Passing a Continuing Resolution (CR) Simply Keeps the Government Functioning, It used to Be Normal to Pass a CR Without Holding a Law Hostage
There was a time that when the government needed to pass a continuing resolution, to keep the government funded, was just a formality. When it came to raising the debt, it too, was just a formality, but not since big money, the Koch brothers, and Citizen’s United came along with the obstructionist Tea Party.
U. S. Government Shutdown at Midnight tonight Inevitable
Tonight at midnight it seems inevitable that the U. S. Government will be shut down. There is only one reason this shutdown will take place. The Republican Party is broken. Many Republicans do not want a shutdown of the government but can’t convince the 45 or so Tea Party members that not holding a law (The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare) hostage, and shutting down the U. S. Government is not the right thing to do. Shutting down the government is not right for their party, and more important, the American people. Republicans are concerned with only two things, they’re getting wealthier, and how they can keep their elected offices by avoiding the Tea Party running someone in a primary election against them. That’s how the big money and the Tea works. The Koch brothers and all the other backers threaten to run a candidate against any Republican that doesn’t please them. The House passed several things yesterday, knowing that there was no way they would pass the Senate. They do that a lot nowadays, like voting to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) no less than 40 times. Talk about a waste money. Saturday’s late-night vote on a three-month $986 billion government funding bill that would delay Obamacare for a year, House Republicans also pushed through a bill funding U.S. troops in the event of a shutdown, adopted a repeal of a tax on medical devices and approved a conscience clause postponing a government mandate that employers cover the cost of birth control in their health insurance plans.
Who gets Hurt By a Shutdown?
Yesterday, I posted a story of a young military family with three children. The soldier served one tour in Iraq and two tours in Afghanistan. The soldier is now serving here in the states. The wife said they got hurt when the government furloughed her husband, without pay on Fridays. They fell behind in their bills and have have yet to fully recover from that. Now, she says, she doesn’t know what they’re going to do as they won’t have any income as of midnight tonight. Do the Republicans care, maybe some of them, but not enough to go up against the Tea Party. The Tea Party obstructionist not only want for the 30 million uninsured Americans to get healthcare, they want to take away the benefits the Affordable Care Act has already provided millions of Americans. Hundreds of thousands of “non-essential” government employees will be furloughed without pay as of midnight tonight. If the debt ceiling is not raised by October 17th doesn’t get raised things get much worse. The full faith and credit of the United States is put into jeopardy and we could, for the first time ever, default on our debt.
Holding the ACA hostage
Many people paid, whether through their employers or individually for health insurance and once they became seriously ill, were dropped by their insurance company. The insurance company would claim they had a pre-existing condition, or they would reach what the insurance company called “a lifetime limit.” The Affordable Care Act, Obamacare, stopped this. The insurance companies took hugh profits for themselves, and shareholders, in dividends and bonuses. The Affordable care Act made it so that the insurance companies had to actually spend 85% of all the money they receive from premiums and use it for the insured’s benefit, or return it to the insured person. This has resulted in millions of people getting rebates from the insurance companies already. The ACA also provides for parents to keep their children on their health insurance policies until they reach the age of 26. This provision immediately insured millions of young people whom didn’t have health insurance to be insured.
The Tea Party does Not Allow the Word “Compromise” into their Vocabulary
The Tea Party wants to take money away from food stamps which they don’t consider that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) as a safety net, but an “entitlement. Many people with full time jobs live below the current poverty levels, making them eligible for the SNAP program. The fact that one of the largest employers in America pays it’s workers such a low wage, and offers no health insurance, that it cost taxpayers a great deal money. In California, it costs taxpayers $80 million dollars. We don’t subsidize American’s citizens in need, but we’re subsidizing companies like Walmart by paying for their employees healthcare and assisting some with food through SNAP. Actually only about half of those families that qualify for food stamps get them. California discourages needy from signing up for food stamps.The state’s participation rate is the lowest in the U.S. — only about half of those qualified get the aid — making it the envy of more-conservative states. Read more on this at: http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-california-food-stamps-20130818,0,3317166.story.
Debt Ceiling Increases by President
Ronald Reagan raised the debt ceiling 199.5% (1981-1989,) George W. Bush raised the debt ceiling 90.2% (2001-2009,) and President Obama has raised it 26.3% (2009-Present.) What’s wrong with this picture? Read the “History of the Debt Ceiling and Recent Increases” in an article posted yesterday: http://medic3569.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-debt-limit-history-and-recent.html on this blog. This article uses a report by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO.)
Will the Full Faith and Credit of the United States, and for that Matter, the World Economy Survive a Prolonged Shutdown?
Zachery A Goldfarb of the Washington Post writes “A prolonged government shutdown — followed by a potential default on the federal debt — would have economic ripple effects far beyond Washington, upending financial markets, sending the unemployment rate higher and slowing already tepid growth, according to a wide range of economists.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/danger-to-economy-worries-experts-weighing-potential-government-shutdown-default/2013/09/29/651b7e5c-2793-11e3-ad0d-b7c8d2a594b9_story.html?hpid=z2
Ben White of Politico writes “If a shutdown drags on longer than a couple of weeks, pushing close to the Oct. 17 deadline for raising the debt ceiling, it could be far more damaging, possibly even driving an already slow-growing economy back into recession. Combine a shutdown with a default or near-default, and the sluggish economy would almost certainly stall out.” Read more at:
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/09/government-shutdown-2013-economy-97541.html#ixzz2gNxns9AA
Paul Lewis in Washington, for The Guardian, US Edition writes: “The impact of any federal shutdown would depend upon how long it lasts. Under contingency arrangements, essential services such as law enforcement, will be kept alive, although hundreds of thousands of federal workers would be placed on unpaid leave.
Social security and Medicare benefits would continue, and air traffic controllers would remain in place to ensure airports function. However museums, national parks and landmarks such as the Statue of Liberty and Washington Monument, would be closed. The military’s 1.4 million personnel active duty would remain in post, but their paychecks would be delayed. About half of the Defense Department’s civilian employees – about 800,000 people – would be furloughed, meaning they would be suspended from work without pay.
Federal courts would continue to function as usual for around a fortnight, after which the judiciary would have to start shelving work that is not considered essential. The gridlock over the government budget could be just the prelude to an even more serious showdown expected in mid-October over the government debt ceiling.”
Read More at: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/29/us-government-shutdown-house-delay-obamacare?CMP=ema_565&et_cid=50962&et_rid=7955851&Linkid=http%3a%2f%2fwww.theguardian.com%2fworld%2f2013%2fsep%2f29%2fus-government-shutdown-house-delay-obamacare
What Can We Do?
When people get involved and food the offices of the Congressmen and Senators we can make a big difference. The “Fiscal Cliff” was averted on January 1, 2013 after President Obama called on the American people and the offices of Congressmen and Senators were flooded. President Obama is urging the American people to put pressure on their Congressmen and Senators.
“Obama urges public pressure on Congress, Republicans” in a Capitol Hill Blue article by the Associated Press on September 21, 2013 says “President Barack Obama is appealing to the public anew to pressure Congress to stop undermining his health care law through measures that would threaten a government shutdown or a default on the government’s debts.
Read More: http://www.capitolhillblue.com/node/49149
When the public pressures their representatives it works. Now, more than ever we need to stick together and tell our politicians that they need to act in our best interests instead of their own. We must tell them that;
- A government shutdown is NOT acceptable.
- Holding a Law hostage to get a political argument across is not an acceptable tactic.
- They’ve wasted enough time and taxpayer money voting to repeal the Affordable Care Act 40 times, move on and, in fact obey the law that you took an oath to do and IMPLEMENT it. You took an oath!
- Start making progress on things like the infrastructure, jobs, education, immigration, and the many other things your getting paid to legislate.
- If you are a House Republican and afraid the Tea Party and the Koch brothers money will run a primary election candidate against you if you choose to do the right thing by the people, DON’T WORRY! We, the people will FIRE YOUR ASS ourselves in the next election if you don’t start acting resposibly.
FIND AND CONTACT YOUR SENATORS HERE:
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
FIND AND CONTACT YOUR CONGRESSMEN HERE:
http://www.house.gov/representatives/
TELL THEM A GOVERNMENT SHUT DOWN IS UNACCEPTABLE! DO IT NOW! THE GOVERNMENT SHUTS DOWN AT MIDNIGHT TONIGHT! THANK YOU
Get Involved For A Better America 