Sunday, October 13, 2013

Both sides are NOT to blame for the current budget mess

Late in the evening of September 30, 2013, the House Rules Committee Republicans secretly changed the rules of the House so that the ONLY Member allowed to call up the Senate's clean CR for a vote was Majority Leader Eric Cantor or his designee -- all but guaranteeing the government would shut down and stay shut down. Previously, all Members had the right to bring such bills up for a vote. Democracy has been suspended in the House of Representatives.



Of course, the US needs a real parliament where failing to pass a budget bill would result in a dissolution of parliament and new elections.

On the other hand, given how fractious US politics are, the US would go through more governments than Italy.
No other country shuts down its government in the same way the U.S. does.
That's not to say that other nations don't have budgetary disagreements and worse. They do. But "for most of the world, a government shutdown is very bad news — the result of revolution, invasion, or disaster," says Anthony Zurcher at BBC News. Seriously, "even in the middle of its ongoing civil war, the Syrian government has continued to pay its bills and workers' wages."
Syria's not alone. "Countries like Pakistan and Colombia have had civil wars, coups, financial crises, even defaults but never a government shutdown," says Erik Voeten at The Washington Post's Monkey Cage blog.

14 comments:

  1. You really think the government is shut down? rotflmao!!!!!!

    orlin sellers

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  2. Laci, we don't need anything that you call for.

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  3. "Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys."

    P. J. O'Rourke

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  4. Another cute remark intended to kill off government, a dangerous thing to do.

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    1. Kill it? No. Starve it until it can be managed and domesticated? Absolutely.

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    2. Tennessean is correct. Our legislators have gotten in the habit of just assuming that they can pass spending bills without consequences.

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    3. It's the Republicans who won't pay for two wars, a drug bill and other expenses. They approved those bills, but refuse to pay for them. That's why we have a 17 trillion dollar debt. They control the purse strings. They shut down the government. They are causing the death and suffering caused by this shutdown.

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    4. You're absolutely right, Anonymous. The fucking Republicans are responsible for this and their idiot followers are blaming Obama.

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    5. Mikeb, Obama's had five years. At what point does this become his responsibility?

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    6. You two are blinded by the glare of your vile and prejudiced partisanship.

      orlin sellers

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    7. "At what point does this become his responsibility?"

      At what point does WHAT become his responsibility? We're talking about the Republicans opposing Obamacare by shutting the government down. Obamacare was made law and held up by the Supreme Court. How in the fuck is that Obama's responsibility, you Obama-hater, you?

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    8. Anonymous raises the point about the debt. When does the debt become his responsibility?

      Actually, I fear contempt for politicians who are both incompetent and yearn to violate my rights. They aren't even good enough to be respectably evil.

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  5. Is it about who to blame? Or who gets credit?

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