Miscellany, the mid-evening government shutdown edition
I can hardly believe that the Republican party is so afraid of its own shadow string of recent failures Tea Party contingent that they have allowed the government to shut down rather than acknowledge the aforementioned string of recent failures.
Jon Stewart had the best analogy - it's as if the Giants, after losing 31-7 on Sunday, demanded they be awarded 25 points by midnight Monday or else they'd shut down the NFL.
The Republicans played their game and lost. And lost. And lost.
They lost when the Affordable Care Act was passed in 2009, they lost when the Supreme Court allowed it to stand, and they lost when Mitt Romney lost the 2012 Presidential election. And they lost 40-odd additional attempts by House Republicans to defund it (at a cost of more than $50M taxpayer dollars - fiscal conservatives they ain't). They have lost about as often as anyone can lose.
Now is the time for them to put on their big boy underpants and admit it.
Because a key component of the ACA took effect at the very moment their shutdown did.
There is something hysterically funny about that.
* * *
I have friends who have been furloughed. It's not pretty. Some of them will be paid for the downtime, once cooler heads prevail (I dearly hope there are some left in Washington), but others will not. The income they lose? Will just be lost.
I don't work for the government, but my company provides services to the government. We are not yet sure how an extended shutdown might affect us. Some government websites have already gone offline, websites people need to do their work or research.
(The USDA folks must be seriously pissed off about the shutdown.)
* * *
I've pledged to donate $1 to help unseat the Tea Partiers for every day of the shutdown. I'd have pledged $5/day, but I am slightly fearful that this might last a while.
* * *
Politicians used to understand the idea of compromise; it's what's kept the country functioning for two hundred years. And it kept us more or less in the middle, which is, I think, where most Americans are, anyway - not the far right or far left.
Why have the Republicans turned governing into a zero-sum game?
Why have voters let them?
* * *
I've had enough for today. I'm shutting down! I'm cracking open a beer and watching my Pirates in the playoffs for the first time in 21 years.
Jon Stewart had the best analogy - it's as if the Giants, after losing 31-7 on Sunday, demanded they be awarded 25 points by midnight Monday or else they'd shut down the NFL.
The Republicans played their game and lost. And lost. And lost.
They lost when the Affordable Care Act was passed in 2009, they lost when the Supreme Court allowed it to stand, and they lost when Mitt Romney lost the 2012 Presidential election. And they lost 40-odd additional attempts by House Republicans to defund it (at a cost of more than $50M taxpayer dollars - fiscal conservatives they ain't). They have lost about as often as anyone can lose.
Now is the time for them to put on their big boy underpants and admit it.
Because a key component of the ACA took effect at the very moment their shutdown did.
There is something hysterically funny about that.
* * *
I have friends who have been furloughed. It's not pretty. Some of them will be paid for the downtime, once cooler heads prevail (I dearly hope there are some left in Washington), but others will not. The income they lose? Will just be lost.
I don't work for the government, but my company provides services to the government. We are not yet sure how an extended shutdown might affect us. Some government websites have already gone offline, websites people need to do their work or research.
(The USDA folks must be seriously pissed off about the shutdown.)
* * *
I've pledged to donate $1 to help unseat the Tea Partiers for every day of the shutdown. I'd have pledged $5/day, but I am slightly fearful that this might last a while.
* * *
Politicians used to understand the idea of compromise; it's what's kept the country functioning for two hundred years. And it kept us more or less in the middle, which is, I think, where most Americans are, anyway - not the far right or far left.
Why have the Republicans turned governing into a zero-sum game?
Why have voters let them?
* * *
I've had enough for today. I'm shutting down! I'm cracking open a beer and watching my Pirates in the playoffs for the first time in 21 years.