A government shutdown is looming on our horizon –a “tomorrow horizon”–because there is no 2011 budget.  Congress cannot agree.  There has to be compromise. 

What will be the impact of a government shut down?  The last one was in 1995.  How many readers think it doesn’t matter if the government is shut down?

We know that national parks and museums will be closed.  But will government employees get paychecks?  How about the military?  How about social security checks?  Will Congress still get their paychecks?  Will all the support staff go home? 

The blame game won’t work.   Will there be an emergency extention or will things grind to a halt tomorrow?

41 Thoughts to “Government Shutdown Looming”

  1. e

    shut er down!!! reality has to catch up with delusion sooner or later. what, when the deficit is 20 trillion will that be enough? 50 trillion? maybe the new rubicon will be an even quadrillion? wake up and smell the coffee honey, we be broke

  2. How will this shut down affect the American people. Easy to say just shut it down. How about the millions who will be affected?

  3. e

    http://www.loudountimes.com/index.php/news/article/no_off-shore_drilling_in_virginia_says_obama345/
    if yall want some hard cash, there’s plenty of oil to be had in offshore drilling, but the annointed one and his lackeys nixed that brilliant idea back in december. 50 years of liberal lunacy have landed us in this mess, what did you expect would happen? palin said drill baby drill and was ridiculed for her naiveté; if the american people are too stupid or selfish to understand that you can’t run a country with a 14 trillion dollar deficit and unsustainable entitlements with future liabilities in the tens of trillions and enviro mental wackos shutting down the growth and exploitation of our natural resources, then ye shall reap what ye sow

    1. Ummm e…you realize that the govt isn’t in the oil business? No one ridiculed Palin for her content…it was the delivery system.

      There is also this idea that getting to that oil has an environmental price tag. Perhaps its just the cavalier attitude.

  4. e

    govt isnt in the oil business [yet, until the whole industry is nationalized], but it sure gets to determine how much is pumped. ask the folks at epa, ditto the nuclear energy, see how long it takes to get a new plant built.
    6 -7 billion people on the planet, thanks to unbridled illegal immigration u.s. population will hit half a billion by midcentury, so you have 2 options: go get that energy and suffer the occasional horrible disaster, or send everyone back to the freakin stone age, with millions dying along the way cause modern agricultural methods and delivery systems will be unsustainable.

  5. Pat.Herve

    e – was this oil suddenly discovered in 2008?
    Florida’s Chris Christi likes the drilling ban.

    What about the current 5500 leases of off shore drilling sites that are not being utilized – ie, the oil industry wants to buy the lease, and not drill yet – should we not let them keep drilling in those areas first?

  6. e

    oil wasnt discovered in 2008, nor were the seeds of our impending doom planted then either. if obama was in charge instead of eisenhauer, our magnificent interstate highway system, a key to our economic prosperity, would never have been built. marie antoinette said let them eat cake, sierra club says let them eat grass. china and other nascent powers around the globe who handle their affairs with a modicum of sanity will inherit the earth

  7. Elena

    e,
    I may have to ask you to stop posting here. Unbridled illegal immigration is not ever going to be used on this blog as a scapegoat mechanism for impending doom.

    You aren’t even making sense when it comes to your comments about the highway system. The highway system WAS created by the federal government. In fact, our infrastructure has been going down the tubes due to neglect in the last few decades. Part of Obama’s stimulus package was creating jobs to fix the very roads you suggest are the “key to our economic prosperity”, and yet, right wing conservatives belittled that initiative.

    Why do you always have to sound so angry and offensive to people with different views. It just creates an environment where rational discussion is almost impossible.

  8. Elena

    The GOP is going to have make a choice, allow the TEA party to shut down govt. or make a stand for sanity.

  9. SlowpokeRodriguez

    Moon-howler :
    How will this shut down affect the American people. Easy to say just shut it down. How about the millions who will be affected?

    Obama “made it clear” the other day. No trips to Yellowstone National Park. It will be a human tragedy not unlike the Hindenberg! Everybody run for the hills!

  10. SlowpokeRodriguez

    My main concern is how this shutdown might affect cowboy poetry.

  11. Remember, SS, etc will still be paid. Non-essential personnel might be sent home. Then again, if they are non-essential…..

    If the Democrats insist on shutting down the government because they refuse to face reality, and if the President makes political choices on whom to close, then…..its on them. It was the Democrats that refused to submit a budget. They can’t have their cake and eat it too. They refused so that the incoming House would be forced to submit ongoing resolutions, with the threat of closing the government hanging over their head.

    So, ok. Do what the Democrats want. Shut it down. We have. No. More. Money.

    1. @Cargo, your partisanship is showing. Dems shutting it down?

      There needs to be compromise. Right now I believe the negotiations are stuck on issues like planned parenthood. Do we seriously think that is anything but the values culture warriors? Don’t kid ourselves.

  12. SlowpokeRodriguez

    What will the US do when Michelle Obama’s staff of 24 gets furloughed? Oh, the humanity! Hmmm, Street sweepers and trash collection will be disrupted in DC….will anyone notice?

  13. SlowpokeRodriguez

    @Moon-howler
    Like you wouldn’t insist Republicans are shutting it down. That’s how the game works….never stop blaming the other side. The Democrats will shut down the government. It can’t be stressed enough.

  14. I expect people would notice after a day if DC wasn’t picked up. DC is actually a beautiful federal city.

    @Slowpoke, I didnt say Republicans were shutting it down. Why would I say that if I don’t feel like it is one sided. I haven’t assigned blame yet.

  15. marinm

    At least Gates has a sense of humor. 🙂

    During a short question-and-answer session, Spec. Ryan Hunt, 20 years old, of Terre Haute, Ind., asked, “How do you see the possible government shutdown affecting military pay?”

    “Well, first of all, let me say you will be paid,” Mr. Gates said, to which some soldiers huddled around the secretary replied, “Hooah!”—an Army expression of thumbs-up enthusiasm.

    “As a historian, it always occurred to me that a smart thing for government was always to pay the guys with guns first,” Mr. Gates jokingly added.

    Troops are typically paid on the 15th of the month and again at month’s end, and Mr. Gates said that if a government shutdown began after Friday, troops would receive half a paycheck for the first two weeks of April. After that, troops wouldn’t be paid until a deal is reached in Washington to fund the government, although they would receive any back pay owed, he added.

    “If it goes from the 15th to the 30th, you wouldn’t get a paycheck on the 30th,” he added. “But you would be back-paid for all of it. So that’s the deal.”

  16. Of course its showing. Its the Democrats that did not fulfill their duty and submit a budget and now they’re stonewalling are stuff that should be cut. Here’s an example of the debate in more personal terms, described back when the Democrats only wanted to cut 1/10th of what the GOP did:

    The House Republicans want to only cut $60 billion in spending and the Democrats only want to cut spending $6.5 billion. If you were to scale this down into numbers people might be able to relate to it would look like the following.
    If your family income were $50,000 then:

    * Family debt is $335,700
    * Family deficit is $39,300 (spending is $89,300/year)
    * The head of household wants to cut $1,430 in yearly spending
    * The spouse wants to cut $154.80 in yearly spending

    You can extrapolate from the Democrat increase to 33 billion that the spouse wants to cut $715 now.

    And all this could have been avoided if Pelosi and her minions had not be cowards.

    Cutting Planned Parenthood is the LEAST of the cuts. And when we put up a budget, lets use the 2008 budget as a model. That cuts out ALL of the spending since then.

  17. Hit submit too soon

    If you want PP saved, what do you want cut instead? I mean, its only a 1.5 trillion dollar deficit? I’m sure we can find something that you would rather have cut? To be honest, if the Democrats would agree with the GOP and cut the budget by 60 billion or more, I’d be happy if PP funds were doubled. PP is small potatoes. But, if that’s what we have, then that’s what we cut.

    I feel that 60 billion is too small. Defund the 100 billion going to HCR. Repeal all Stimulus money. Demand that TARP, in toto, be paid back now. Sell all shares in GM held by the government and demand the return the billions paid out to them.

  18. Btw, if a company can lay off people when its broke, why is it so wrong to do the same with government? Why does government get a pass?

    Trash pickup in DC? Open it up to private companies. I pay for my trash to be picked up. What’s the big deal?

    Oh, yeah….its “free” when its paid for by someone ELSE’S tax money. Put DC back under direct Congressional control, then they get all the money they want :rolling:

  19. Apparently I did the “rolling eyes” thing wrong. How do you do it again and where can I find a list of others, if you know?

    1. @cargo, its on its way.

  20. Now we know who to blame on the shutdown. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/apr/7/senate-leader-reid-government-headed-shutdown/

    “The White House has vowed to veto the short-term spending bill House Republicans will vote on this afternoon, taking away the safety net that could have given both sides another week to avert an immediate government shutdown.”

    He’s not willing to extend negotiations for ONE week and would rather furlough 800,000 workers…..

    Ok, then.

  21. It is in a city’s best interest to have consolidated trash pick up. Can you think of a single town house community that makes the homeowner or renter provide for their own service? Same reason cities don’t. Density.

    2008 is not possible or feasible.

    Compromise is needed. It isn’t up to one group to force its beliefs on the other.

    I don’t know enough about writing budget, like most Americans so I won’t be arguing the finer points.

    We have had debt since the Declaration of Independence.

    I simply do not believe in tea party economic theory. We went through a Great Recession. That makes all bets off. I will never agree with any economic theory that protects the very wealthy. I will never believe that Medicare is an endangered species as long as the very wealthy are protected.

    When I think about the amount of money the very wealthy dump into election campaigns and the amount of money that corporations give to curry favor, I want to gag.

    Someone is being fed a bill of goods. Only some of us are falling for that crap.

    Lift the ceiling on FICA. bump up a percent or two on taxes for the very affluent. Stop trying to beat up the public servants while protecting the effen rich.

    Done. I hope Obama spits in their face. I know who *I* will blame when the government shuts down.

  22. Wolverine

    If you are hugely in debt, almost to the point of being able to pay only the interest on the national credit card, and , if your solution is not to re-examine and cut some of your own spending but, rather, to raise taxes on the wealthier among us, you will soon get used to that easy-out option and get in the habit of going back to it time and time again. You will have to do that if you do not curb your own spending habits. You will always keep arriving at a point where the cash well is dry and you need another infusion of cash. Eventually you may make that goose decide to stop making all that extra effort to lay those golden eggs.

  23. Wolverine

    And someday even you could find yourself in that gaggle of geese. When that chap trying to live on minimum wage or welfare in the inner city looks at you and me with our nice suburban homes, our mighty fine public schools, our kids in college, our late-model vehicles, and the spare cash to celebrate things like the Civil War, he probably won’t be thinking about protecting the sacred “middle class.” He might be more likely to say: “Look at those rich m-fers out there in Loudoun and PWC. I want me some of that.”

    You might think you are middle class, but to an awfully lot of people you look like “rich” m-fers.

  24. Pat.Herve

    I blame the dems for not having a budget in place, and using CR’s to fund the Fed’s from Oct – Jan. I now blame the repubs for using CR’s to fund the Fed’s from Jan – Apr. Has reality not set in on all of them? Are the R’s going to hold it up due to PP? The Dems have moved a bit with more cuts, but it seems like a moving target, as the Dems move up in cuts, the R’s move up and also bring in ideology type cuts into the process.

    Yes, we are broke – for the past 30 years (and more) we have been living off the credit card –

    1. @Pat, I suppose it depends on how one defines broke. If it is defined by owning more than you bring in, we have always been broke as a country.

      Again, the affluent are being protected on the backs of the middle class. I resent that.
      As long as our government is designed so the wealthy can drop $10k, $50k for a fund raiser dinner, and we keep letting them do it, They will always feed off the middle class.

      Compare the income of the affluent compared to the middle class. Middle class wages have been fairly stable. Affluent earnings have increased ecponentially. We have let it happen. Yet we are beating up cops, teachers, firefighters, over a their pensions and their far less than 6 figure wages.

      This makes me sick. We have all been fed kool aid. This is not OK.

  25. Pat.Herve

    @Cargosquid

    well, it is not a CR for one week – it is a CR to continue DOD spending till October, and the rest of the Fed for 1 week. So, in essence, the DOD gets a pass on spending cuts.

    And Trash collection is a matter of public health – if trash lays around, it attracts rodents and disease, leading to increased healthcare costs – many municipalities fund trash collection through taxes, even if the service is performed by private companies.

  26. Emma

    I’ve decided to model my work ethic after Congress’s. They must be doing something right, since they will still get paid on time.

  27. @Pat.Herve

    I was actually speaking of home pickup. I see where I missed what she was saying about the pickup for DC.

    Personally, I have mixed feeling about the DOD CR. Good idea in some ways….others not so much. The DOD’s not getting a pass on the cuts, but on the gov’t shut down. Its a bill to keep them paid. Of course, Obama has stated that he’ll veto it. He’d rather not pay the military if Planned Parenthood funding is cut.

    I would rather that they stop all the politics and just shut it down. They need to act like adults. If we don’t have the money, then cut spending. Defund that bit that fund’s Obamacare to the tune of 100 billion to implement it. Since its been declared unconstitutional, it shouldn’t be funded.

    @Moon-howler

    As for the affluent earning increasing….that’s the nature of earnings. The top layers have no cap. If you can reach that level, it keeps going up and will “throw the curve.”

    So, how about this? If we’re broke because we don’t tax the rich enough, and its not against principle to tax someone because the have more money, why stop at all? Where is the limit on taking a citizen’s wealth? GE hasn’t paid ANY taxes. They make a profit on the current tax laws. Their boss is on government boards. No conflict of interest there. Union bosses are running the National Labor Relations Board and those guys make huge money. No outcry about THOSE rich people? The Democrats are the biggest recipient of money from wealthy donors, NOT the GOP. Why? Because, for the last few decades, the more politically connected you are, the easier it is to get rich. Remember Enron? Bush gets the blame but it was Bush’s administration that BUSTED them. The Democrats, ie Clinton, looked the other way.

    How about we just take all but, say….$250,000 bucks. Anybody can live on that. Too much?

    Its not the wealthy people making the states broke, except New York and that’s because they’re all leaving the state. Its the unfunded liabilities like permanent free health care and unfunded pensions that were promised to the unions. Of course the unions made sure that the union BOSSES have all their health care paid up…..

    If we must have an income tax, make it a flat tax. And if we must have a corporate tax, make that a flat tax with no loopholes. And make them both low. We have the highest corporate taxes in the world, yet, because politicians love money, they monkey with the system to award companies. Personally, I think that corporations should not be taxed. Shareholders should be, if we must have an income tax. Customers pay any tax load that corporations must pay. I think we need to kill the income tax and go to a national sales tax.

    You want to watch CEO pay come down? You want justice? Then let these highly paid CEO’s fail. Stop bailing out the failing companies. And the shareholders need to get active in the companies. The press has also failed to report on any failing CEO’s. The press needs to treat them like politicians, especially if they’re feeding at the public trough.

  28. Just had a thought.

    If the President is willing to veto a bill that keeps the troops paid, if the President is willing to furlough all these workers and close parks, etc, and we have no money to pay people,

    Why is HE and CONGRESS still getting paid?

  29. Elena

    The Dems proposed a bill saying congress would NOT get paid, as of yesterday, it was unsigned by the House (i.e. the republicans).

  30. Elena

    Here is the headline I recommend:

    “United States Government shuts down over Pap Smears”

  31. Outstanding. Finally the Dems want to cut spending. The GOP should jump on it.

    Here’s the headlines I recommend: US gov’t shuts down because Democrats failed in their duty to pass a budget. Obama vows to veto bill to pay troops in case of shut down.”

  32. Elena

    Sorry Cargo, no lies here on moonhowlings. The issue is Planned Parenthood and there is no way can you an twist that reality. Since you don’t get cervical cancer, or get pregnant, or need annual well woman check ups, I suggest you don’t know what know you are talking about. I volunteered at a planned parenthood many years ago for my undergrad degree. Oh, and by the way, it was a Catholic University, and the clinic I worked in did NOT provide abortions!

  33. Cargo, you mistakenly think that *I* think it is ok for Democrats to attach riders. I don’t think its ok for anyone to do it really, if the rider is unrelated.

    You misrepresent what I said about the wealthy also. I don’t think that low income people should be paying the percent in taxes I pay. I also don’t think the wealthy should either. they can afford a little more. The real problem, as I see it, is that ceiling on FICA.

    Just out of curiosity, why are you protecting the very affluent? No one thinks it would be ok to tax them at 80% nor has that been suggested. They just shouldn’t be in the middle class tax bracket and they are.

  34. Bear

    These budget cuts are the stupidest thing I’ve seen Congress do yet! We are in the middle of recovering from the worst recession since the “great depression” and instead of trying to stimulate job growth for the millions of unemployed , these idiots decide to start cutting things the public need to recover. The government gets revenue from people paying taxes and with enough people working and some smart tax revisions, we would have the money to repay our debt.Now is the time to stimulate job growth not put more stress on seniors and the poorest people in the country. Everyone is”posturing” for the 2012 election. What we need is for the Congress to actually do their job!

  35. @Elena
    What lies? I don’t see where I said that there were lies here on MH.

    @Moon-howler
    You asked me that before. I’m not protecting or not protecting the “affluent.” If we must have an income tax, then why should someone be penalized because they are more successful? Since you want them to pay more, then, how much more? And YOU may not desire them to pay 80%, but many on the left do.

    If one is poverty stricken, then they can’t pay the tax. Lets set up a flat tax, no deductions, on all income over the poverty line or some other “line.” Then, the tax is on all income over that. 15% across the board.

    Why should a “rich” man have to pay more taxes because he can afford it? Really? How do we know? How many businesses will have to be sold because a family inherits it and now they’ll have to pay the death tax, all at once? That’s how Warren Buffet acquired A LOT of businesses? How about that rich man that lives in a high cost area and has medical bills? Can he afford it? Is a man making $300,000 in New York City a rich man? How about in Farmville, Virginia? Who can afford more taxes?

    Also, why shouldn’t a poor person have a stake in the game? Yes, they are poor and they get, currently, the most government help. So, if, like now, 50% of the population pay NOTHING in taxes, will they vote to control spending, if they don’t have to pay for it?

    Simplify that tax code. Prevent corporations from making a PROFIT on it. I would rather have them pay nothing while making no profit off of tax money. Cut that corporate welfare.

    If I make a million dollars tomorrow, hiring people, starting a business, why should I then have to pay MORE in taxes? Wouldn’t my money be better spent increasing the business?

    But, even if I kept it as profit, why should I be punished for it? I would do better to spend it.

    The problem is not too little taxation, but too much spending. At the moment we could confiscate huge amounts of wealth through taxation and we would still be trillions in debt and we would lose the productivity of the successful. We should lower taxes and attract more businesses and rich people.

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