mean, it's much more important that morons in Washington are able to pay for their many mistresses and illegitimate children that nobody knows about.
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I'm minding my business studying for the MCAT, then all of a sudden, on the news and on facebook, I see that the government might shut down. Um. Why?
I'm minding my business studying for the MCAT, then all of a sudden, on the news and on facebook, I see that the government might shut down. Um. Why?
Because Obammy went on vacation after they signed into law the last budget extension.
Proof that Obammy doesn't give a shit about all of the working folks who need their jobs.
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It's a bunch of children running the country. Everyone needs to not vote Republican or Democrat next election, it's not a wasted vote. Everyone gets caught up in the party they are affiliated with and they do not look at the issues. Meanwhile, congress is stealing from the American people. They keep us busy by arguing about party affiliation while they do shit like this. It's all marketing, like Chevy vs Ford. We need to take the power back.
It's a bunch of children running the country. Everyone needs to not vote Republican or Democrat next election, it's not a wasted vote. Everyone gets caught up in the party they are affiliated with and they do not look at the issues. Meanwhile, congress is stealing from the American people. They keep us busy by arguing about party affiliation while they do shit like this. It's all marketing, like Chevy vs Ford. We need to take the power back.
Exactly.
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Vapor, are you asking why government might shut down? Or why politics are getting in the way of creating a federal budget?
The simple, non-biased answer is that without a budget, there is no money set aside to pay federal employees or bills or conduct federal business. So "non-essential" services are shut down.
As far as politics go, it's getting idiotic. For some reason its all that some people can talk about. Political hackery is getting on my nerves.
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I was just surprised because it seemed to come out of left field. I literally hadn't heard anything about it for the few days prior, then I hear the government might shut down? Haven't really had much time to follow the news lately.
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I was just surprised because it seemed to come out of left field. I literally hadn't heard anything about it for the few days prior, then I hear the government might shut down? Haven't really had much time to follow the news lately.
I was just surprised because it seemed to come out of left field. I literally hadn't heard anything about it for the few days prior, then I hear the government might shut down? Haven't really had much time to follow the news lately.
LOL
I guess not.
Every news outlet has been droning on for a week about ut.
Then again it's only 38 billion of 14 trillion, so.....
14,000,000,000,000.00
- 38,000,000,000.00
PS we added like, fifty billion to the debt during the week we farted around with this chumpchange.
WSS
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Yeah. I've been studying like crazy, so haven't been watching the news or reading websites for it.
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