Josh had probably woken his housemates up with his "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?" at midnight when CNN told him the federal government had shut down
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"Closed the federal government," Josh said. "So if you have friends at Smithsonian, they'll have a lot of free time for lunch. You should buy, since you have the job that's paying right now."
"Well, my cynical, personal belief is that it stems from Congressional Republicans not getting over the fact that the country re-elected a black guy president," Josh said, "but the other story is that they are holding their breath until they are blue about poor people getting health insurance, and they took the government down with them. Because they're morons."
Riley blinked and wondered how Ben was taking this. He was set financially but Abigail was probably out of a job right now. She wouldn't be happy about that.
"Is there a way to fix it?" asked the politically dumb guy standing in Josh's doorway.
"Oh, about ten if we're being logical about it," Josh said. "The easiest way is to talk to the non-crazy House Republicans--they'll be coming out from hiding in the next few hours--and pass a clean budget without the health care crap on it with the Democrats. The Senate agrees, the President signs it and yay, problem solved. The problem with that is that the Speaker will have to admit that he has completely lost control of his party, which is something that seems glaringly obvious to the rest of us but hasn't dawned on him yet."
"Probably not," Josh said. "That requires a level of giving a damn the average American just doesn't possess. And I don't have a good estimate on this, but the debt ceiling vote needs to happen before the 17th...so hopefully before then."
"And until then, we don't have a government?" Riley asked even if the question was mostly rhetorical. He scratched his cheek. "Is the IRS still in business?"
"Well, you still have to pay your taxes, but no one will answer the phone if you need help," Josh said, "and rumors aside, you can't go adopt animals from the National Zoo. I asked Donna."
"My best friend's girlfriend works at the National Archives," he shared, "which means she's probably on a forced vacation and I know she's not happy about that."
She wasn't the 'scary Declaration lady' for nothing.
"Yeah, I'll have to call and just check in tonight," he said, wincing. "But sometimes I read political cartoons in the paper and I have to ask: is any Congress really smart?"
"I've been a professional political operative for twenty years," Josh said. "I've worked for Senators and Presidents who have been governors and House members and I can tell you that individually, some of them can be brilliant. When you put them together in those chambers...I don't know. It's like they inhale stupid."
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"Is there a way to fix it?" asked the politically dumb guy standing in Josh's doorway.
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"How long do you think this'll last?" he asked curiously. "Are we going to be descending into Mad Max levels of anarchy?"
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Just curious.
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What? That panda was cute.
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"My best friend's girlfriend works at the National Archives," he shared, "which means she's probably on a forced vacation and I know she's not happy about that."
She wasn't the 'scary Declaration lady' for nothing.
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