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Government Shutdown USA

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Government Shutdown Looms As Boehner Rejects Funding Stopgap

Unread postby Sixstrings » Thu 17 Feb 2011, 16:44:00

WASHINGTON -- House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) upped the odds of a government shutdown Thursday, saying he would not support a short-term funding bill if his near-certain budget battle between the House and the Democratic-run Senate takes longer than two weeks.

As the clock ticks down to March 4, when the current stopgap funding measure expires, Boehner shot down what many considered to be the surest way to keep government agencies running while the two chambers hammer out the differences between their respective spending bills.

(snip)

If a government shutdown occurs, thousands of government programs would shut down immediately, with workers and contractors losing their paychecks until funding started up again, at which point they would be paid retroactively.

If the House GOP's spending plan is passed as is, economists estimate that 1 million Americans could lose their jobs. Boehner, who previously said "so be it" when presented with the possibility of public-sector job losses resulting from budget cuts, seemed to stand behind that sentiment on Thursday.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/17/john-boehner-wont-back-budget-stopgap_n_824633.html


At his press conference Tuesday, Obama also warned against suggestions of a shutdown. "This is not an abstraction," he said. "People don't get their Social Security checks. They don't get their veterans payments. Basic functions shut down. And it -- that, also, would have a adverse effect on our economic recovery."
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/federal-eye/2011/02/what_might_a_government_shutdo_1.html


Well lots of seniors and vets are gonna be mad if their benefits stop due to a shutdown.
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Re: Government Shutdown Looms As Boehner Rejects Funding Sto

Unread postby Plantagenet » Thu 17 Feb 2011, 17:13:55

When democrats want a government shutdown, they run away and hide.

That technique is working great in Wisconsin, where the democrats have run away and are hiding in another state so they can shut down the state legislature. :roll:
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Re: Government Shutdown Looms As Boehner Rejects Funding Sto

Unread postby basil_hayden » Thu 17 Feb 2011, 17:22:53

2 months (16.67%) ought to be about right to balance the budget.
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Re: Government Shutdown Looms As Boehner Rejects Funding Sto

Unread postby Ludi » Thu 17 Feb 2011, 17:31:16

Sixstrings wrote:Well lots of seniors and vets are gonna be mad if their benefits stop due to a shutdown.


Maybe that would be a good thing. Maybe they would be more interested in what their elected representatives are actually doing with the responsibility and power given to them by the voters.
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Re: Government Shutdown Looms As Boehner Rejects Funding Sto

Unread postby Timo » Thu 17 Feb 2011, 18:54:24

It seems to me something BIG happened in Egypt recently. Something about a whole lot of angry citizens really pissed at their government. I believe that actually caused a government shutdown, too! Come to think of it, it actually caused someone to lose his job.
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Re: Government Shutdown Looms As Boehner Rejects Funding Sto

Unread postby Cog » Thu 17 Feb 2011, 18:57:34

One million people should lose their jobs. That is we should cut the federal budget enough to make that happen.

The threatened shutdown is just political theater. When the Repubs get serious and start making $500-600 billion cuts from the budget and get rid of half of the federal worker bloat, I will take their efforts more seriously.
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Re: Government Shutdown Looms As Boehner Rejects Funding Sto

Unread postby Plantagenet » Thu 17 Feb 2011, 19:39:19

They just found the Wisconsin democrats who ran away to shut down the Wisconsin legislature. Where do you think they are hiding?

They're all hanging out and playing shuffleboard at a poshy resort in Illinois!

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Re: Government Shutdown Looms As Boehner Rejects Funding Sto

Unread postby PrestonSturges » Thu 17 Feb 2011, 20:32:11

Close the airports, close the locks on the Ohio river, furlough the customs agents and close the borders, send home the Capitol Hill police department, turn off the lights in Senate, and close the Smithsonian.

Then let Boehner pitch a fit and demand that Social Security be cut.
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Re: Government Shutdown Looms As Boehner Rejects Funding Sto

Unread postby pup55 » Thu 17 Feb 2011, 20:48:43

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/politics/2011/02/06/sotu.simpson.extended.intv.cnn.html

This was on the other night. Simpson correctly says that all of the earmarks, discretionary spending, waste fraud and abuse and everything else is chicken feed, and unless they start to cut medicare, medicaid, social security and defense, the problem will continue.

And it also correctly says that the problem will not get fixed because the re-election of the politicians who have to vote for it is more important than doing the right thing....
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Re: Government Shutdown Looms As Boehner Rejects Funding Sto

Unread postby Plantagenet » Thu 17 Feb 2011, 21:12:51

PrestonSturges wrote:Close the airports, close the locks on the Ohio river, furlough the customs agents and close the borders, send home the Capitol Hill police department, turn off the lights in Senate, and close the Smithsonian... demand that Social Security be cut.


Wow...you sure are a scaredy cat. But why?

1. Social security is not funded out of the federal budget and its budget is not controlled by Congress or the White House. Please educate yourself about this---your check is safe. Your money is safe in your personal "lockbox". The lockboxes are all lined up alphabetically in a long tunnel, so your lockbox ---labelled with your name " Sturges" -----is securely nestled between those for the people named "Sturgazeeba" and those named "Sturgunom"

2. As for the rest of us, Boehner says he'll pass a continuing resolution to keep the government going, but with a 60 billion cut---- since the total federal budget is 3.5 trillion, that amounts to something like a 1-2% cut.

Do you really think Obama will refuse to sign a budget because it has a 1-2% cut? Considering that 1.6 trillion of the 3.5 trillion that Obama wants to spend has to be borrowed from China, a 1-2% cut seems pretty moderate to me--especially since Obama's spending is so out of control that Obama will still have to borrow >40% of his whole budget from his Chinese overlords, just as he proposed in his 2012 budget.
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Re: Government Shutdown Looms As Boehner Rejects Funding Sto

Unread postby Cloud9 » Thu 17 Feb 2011, 21:44:48

Nothing will happen.
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Re: Government Shutdown Looms As Boehner Rejects Funding Sto

Unread postby Outcast_Searcher » Sat 19 Feb 2011, 00:29:39

pup55 wrote:http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/politics/2011/02/06/sotu.simpson.extended.intv.cnn.html

This was on the other night. Simpson correctly says that all of the earmarks, discretionary spending, waste fraud and abuse and everything else is chicken feed, and unless they start to cut medicare, medicaid, social security and defense, the problem will continue.

And it also correctly says that the problem will not get fixed because the re-election of the politicians who have to vote for it is more important than doing the right thing....


+1

When I saw this interview on "State of the Union", it was truly amazing and really refreshing to see a Washington politician actually talk about something candidly and honestly.

It was so weird it reminded me of Wen Jaibao's interview with Fareed Zakaria on his GPS show when he said there should be free speech rights in China (I thought I might be stroking out when I heard that).

Sadly, he's exactly right. Voters want "theirs" no matter what is good for the country, so we'll all go over the cliff together instead of compromising and having us all sacrifice "some" while we still reasonably can.

We collectively have the (idiot) govvernmnt representation we deserve. :cry:
Given the track record of the perma-doomer blogs, I wouldn't bet a fast crash doomer's money on their predictions.
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Re: Government Shutdown Looms As Boehner Rejects Funding Sto

Unread postby PrestonSturges » Sat 19 Feb 2011, 00:55:05

The budget has to go to the Senate which will wrangle out the crap about defunding pap smears and AIDS testing at Planned Parenthood, which is a shame because I'd love to see a government shutdown over contraception just to convince the rest of the world we are completely insane.

Also, I'm not really sure the GOP's corporate masters really want to see this happen.

But yeah, I'd say close the airports, shut down the seaports, kill the feeds to the weather satellites and GPS units, lock the border crossings, close the national parks, and make Congress work by flashlight. Over birth control.
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Re: Government Shutdown Looms As Boehner Rejects Funding Sto

Unread postby Keith_McClary » Sat 19 Feb 2011, 01:25:31

Facebook knows you're a dog.
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Re: Government Shutdown Looms As Boehner Rejects Funding Sto

Unread postby gollum » Sat 19 Feb 2011, 01:28:28

Outcast_Searcher wrote:
pup55 wrote:http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/politics/2011/02/06/sotu.simpson.extended.intv.cnn.html

This was on the other night. Simpson correctly says that all of the earmarks, discretionary spending, waste fraud and abuse and everything else is chicken feed, and unless they start to cut medicare, medicaid, social security and defense, the problem will continue.

And it also correctly says that the problem will not get fixed because the re-election of the politicians who have to vote for it is more important than doing the right thing....


+1

When I saw this interview on "State of the Union", it was truly amazing and really refreshing to see a Washington politician actually talk about something candidly and honestly.

It was so weird it reminded me of Wen Jaibao's interview with Fareed Zakaria on his GPS show when he said there should be free speech rights in China (I thought I might be stroking out when I heard that).

Sadly, he's exactly right. Voters want "theirs" no matter what is good for the country, so we'll all go over the cliff together instead of compromising and having us all sacrifice "some" while we still reasonably can.

We collectively have the (idiot) govvernmnt representation we deserve. :cry:



Mr Simpson is indeed right, of course he spent his entire adult life feeding on the government tit and voting to spend social security taxes on things other than social security thereby defrauding the American people.
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Re: Government Shutdown Looms As Boehner Rejects Funding Sto

Unread postby Keith_McClary » Sun 20 Feb 2011, 19:45:26

Facebook knows you're a dog.
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Re: Government Shutdown Looms As Boehner Rejects Funding Sto

Unread postby Cog » Sun 20 Feb 2011, 20:05:38

Keith_McClary wrote:What budget-cutting amendments has the House passed this week?
Dozens of 'em. See any patterns?


Yeah I see a pattern of one party trying to cut spending and another party resisting them. What pattern do you see?
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Re: Government Shutdown Looms As Boehner Rejects Funding Sto

Unread postby vision-master » Sun 20 Feb 2011, 20:33:58

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Re: Government Shutdown Looms As Boehner Rejects Funding Sto

Unread postby Lore » Sun 20 Feb 2011, 20:39:42

What jokers, a pretty safe game of making tuff cuts when you know that the measures will never pass the Senate or the Presidential veto.

I say let them all go through and more, then watch the Tea Party hounds wail. It's all fine when you assume it's not your neck on the line. Just be careful what you ask for.
The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life.
... Theodore Roosevelt
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Re: Government Shutdown Looms As Boehner Rejects Funding Sto

Unread postby Cog » Mon 21 Feb 2011, 00:39:34

Lore wrote:What jokers, a pretty safe game of making tuff cuts when you know that the measures will never pass the Senate or the Presidential veto.

I say let them all go through and more, then watch the Tea Party hounds wail. It's all fine when you assume it's not your neck on the line. Just be careful what you ask for.


Are you saying that President Obama isn't serious about deficit reduction? I'm sure I heard him just recently say he wanted to rein in spending. Are you calling him a liar? This will be his opportunity to cut some $61 billion out of the budget.
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