Jack & Jill Politics

What the Speaker will look like if he can’t collect a check when he shuts down the Federal Government

No member of Congress should collect a check, either.

Yeah, I said it.  It is patently unfair that the ReThugs want to shut down the Government and hold it hostage to make the President and Democrats cave to their silly, gross and uneducational demands.

All they want is POWER.  Well, absolute POWER Corrupts ABSOLUTELY.

While the hoo-hah going on in Wisconsin under the FUBARing of newly minted Governor Scott Walker (hell, it took Ah-nold a few months before he effed up, so Walker’s screw up has to be Guinness World Record Worthy), the Crying Tan Man, along with his henchman, er, Majority Whip, Rep. Eric Cantor, are saying “We’ll Shut Down the Government if we don’t Get out Way.”

Remember when Newt Gingrich tried that shyt?  Bill Clinton laid that blame right where it belonged:

The 1995 “shutdown” of the United States federal government was the result of a conflict between Democratic President Clinton and the Republican-controlled Congress over funding for Medicare, education, the environment and public health. It took place after Clinton vetoed the spending bill which Congress sent him. Thereupon, the Federal government of the United States put non-essential government workers on furlough and suspended non-essential services from November 14 through November 19, 1995 and from December 16, 1995 to January 6, 1996 (see budget crisis). The major players were Bill Clinton, the Democrat then serving as President, and Newt Gingrich, the Republican then serving as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

As I recall, Newt threw a bitchfest because Clinton wouldn’t discuss the budget on Air Force One on their way to attend a dead foreign official’s funeral.  Newt didn’t care how inappropriate it was – he just wanted his own way and Clinton wouldn’t cave in.

In the following elections of 1996-98, Democrats won back some of those seats they lost in 1994 as a result of Newt overplaying his hand.  Unfortunately, that Democratic wave washed in the likes of Harold Ford and Artur Davis, but I digress.

The same scenario looms on the horizon, and get this; the players aren’t as smart as Newt was.  John Boehner and Cantor are in charge of driving this car off the cliff.  Look at what won’t get done if the government shuts down:

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.

We’re already asking Orange Julius “Where are the Damned Jobs?” and his response is that if more people lose their jobs, “SO BE IT!”

And my response to that is “If the government shuts down, Mr. Boehner, you shouldn’t be able to collect YOUR CHECK, until people are able to return to work.”

In my home state, California, I remember when the State Legislature tried to skip town without passing a budget, adopting a “SO BE IT!” attitude towards state employees, promising to pay them with IOUs that banks howled they would not honor if presented to be cashed.

Then-State Comptroller; later Governor Gray Davis, took the following action:

He was the first Controller to withhold paychecks from all state elected officials, including himself, until the Governor and the Legislature passed an overdue budget. He also found and returned more than $1.8 billion in unclaimed property to California citizens, including forgotten bank accounts, insurance settlements, and stocks.^[17]

I remember after he made that announcement to withhold checks, every state legislator returned from where ever the hell they were and passed a state budget within 24 HOURS.

The Elected officials sitting in Congress should be willing to do NO LESS.  You want to withhold functions while you shut down the government – fine, you can start with YOURSELVES.  Let’s see you go without a paycheck, and see how fast you’re willing to debate and agree upon a workable budget.

Republicans, stop treating us to your STUPID – it really BURNS.