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

[cheezyfish.livejournal.com]

And also, I should add, that is essentially how our government is suppose to work. We pass a budget Resolution, then we pass several smaller appropriation bills, funding specific chunks of our government. Now, what is completely dysfunctional are these continuing resolutions. That is not how our government is suppose to function.

[paft.livejournal.com]

No, our government is not supposed to work by a major party essentially shutting it down in order to get what it wants.

[cheezyfish.livejournal.com]

Our government isn't suppose to work by passing CRs every year instead of Budgets either, but here we are. In the mean time I think an effort should be made to limit the pain of the shutdown.

[paft.livejournal.com]

Those efforts you describe would end up making the pain of shut-downs pretty much constant in this country.

[cheezyfish.livejournal.com]

You keep saying that, but there is no logical progression that says blocking stopgap measures will ensure shutdowns don't happen in the future, unless if the reason for doing so is to intentionally increase the pain of the shutdown to cause the Republicans so much much political damage they would not only break with no concessions, but they wouldn't dare do it in the future. Essentially, Democrats would be hurting people for the benefit of the anti-Republican propaganda it would provide.

[paft.livejournal.com]

ch: You keep saying that, but there is no logical progression that says blocking stopgap measures will ensure shutdowns don't happen in the future...

If the Republicans do not get what they want as the result of this shut down (the defunding of Obamacare and cuts in other programs they dislike), then yes, I think it's logical to believe they'll be less likely to use it in the future.

[cheezyfish.livejournal.com]

See, the problem is you aren't explaining how blocking stopgap measures will make sure Republicans won't get what they want. You keep saying the why, but not the how. How specifically are blocking stopgap measures going to help Republicans break and walk away with nothing?

[paft.livejournal.com]

ch: See, the problem is you aren't explaining how blocking stopgap measures will make sure Republicans won't get what they want. You keep saying the why, but not the how. How specifically are blocking stopgap measures going to help Republicans break and walk away with nothing?

You keep framing this as though it's all about spiting the Republicans. It's not. It's about maintaining the integrity of our legislative process. The GOP wants to normalize shut downs, and therefore normalize a piecemeal approach to funding that would make it easier for them to attack the funding of programs they dislike.

This can't be allowed to happen. It's not about making the GOP feel bad.

[cheezyfish.livejournal.com]

Its about Obama inflicting pain on American families in order to put political heat on the Republicans. To essentially get them to break without getting anything they want.

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

Its about Obama inflicting pain on American families in order to put political heat on the Republicans. To essentially get them to break without getting anything they want.

10/6/2013:

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: He says, and he said it publicly on many occasions, that you came to him back in July and offered to pass a clean government funding resolution — no Obamacare amendments — it was $70 billion dollars below what the Senate wanted, they accepted it, and now you've reneged on that offer.

SPEAKER JOHN BOEHNER: No, clearly there was a conversation about doing this.

GEORGE STEPHANOUPOULOS: Several conversations.

SPEAKER JOHN BOEHNER: Several.

GEORGE STEPHANOUPOULOS: And you offered a clean resolution.

SPEAKER JOHN BOEHNER: But I and my members decided that the threat of Obamacare and what was happening was so important, that it was time for us to take a stand. We took a stand.

[cheezyfish.livejournal.com]

That is nice, but could you offer a bit of your opinion so I can see how you think this is related to my comment you are replying to?

[paft.livejournal.com]

It's about what they want being the subversion of the American legislative process.

[cheezyfish.livejournal.com]

Like I said, you are justifying it. That is fine and dandy, just don't ignore the fact that Obama is intentionally hurting Americans for political reasons.

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

The thing about fighting dirty is it tends to lower your opponents standards in kind, or escalation.

[cheezyfish.livejournal.com]

Like I said, if you feel like the Democrats tactics are a'okay, then fine. But don't scream out your moral outrage at the Republican's tactics that are aimed at hurting the American people and then cheer on similar efforts by the side you support, and worst yet, pretend they aren't doing it or that they are somehow being forced into actions that deliberately make the shutdown hurt the most vulnerable.

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

Its hard to scream when typing. This reminds me of a messy divorce. Red team was abusive to blue team and now blue team is being all unreasonable.

Funny that the operation of the government is now seen as a concession.

[cheezyfish.livejournal.com]

Its hard to scream when typing.
CAPSLOCK

Red team was abusive to blue team and now blue team is being all unreasonable.

I'm going to come up with a new abbreviation. YABDA (Yet Another Boring and Dumb Analogy).

Funny that the operation of the government is now seen as a concession.
With huge yearly trillion dollar deficits...