Us Gov "shutdown" Appears Imminent

[BG45]

Welp, 800,000 Federal employees currently furloughed.  Happy 123^rd birthday to Yosemite National Park, which is closed due to the political theater of the ruling class.  D.C. sure is going to smell ripe soon with that 400 tons of garbage a week that's not being collected by those "non-essential" federal employee garbage men.  I'd tell Congress to go read a good book, but D.C.'s libraries are shut down too.

 

I would not pay the "new hires" in Congress as much as a teacher. Teachers in the SF Bay Area make between 60,000 and 120,000 a year (depending upon the school district).

 

Being a member of Congress should be a part-time job.

 

I think she means more like where my mother taught for 35 years.  Where a Masters degree, 35 years of experience, and over 100 hours of continuing education (which aaround 6-9 hours was required each year) was barely enough to break 45k a year gross income.  I'd be happy to make that 60-100k with my doctorate when done, but that's not happening...unless you all vote BG45 for United States Senate.  Please don't, I worked on a Republican U.S. Senate Campaign once, it disillusioned me heavily with our entire political system, and sharing a stage with President Bush wasn't worth all the drama.
 

 

[CrossCuT]

Yeah...or really...just make it so that they dont go in there with money as a primary objective. Im sure a few honestly want to help the world but lets be honest. They are all a bunch of  money hungry, corrupt, do-nothings. They need to be paid a very AVERAGE salary so that people who actually have the DESIRE to help and work together will be selected for.

[Selah]

durrr I thought it meant crime was legal like in that movie lololol

[cmaD2006]

Welp, 800,000 Federal employees currently furloughed.  Happy 123^rd birthday to Yosemite National Park, which is closed due to the political theater of the ruling class.  D.C. sure is going to smell ripe soon with that 400 tons of garbage a week that's not being collected by those "non-essential" federal employee garbage men.  I'd tell Congress to go read a good book, but D.C.'s libraries are shut down too.

 

Don't forget about the thousands of contractors who are also affected, and who will not recoup their lost pay.

[Jesus_lol]

I liked the australian approach. They did a government shutdown in 1975, and after that the Queen fired the lot of em.

[AccountDeleted]

I liked the australian approach. They did a government shutdown in 1975, and after that the Queen fired the lot of em.

 
 
Actually, it was the Governor General who did this (as the Queen's representative).
 
And there are still bad feelings about this! :P
 
 
It got the job done, but it also brought down the government and we had to have a new election. :)
 
 

Australia had a government shutdown once. In the end, the queen fired everyone in Parliament.

By Max Fisher, Published: October 1 at 12:04 pm

 

Queen Elizabeth II in Western Australia watching a traditional performance welcoming her. (Mogens Johansen/AFP/Getty Images)

 

The United States' self-imposed federal government shutdown has a way of making people around the world shake their heads in bewilderment. As Georgetown professor Erik Voeten wrote for The Washington Post's new Monkey Cage political science blog, "I cannot think of a single foreign analogy to what is happening in the U.S. today."

 

But there actually is one foreign precedent: Australia did this once. In 1975, the Australian government shut down because the legislature had failed to fund it, deadlocked by a budgetary squabble. It looked a lot like the U.S. shutdown of today, or the 17 previous U.S. shutdowns.

 

Australia's 1975 shutdown ended pretty differently, though, than they do here in America. Queen Elizabeth II's official representative in Australia, Governor General Sir John Kerr, simply dismissed the prime minister. He appointed a replacement, who immediately passed the spending bill to fund the government. Three hours later, Kerr dismissed the rest of Parliament. Then Australia held elections to restart from scratch. And they haven't had another shutdown since.

Here's how it happened. Australia, like the United States, has both a Senate and a House of Representatives. In 1975, the chambers were controlled by different parties. The House had passed an appropriations bill to fund the government, but the Senate refused to pass it because it believed that the government was spending too much money on unworthy programs during an economic downturn. The opposition party that controlled the Senate said it would not pass the spending bill unless the government met its somewhat outlandish demand. Does this all sound familiar so far? In the Australian case, though, the opposition's demand wasn't repeal of a health-care law -- they wanted early elections, which they believed would unseat the ruling party.

 

Prime Minister Gough Whitlam rejected the opposition's demands but couldn't bring the parties to a compromise, and the federal budget went unfunded. Then, on the morning of Nov. 11, Whitlam announced he would hold early elections not for the House but for half of the opposition-controlled Senate (typically, only one half of the Senate goes up for reelection at a time). Kerr, as the the official representative of the queen, who is technically still sovereign over Australia, summoned Whitlam to his office and fired him at 1:15 p.m.

 

Fifteen minutes later, Kerr appointed the leader of the opposition Liberal Party, Malcolm Fraser, as Whitlam's replacement. By 2 p.m., before most even realized what had happened, Fraser got his allies in the previously deadlocked Senate to push through the government spending bill. Then everything kind of fell into chaos. When the ruling Labor Party, in the House, learned about Whitlam's firing and Fraser's appointment, its members revolted with a no-confidence vote against Fraser. At 4:50 p.m., Kerr dissolved the rest of Parliament, essentially firing everyone, with a formal proclamation that ended with the words "God Save the Queen."

 

A month later, Australia held national elections to replace the now-dissolved government. The opposition, led by Fraser, swept to victory in both houses. Australia has not had another shutdown since.

 

This sort of thing, of course, could never happen in the United States. The fact that Australia could pull it off is a quirk of its history as a former British colony that, unlike the United States, never fully broke away.

 

Australia's governor general does not typically fire prime ministers, or do much of anything. It's a largely ceremonial position and a legacy, as the colonial title suggests, of a time when Australia was a far-flung possession of the British Empire. It's now an independent country but still a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, which means it recognizes the British monarchy as technically in charge. That monarch still has formal power over Australia's government but almost never actually uses it. The 1975 crisis was the exception.

 

The governor general technically acts solely on behalf of the monarch --  the office was established before telephones existed, after all. This means that, legally speaking, the 1975 Australian government funding crisis ended because Queen Elizabeth II dismissed everyone in the government. In practice, the governor general did in the actual firing.

 

You might find yourself wishing that the United States could follow Australia's example: Fire everyone in Congress, hold snap elections next month and restart from scratch. But we can't, because we haven't recognized the British monarchy or had a London-appointed governor -general in more than two centuries. Maybe, if we ask nicely, Britain will take us back?

 

Edited October 2, 2013 by nunsense

[God the Father]

Sounds like the solution to democracy is monarchy

[John Ryan]

More and more, I learn from watching the destruction of the American political system that Jean-Jacques Rousseau was correct in his insistence that we need real, participatory democracy. 

 

Vive la révolution!

Edited October 2, 2013 by John Ryan

[BG45]

Don't forget about the thousands of contractors who are also affected, and who will not recoup their lost pay.

 

I had forgotten that. :(

 

So from the Washington Post, if the shutdown lasts even two weeks, here's what takes a hit (by no means exhaustive):

 

• 97% of NASA furloughed.
• Head Start programs will begin to close.
• After one week, Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) will be unable to help 9 million Americans currently recieving its aid.
• HUD will be unable to help with housing bills.
• The National Institute of Health will be unable to conduct clinical trials (including child cancer treatment).
• The Center for Disease Control will have to stop research and its anti-flu stuff as flu season starts.
• The G.I. Bill and ROTC Tuition Assistance will be impacted.
• Veterans benefits payments will most likely cease payment in November.
• Monuments, museums, and national parks are closed.
• D.C.'s mayor is using cash reserves to fund city services, those will run out by the end of week two.
• The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will cease almost all food safety testing.
• The Commodity Futures Trading Commission that tries to handle the derivatives market will be furloughed.
• The Environmental Protection Agency essentially ceases to exist.
• The Department of Labor's regulatory agencies are essentially furloughed (except for the Mining one).  So no OSHA for instance.
• The Small Business Administration will be unable to make new loans.
• It's estimated the U.S. will lose $30 million per day in tourism money and $200 million a week from the economy in the areas surrounding D.C.
• The Social Security Administration is furloughing the people who handle new disability claims and appeals claims.
• Businesses can no longer use E-Verify to determine immigration status.
• the Bureau of Land Management will stop issuing permits to drill on public land.
• The Department of Transportation will cease most airline inspections.
• All federal courts will shut down after running out of money in two weeks.  In theory they can continue to operate with "essential" personnel only after that, but as stretched as they are...
• The Department of Justice will suspend many civil cases as part of a shutdown.
• 52% of employees in the Department of Health and Human Services will be sent home (fortunately the Suicide Prevention Hotline is considered essential staff).
• 50% of Department of Defense civilian employees will be sent home (roughly 400,000 people).
• Most of the Department of Energy will be sent home.

[Jesus_lol]

All this is over what? the ACA? which is basically a rehashed republican model of healthcare reform?

[KnightofChrist]

All this is over what? the ACA? which is basically a rehashed republican model of healthcare reform?

Yes. I don't want to be forced against my will to buy a product just because I'm alive. And no I don't care if it was or was not originally a Republican idea. The Unaffordable Care Act also violates my religious freedom as well as those of other faiths. The Democrat Senate could have chosen to vote for the Republican House bill that funded all of the Government but delayed 'Obamacare', or got rid of the individual mandate and got rid of Congress' exception from it. But the Senate chose 'Obamacare' over the chance to avoid a shutdown. Also Obama has given big businesses exemptions, and Congress but not the little guy. Sounds so stereotypically Republican of him.

[4588686]

Yes. I don't want to be forced against my will to buy a product just because I'm alive. And no I don't care if it was or was not originally a Republican idea. The Unaffordable Care Act also violates my religious freedom as well as those of other faiths. The Democrat Senate could have chosen to vote for the Republican House bill that funded all of the Government but delayed 'Obamacare', or got rid of the individual mandate and got rid of Congress' exception from it. But the Senate chose 'Obamacare' over the chance to avoid a shutdown. Also Obama has given big businesses exemptions, and Congress but not the little guy. Sounds so stereotypically Republican of him.

 

 

Sophist.  

[4588686]

Yes. I don't want to be forced against my will to buy a product just because I'm alive. And no I don't care if it was or was not originally a Republican idea. The Unaffordable Care Act also violates my religious freedom as well as those of other faiths. The Democrat Senate could have chosen to vote for the Republican House bill that funded all of the Government but delayed 'Obamacare', or got rid of the individual mandate and got rid of Congress' exception from it. But the Senate chose 'Obamacare' over the chance to avoid a shutdown. Also Obama has given big businesses exemptions, and Congress but not the little guy. Sounds so stereotypically Republican of him.

 

 

AFA was validated by every single fucking branch of government.  It's the law.  The idea that it's legitimate for the House Republicans to use the operating of the government or the fucking deficit because they can't get the laws they want because they can't win a national election because they're a vile, racist, homophobic party is ridiculous.  

[KnightofChrist]

AFA was validated by every single flooping branch of government. It's the law. The idea that it's legitimate for the House Republicans to use the operating of the government or the flooping deficit because they can't get the laws they want because they can't win a national election because they're a vile, racist, homophobic party is ridiculous.

You need to claim down. Your side will likely in the end be able to force this unjust law on the people who don't want it. You should be happy you're probably rich enough to aford or avoid the Obamacare plans I cannot. You're OK with your taxes going to and helping subsidize abortions with the help of Obamacare, violating my religious rights, I'm not.

So be happy and stuff the floops. Edited October 2, 2013 by KnightofChrist

[Winchester]

The servants told us it's law.

 

Screw them. And count the silver.