You had one f-ing job.....

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

Uh, red team, wtf? You've allowed these tea party freaks drive to the car into a ditch. That's the plan?

“We’re very excited,” said Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.). “It’s exactly what we wanted, and we got it.”

Well, yay for hurting people IRL?

TIM MURPHY: Well, the short answer is about 20 percent of the federal government, 800,000 federal workers, will show up to work today and be sent home, and that includes 400,000 civilian workers from the Department of the Defense. That’s the department that probably gets the most cuts from this. The longer answer is, you know, pretty much various things that you use in your everyday life will no longer be open to you. People applying for mortgages will have trouble getting that from the federal government. People trying to fill out their taxes will no longer be able to call the IRS to ask basic questions. The Coast Guard is cutting back some of its navigation assistance. Auto—new automobile inspections will be curtailed. The EPA is closing 94 percent of its responsibilities for the foreseeable future. You know, there’s kind of this perception that the shutdown mostly just affects Washington, D.C., and it really does affect Washington, D.C., but it goes much broader than that.

Yay, shut down the EPA, bring back acid rain!!!. NRC has slashed planned nuke plant inspections! NOAA is slashing. EPA is really fucked. NASA Voyager, fucked. Mars Rover is fucked Kids being kicked out of cancer treatments:

"At the National Institutes of Health, nearly three-quarters of the staff was furloughed. One result: director Francis Collins said about 200 patients who otherwise would be admitted to the NIH Clinical Center into clinical trials each week will be turned away. This includes about 30 children, most of them cancer patients, he said."

Awwww hell yeah! Who needs to regulate pesticides, amirite? No more monitoring beef for ecoli, meat eaters. The CDC wont be able to monitor outbreaks or even create a proper flu vaccine - you could have millions of deaths on your hands. Way to stick it to those sciences, red team! Yee haw for hee haw! Gun sale permits are also going to be hampered, opps!!!! Families of American soldiers slain in Afghanistan will be denied death benefits. You shut down the panda cam too dammit:

the deal with the shutdown is it essentially gets worse the longer it goes on. And in 1995 and 1996 it went on for 28 days and ended up costing the U.S., I think, about $2 billion in economic losses, just because people don’t have money and they’re not spending it. So you have the 800,000 workers who will be furloughed, and they’ll be furloughed without pay. And when the shutdown eventually ends, they’ll get that pay. But in the meantime, you know, they’re trying to make ends meet. The government did pass an emergency measure to continue paying members of the armed services last night, so they’ll still work and they’ll still get their pay. But families whose, you know, loved ones die in Afghanistan will not get death benefits in that period. You know, civilian contractors will not, by and large, be showing up to work. The EPA will shut down almost all of its services. The National Zoo will close. Even the panda cam that lets you watch, you know, the pandas on a live stream 24 hours a day will shut down. NASA, I think, is furloughing about 97 percent of its staff. You know, people who depend on the federal government for funding for WIC food assistance will not get that. It’s up to their state whether they’ll get that going forward. Some states have obligations to do that; some states could probably care less. Heating assistance as the weather gets colder is something that is now up in the air. You know, there’s just kind of this wide range of government programs. Head Start, which is a program that has already been kind of really hammered by the sequestration cuts over the last seven months, is going to get further cuts over the next couple of weeks if the shutdown persists, as grants are now put on hold. So, you know, whether you have kids, whether you’re a college student relying on federal student loans or Pell Grants, whether you’re a senior citizen, whether you’re living in a cold region without heat, this shutdown will affect you.

All these self inflicted wounds because they hate a bill that was passed by congress, signed by a president who basically was elected on the issue, and ruled constitutional by the Supreme court. The bastard child of the Heritage foundation, RomneyObamacare aka the Affordable Care Act. Gawd forbid birth control be covered.



This woman is far more eloquent than I could be on the issue, so here:

I have a pre-existing condition and I stand to lower my premium, my deductible, and my prescription costs. I promise to return the money I save to the economy quite promptly, I'm good at that part. Just lower your gun and stop hurting people. Pretty please?

To quote Lincoln: "What is our present condition? We have just carried an election on principles fairly stated to the people. Now we are told in advance, the government shall be broken up, unless we surrender to those we have beaten, before we take the offices. In this they are either attempting to play upon us, or they are in dead earnest. Either way, if we surrender, it is the end of us, and of the government. They will repeat the experiment upon us ad libitum."

Comments

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

People often say there is no real difference between the Republicans and Democrats (so that we should vote Libertarian or something), but I think this conflict belies that nostrum.

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

Anti government extremists and failed lawyers do not make good bedfellows in a government body. Go figure.

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

People who campaign on a platform that the government can't work and then when they get in office, prove it.

[dexeron.livejournal.com]

One of my co-workers posted on his facebook: "Anyone who thinks both parties are not equally to blame for the last decade, much less the last 48 hours, is a moron. Just my opinion. But you know I'm right."

I just couldn't even.

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

I am amazed too, but I have the impression that this has become a more common perception, because Obama and the Democrats are now seeking to actively bargain with the Republicans. I liked their first stance: to ignore the Republicans until they see they should just do their job. This must not be working, though.

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

I don't know, Republicans do something stupid Dems double-down seems to have been a recurring theme for as long as I've been alive.

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

Serious question...

Do you disagree with that statement because it seems rather obvious to me. W wouldn't be in the position of having to fund the government through Continuing Resolutions if the Senate had simply passed a proper budget but they haven't passed a budget Since 2009. The Democrats didn't pass a budget in 2010 despite controlling both houses of Congress, and the Presidency. Can you imagine PBS, or any of the major networks, allowing such a caveat to escape their notice if an obstinate Republican Senate had held up the budget process?

[dexeron.livejournal.com]

1. Obstinate Republicans in the Senate HAVE held up the budget process, even in 2010. Please familiarize yourself with the rules on how a budget can both be passed, and also how it can take effect. Along those lines, please explain where 57 out of a total of 100 equals more than 60%.

2. The failure to pass a budget (caused, in part, by obstinate Republicans) has been addressed through the use of continuing resolutions. The primary drawback of these resolutions, a lack of limits on discretionary spending, has been addressed by the Budget Control Act, so for the time being, resolutions are a good temporary fix. Thus, a failure to pass the budget is not what has led to the shutdown; a failure to pass the continuing resolutions (a temporary measure to address issues with Senate parliamentary procedure) is. That failure has been directly caused by (and admitted to be intentional by) certain House Republicans.

[rimpala.livejournal.com]

Can I copy and paste this every time these ... people bring this up. This is getting tiresome.

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

1. I have looked at the rules for budgets, and you're wrong. The Rand Paul has objected to having budget conferences with the House and only because the chair of the committee calls for a unanimous vote for it. And to pass a budget, you only need a majority. It's only if you want to have it deemed accepted by the House that it needs 60 to end debate, which is has never gotten to that point to even see if a few Reps would accept the proposed budget, because there hasn't been one.

2. Mostly true, except that it's the failure of the Dems to actually negotiate that's led to this final loggerheads. This was a last attempt to get the Dems to negotiate and they've still refused.

[cheezyfish.livejournal.com]

You do realize that budgets cannot be filibustered? You also have a completely incorrect view of why we haven't had a budget since 09. Reid and Co. hasn't put to vote a budget resolution in years, even though they were constructed by his own party. Sure, Reid says they wouldn't have passed the House, but then again, I guess when you "refuse to negotiate," then why bother right? In 2010, it was a different story (considering the House was controlled by Democrats). They just didn't want to attach there names to a budget so Republicans could point out that they were big spending Democrats, although for sure those same Democrats were happy to point out Paul Ryan's budget during the elections.

The fact that we have to pass a CR every year is pointing to the fact that our government is completely dysfunctional, and the reasons for that extend well beyond "obstinate Republicans." And CRs are not a good fix. They are a completely shitty way to govern.

[kylinrouge.livejournal.com]

They're downright parliamentary!