Government Shut Down

[sexobon]

The $100K is the default amount for a subsidized term life insurance policy (SGLI) that military personnel have the option of buying. First responders would get what they bargained for in their civilian contracts. Victims would get what they purchased privately. Life insurance policies without war exclusions have been available for as long as I can remember and I've known military personnel who went the commercial route because they didn't trust the government to come through on the policy it offered.

The problem arises when the government subsidizes higher death benefits to some segments of the population than others such as the families of civilian victims receiving substantially more than the families of military service members. Politics then makes for second class citizens.

OTOH, I don't have any problem with the government subsidizing the death benefits and health care costs of first responders and civilian casualties, in such paramilitary situations, and bringing their incident connected death and injury benefits up to what military personnel get.

[Adak]

Originally Posted by richlevy

Neither is it when the leader of the entire House of Representatives holds up passage of legislation until a minority of one party in the House is satisfied when he knows that a majority of the entire house will pass it.

That is done frequently in both the House and Senate, by both parties. Nothing arcane about it.

Neither was it when individual Republicans blocked multiple calls for a budget conference earlier this year that might have avoided the brinksmanship.

If you don't like Congresses rules, tell your friends to stop abusing them.

We were headed for the brink anyway. The Democrats under Reid and Pelosi are very uncompromising. That causes the Republicans to adopt a similarly uncompromising point of view. The clash of the two was bound to happen.

Right after you tell Obama to quit breaking the law, by making appointments directly, without the required Congressional approval, when the Congress is still technically in session.

Any Republican President would have done that, they'd have faced a Special Investigator, at least.

For Obama -- crickets, of course.

[Lamplighter]

Originally Posted by Lamplighter

Truckers are trying to organize a strike and occupy DC this weekend.

The first come-on is to protest the government shutdown.
But then if you drill down one step, it is to protest "government corruption"
And then if you drill down further, it becomes a far right-wing jumble.<snip>

More recent articles are pretty much just copying the following...


Fox News
10/11/13
Dozens, not thousands, show up for DC trucker protest

Virginia state police say they stopped four tractor-trailer drivers on the Beltway,
pulling them over after they began driving side-by side across
all four northbound lanes of the Beltway in Fairfax County.
Their actions slowed traffic to about 15 mph.
Officers warned the drivers not to impede traffic and did not write any tickets.

Police say a convoy of about 30 trucks began traveling north on Interstate 95
from Doswell, Va., on Friday morning. The truckers are circling the Beltway.

However, the presence was not quite the thousands of truckers that organizers had predicted.
On Friday morning, just a handful of people had showed up at a key staging area.

On its website, the group lists several demands, including
that President Obama resign immediately,
that the debt ceiling not be raised and that
National Security Agency surveillance of communications be ceased.

The group is also complaining about low wages and rising fuel costs.

[tw]

Originally Posted by Adak

That is done frequently in both the House and Senate, by both parties. Nothing arcane about it.

It is never done in Congress when the results are to intentionally make America fail.

[glatt]

European markets open in 8 hours. What's going to happen to US ratings then? There was a lot of pressure to resolve this clusterfuck before markets opened this week because this was the last weekend before the default. It's not looking like they are going to resolve this in the next 8 hours. I shouldn't be surprised, but I am disappointed. I thought they might do their jobs this weekend.

[tw]

Originally Posted by glatt

It's not looking like they are going to resolve this in the next 8 hours. I shouldn't be surprised, but I am disappointed. I thought they might do their jobs this weekend.

Wackos are why money can be made. Markets will fall big time. If you saw wacko extremists as I have, then you were collecting cash. That may be an ideal buying opportunity.

[Griff]

Video of Pete Sessions taking a bite out of democracy.

[infinite monkey]

Some local chick wrote in a local paper last week about how she was reporting on something and Boehner was so nice to her (this i believe, he can be personable in real life) and she took the opportunity to tell him (he is our district's congressman) how hard it is to raise her beh-bey on a reporter's salary therefore she didn't want obamacare and he LISTENED to her and she felt democracy in action. Stupid twit.

[Lamplighter]

You don't need to concerned if you will not be affected by
default of the U.S. Treasury on this coming Thursday.

If you might be affected, you should hope/pray that Eric Cantor
retains his health, and is not delayed in traffic or otherwise fails
to attend all coming sessions of the House of Representative.

He is the only member allowed by a current House Rule to bring
a Bill" related to the debt ceiling" to the Floor for a vote.

The Hill
Mike Lillis
10/14/13

<snip>
Under long-standing House rules, any member of the chamber
can bring a measure to the floor. But Republicans altered the rule
governing legislation to fund the government so that only
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) holds the power to make such a motion.
<snip>

[henry quirk]

Keep it shut down (shut down MORE of it, and let it stay down).

And: YAY FOR DEFAULT!

[Lamplighter]

TNMPM

[Lamplighter]

The Taliban says women are not allowed to learn go to school
The Pope says women are not allowed to be priests
The John Boehner says women are not allowed to negotiate the government shutdown.

The Telegraph
Alex Spillius
15 Oct 2013

Women US senators lead compromise efforts on shutdown

Women have led reconciliation shutdown efforts in Congress,
showing their male colleagues a thing or two about compromise

As the men who lead the United States Congress have continued to test the world’s patience,
it is female members of the Senate who have led efforts at compromise, leaving some in Washington
to ask what would have happened if women had been in charge all along.

The initiative was seized by Susan Collins, a Maine senator,
a well-known moderate, who found willing partners on the Democrat side
of the partisan divide. Together they prodded their male colleagues into action.
<snip>
Maria Cantwell, a Democratic Senator, was adamant that if the
dispute over government spending and borrowing had been left to women,
then bitter divisions would have been breached and the government,
which has been shutdown partially since Oct 1, would have reopened.

Senator Claire McCaskill, a moderate Democrat from Missouri, commented:
“We are trying to find that place where we can get something done.
We’re not as interested in fighting as we are in moving the substance of the issue.”

Not only do female Democrats and Republicans manage to talk to each other,
they share dinners too. On Monday, the New Hampshire delegation of Kelly Ayotte, a Republican,
and Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat, chaired informal talks over pizza in the latter’s Senate office.

Such informal gatherings hark back to a time when the Senate was
regarded as epitome of civilised debate and political accommodation.

[tw]

When Gingrich, et al were playing this game, they were not driven by a political agenda that said, "We want America to fail." This is the first one that concerns me. Because it is driven by people with near zero intelligence levels and a philosophy that says, "We will ignore facts to just know a default will not be harmful."

Gingriich and his "Contract with America" supporters understood how things really work. Therefore backed down in humiliation in order to not make America fail. View henry quirk's post to see how dangerous today's wacko extremists have become.

A government default is to me an ideal buying opportunity. It should be profitable. However, it will mean all American debts (current and future) will automatically increase. Nobody with intelligence would advocate that. And that is the problem. These wackos have no idea that they want American to become a second class nation. Intelligence in American politics has dropped to Joseph McCarthy and Nixon plumbers levels.

A default will happen if moderates in the Republican party do not stand up and attack the wackos. Even Boehmer no longer displays any backbone.

[Lamplighter]

This is the NY Times News today...Oct 15, 2013




Probably not many of you remember the Friday night when the US went to bed
expecting a nuclear war the next day - the Cuban Missile Crisis.

But it's not since then that I have gone to bed with such feelings.
Who knows what will happen today ... maybe not nuclear war,
but one way or the other, it will certainly be a high-magnitude event.

What bothers me in my own mind is that I have actually come to believe
the GOP is no longer controlled or made up of men-of-good-will.
It's no longer "politics" or a "game".

When the entire House of Representatives is jerked about by the $
of two men, the Koch brothers...
When elected officials are manipulated into fear of not being re-elected...
When the good of the country is no longer the issue...

I have lost all sense of humor with the Republicans.

[tw]

After a round of golf, Boehner said to Obama that he thought they could work out a grand deal. So the two men sat down multiple times in secret to work out the government budget. Then Cantor discovered the talks through VP Biden. And put threats to Boehner's back. Either back out of the deal or be overthrown in a coup. The threats worked.

Now new threats from these tea party extremists have further saddled Boehner with another dilemma. From the Economist, "how to satisfy their members Quixotic longing to kill Obamacare without shutting down the government or causing a default."

Well this forces a question that can no longer be avoided. Is Boehner that incompetent as Speaker of the House as to not properly exercise the power he has. Or has the party so radically changed that no Speaker could rally, muster, and corral his members? The Washington Post is asking that question today in "Boehner sees his control of House Republicans slip away" on 15 October 2013.

But as evening fell over the Capitol, it was increasingly clear who had control over the House GOP: no one. ...

And despite what most see as a debacle for Republicans, a core group of conservatives insisted Tuesday that they are winning their battle to force concessions from Democrats on fiscal issues.

Even the numbers (polls) say something completely different. Why would they stick to what is obviously a lie?

It goes right back to a question of whether Boehner is an incompetent speaker. Or did the Supreme Court make corruption of Congress now easy by creating unrestricted financing of campaign funding by even calling corporations people?

“We didn’t get anything. This has been a total waste of time,” said Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.), one of the most consistent critics of his party’s most conservative members.

“I think they think they won somehow,” he said. “Whatever echo chamber they live in, they’re only hearing good things.”

Added Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), “The only reason the Democrats don’t look terrible is because we look worse.”

Maybe. Or maybe Boehner has surrendered power to Eric Cantor and the extremist in exchange for no coup.