Shutdown
Contents
Shutdown
Personal Impact
Maximum Pain
Republican Rally
Name-Calling
Blame for All?
Subverting Democracy?
The Good Old Days
A Crisis of Leadership
Late-Breaking Update
Shutdown
The partial government shutdown is now about to
enter its 3rd week. It appears
that the GOP gambit of total defunding of Obamacare has evolved into a
compromise position of making it at least applied equally to all -- granting
individuals a year delay (like some businesses), and making Congress live under
the same rules as the rest of us. That's language even Liberals can
understand. But as discussed later, it appears to have evolved further
yet. Some initial talks have begun, and
we will see if they can avoid the default deadline of Oct. 17 this week.
Personal Impact
The company where I work, The Aerospace
Corporation, thought it was through the woods on the shutdown, and was saying
so up to a few days into the shutdown. They forgot to knock on wood.
The Air Force powers that be (driven by powers above them) decided not
so fast, and most of us (management indicted 60%, which looked about right,
judging from the parking lot) were furloughed as of last week for the duration
of the shutdown. So it's either vacation or no pay for those furloughed
for the duration – we don’t get reimbursed for not working, unlike direct
government employees..
Of course I hope this doesn't drag out too long.
But I'm willing to sacrifice for a good
cause, and put my money (or vacation) where my mouth is – I’ve sacrificed 1 ½
days so far. It's gotten personal for me.
However, I have been unable to get astronomy
photos from my usual NASA site for my astronomy newsletter & blog because
it's down due to the government shutdown of NASA.
Maximum Pain
It is despicable, some of the things Obama has
selected for shutdown out of spite & politics, and which his lapdog media
are eager to report along with the public’s pain and suffering. And he
blames the GOP for being political? This is all very familiar -- just
like how maximally painful he intentionally made the sequester.
In my 28 years at Aerospace, there've been
government shutdowns for as long as 3 weeks, but never have I or others (at
least anywhere near this many) been furloughed. Something odd about this one,
and I suspect it has to do w. Obama's priorities, as I said before, which were
also reflected in the disproportionate hit the DoD took in the sequestration.
And other areas (FAA, NIH, national
parks & memorials, Mt. Vernon,...) to maximize the pain &
visibility for political gain by blaming Republicans. And he blames the
Republicans for being “political?” The areas to be cut are of course totally at the
discretion of the administration, as is whether we default on the national
debt, which is only some 12% of regular government receipts, and should of
course be highest priority to protect the "full faith & credit"
of the U.S.. But there again, Obama talks like that's an
automatic thing if the debt ceiling isn't raised, and blames the Republicans,
relying on his misrepresentations & the ignorance of the public.
He wants his cake & to eat it, too -- no
compromise on raising the debt ceiling or Obamacare. He complains that
Republicans won't compromise, and are too ideological/political, or "hijacked" by the extremists in the party.
Projection. He needs to remember that the reason the Republicans
regained the House in 2010 was because of his Leftist overreaches, which only
continue.
From one internet report: “Since the shutdown began on October 1, National Park Service rangers have been on high alert, erecting barricades to keep out war heroes and citizens from visiting our nation's memorials.
“This weekend alone, Obama's paid
henchmen closed private marinas, restaurants and inns on federal land. And for
the coup de grace, rangers booted elderly folks from their homes, which sit on
federal land along Lake Mead in Nevada
"It's a cheap way to deal with the situation," one angry ranger told The Washington Times, "We've been told to make like as difficult for people as we can. It's disgusting."
"It's a cheap way to deal with the situation," one angry ranger told The Washington Times, "We've been told to make like as difficult for people as we can. It's disgusting."
“Keeping with that theme, several news outlets reported today that the Obama administration shut down the nation's "Amber Alert" website -- but kept the First Lady's "Let's Move" site up and running!
“While the White House has since reversed that decision, leave it to this administration to put politics ahead of American children in crisis.
Republican Rally
Speaker Boehner said that only one other time in
his over 20 years in Congress has there been this much energy and solidarity
among the GOP representatives. I'm glad to see Republicans rallying, showing spine,
and pushing at least for fairness in the application of Obamacare -- delaying
the individual mandate just like many corporations, and expecting no difference
between requirements for Congress & the public. Obama says he won't
negotiate under threat of default, but he wouldn't negotiate before, so why not
take advantage of additional leverage (and about all we have) now? We
also have to deal with the deficit & debt, and now is as good a time as any,
and certainly better than later when we’ve once again kicked the can down the
road. The Democrats have yet to pass a
budget under Obama – it’s been one short-term, stop-gap, continuing resolution
after another. They really don’t care
about a balanced budget, and have doubled the national debt just under Obama,
to say nothing of the growth rates in unfunded liabilities which are several
times the national debt – some $100 Trillion.
And public support is building,
despite overwhelmingly biased media coverage -- many are now awakening to the
horrible consequences of Obamacare, as evidenced by polls. It's not just
the Tea Party, though some of them led the charge, and dragged some kicking
& screaming who thought it would be the end of the party. But nothing
ventured, nothing gained. And if we don't take stands for principles, who
will take us seriously? It seems only
natural that an “extreme” wing of the Republican party has arisen to balance
the extreme Left that has taken over the Democrat Party.
Name-Calling
Brit
Hume last week was saying the rancor and name-calling is the worst he's seen in
his career -- especially from the president. I guess when you don't have
good arguments, and/or truly believe the other guy has evil motives, you use
more hyperbole & call names. I tend to believe the vast majority are
just naive, misguided, emotional, stage-1 thinkers. Yes, I suppose those are names, as well,
although milder from a condemnation perspective -- at least not attributing
evil motives or criminal acts.
Harry
Reid – “Be careful of the words you use [he had been called a villain after
being asked why in the shutdown they wouldn’t continue the NIH funding of
childrens’ cancer treatment, and he said “Why would we want to do that?”] And he calls Republicans “anarchists?”
And he was embarrassed about Romney
misrepresenting his Church?
A more complete documentation of the
name-calling may be found in an article by Robin Abcarian in the LA Times,
“Government shutdown spurs name-calling; a turn-off or a turn-on?”
It includes:
“irrational,” “equivalent of the Occupy movement,” “legislative
arsonists,” “jihad against Americans,” “anarchy gang,” anarchist tirades,” “a
gun held to the head of the American people,” “lemmings in suicide vests,”
“suicide caucus,” “coward,” “people with a bomb strapped to their chest,” etc.
Blame for All?
Some take a neutral position, blaming
Republicans & Dems alike (somehow the media escapes unscathed). This is the moral equivalency approach. I think any time there are strongly held and
widely different views and principles (and certainly with the most extreme
Leftist in our history in the White House, and the Tea Party, that's especially
true today) there will be conflict, and this is just part of the process.
It certainly was in the war in heaven (Rev. 12:7 – were those sides
morally equivalent?). And the more strongly held the views, the harder it is to
remain civil in the discourse, and to focus on issues rather than divisions,
personalities and demonization (I do think the Dems are more to blame there).
Those who don't like it can sit on the side or the fence
-- "above the fray" -- and be critical of everyone else,
and perhaps inconsequential to the outcome. But the only way to avoid
conflict is for one side to unilaterally cave, or be persuaded, or expelled.
And I certainly don't think caving's a good idea -- at least not for our
side, for the sake of the country.
And if ever this country has hung by a thread,
it is probably now -- in many respects. If we don't fight now, heaven
help the next generation. The fighting may get ugly, but the result of
avoiding it I have no doubt would be much uglier and more irreversible.
I'm reminded of the millennium-long struggles (spiritual & physical)
in the Book of Mormon. If we don't stand for principles, why would or
should anyone we're trying to persuade or negotiate with take us seriously?
While I may not always agree with tactics or language, we do need good
people who will stand for good principles, and I admire and support them, even
if imperfect, as I am. But that doesn't mean I/we can't and shouldn't
stand for those principles. Little comments like a high-ranking Dem saying they
don't care how long the shutdown goes on because they think they're winning,
shows their true colors, as Boehner rightly pointed out -- "this isn't a
game." The Dems might want to be a
bit more cognizant of how weak and vulnerable this so-called “recovery”
is.
Compromise and flexibility are of course needed
in the end (barring violent revolution, which at least our system avoids, messy
as it is), but it can't always be one-sided, which I think has become expected
by the Dems & media of the Republicans (and especially the demonized Tea
Party). Polls show Republicans are blamed more for the shutdown, which is
hardly surprising given the outrageously biased news coverage -- I saw an
amazing count of just how biased they have been. I think the Republicans
have finally had enough with caving and being beat up and are finding their
spine. And the Dems don't like it so are making an especially big stink.
Obama also can't afford more defeats or embarrassments like he's had on
the international stage. Again, why can he talk with terrorist nations
but not the opposition party? Maybe because he feels more kinship to
those totalitarian-minded regimes. Aside
from his ideologies, he's a horrible leader -- at least at the national level,
if not the community level.
Dr. Ben Carson pointed out the other day that
Saul Alinsky said to never talk to your enemies – it humanizes them, and your
job (as a Leftist) is to demonize them.
He said that Obama and his minions have been following that playbook to
the T. Obama has said he wouldn’t
negotiate Obamacare with the threat of default hanging over his head. And we know from experience in the past he
won’t negotiate without that threat. So
what better time will there be to negotiate – when we have a bargaining chip or
when we don’t? Certainly it has gotten a
national dialogue going, and despite Obama’s previous initial statements, he
now has finally sat down and begun talking (or at least giving the appearance
of talking – he hasn’t shown any compromise yet), which he wouldn’t have
otherwise.
Subverting Democracy?
The Dems call Republicans wanting to modify
Obamacare “subverting democracy” – but Obama has unconstitutionally,
unilaterally changed the law and who it applies to. They blame the Tea Party “extremists,” but
that was a reaction to Obama’s & the
Left’s overreach on the other extreme.
Anne Applebaum wrote an article, “The GOP’s
Tantrum is Hurting America’s Credibility,” which I’d like to respond to. She says that budding democracies elsewhere need
good examples, and are bewildered by what’s going on in this standoff [and well
they should be, given the typical liberal/Left bias of government-controlled
media elsewhere], and she has to explain it to them.
First, here’s a simple, 1-paragraph explanation
I shared with a Danish relative:
“Maybe you've
heard of the political struggles here, and partial (15%) government shutdown
due to inability to reach agreement over health care & raising the debt
limit. Unfortunately, our president & his party think they never need
to compromise or negotiate, unlike all previous administrations. That is
not democracy. Also, unfortunately, it affects many government
contractors, like my company, which has sent 60% home. I have enough
work, although I wouldn't mind taking a little vacation. I think it will
be resolved one way or the other by next week. But I have never seen such
partisanship -- and from a president who campaigned to bring more
bi-partisanship. Our economy continues to struggle with high unemployment,
deficits, debt (doubled since 2008) & unfunded liabilities ($100
trillion!!!), and if it goes on much longer, I fear for our country (like Greece
Anne Applebaum discounts polls of how
many oppose Obamacare, and says “What matters is what the legitimate,
representative legal institutions have already decided....Obamacare is the law.” That legitimacy may be illusory, and brings
to mind the years after the 2000 election that Democrats continued to contest
the legitimacy of Bush’s election, despite having jumped through all the
constitutional hoops. So-called
“legitimacy” discounts the fact that it was the most partisan major bill (deals
with 1/6th of the U.S.
Then there was the Supreme Court judicial review
of the law. Besides finding other
problems with the law, after having argued before passage that the individual
mandate was not a tax, the justices found that the only way it could stand constitutionally
was as a tax, and declared it such. Bait
and switch. And now that it is becoming
increasingly apparent that it was not ready for prime time, the Obama administration
has unilaterally and illegitimately given delays or exemptions of the law to
certain businesses (crony capitalism) and members of Congress – so that the law
does not apply fairly to all citizens – individuals or corporations.
And what of the legitimacy of the 2010 election,
which was more clearly a referendum on Obamacare than the 2012 election. In 2010 the GOP regained the majority in the
House, with a wave of Tea Party representatives elected in reaction to Obama’s overreach,
with specific mandates and promises.
They have all the legitimacy they need to reconsider past legislation,
as has been done many times in the past.
As I’ve said before, other bad laws have been passed and later reversed,
like Prohibition, slavery, limited suffrage, etc. – something noted also by law
professor Hugh Hewitt. A bill having
passed (by whatever means) does not make it a good bill, or one that is forever
exempt from scrutiny and reconsideration – if not in whole, then at least in part. Even the proponents acknowledge some problems
and shortcomings, and even before it went into effect, we were seeing premiums
rising by as much as we were promised they would fall ($2,500), we were seeing
many full-time jobs become part-time to stay below the 30 hour threshold in the
law, forcing many to lower incomes or working multiple jobs which were already
scarce with the still chronically high unemployment. Ms. Applebaum even acknowledges that “...I
really don’t know whether Obamacare is ultimately going to be good or bad for America ....I’m very worried that it may be too
expensive and will further extend U.S.
She goes on to say that “A portion of one of
those branches [of Congress] is therefore not now legally or morally empowered
to change that law by holding other parts of the government hostage [there’s
that word, again]...democracy is not designed to reflect majority opinion. It is designed to filter majority
opinion....” No, the House is legally
(very explicitly in the constitution) and morally empowered to hold the purse
that funds government and the implementation of laws, and to represent the
people in review of the morality and goodness of those laws. And Senator Barack Obama voted to defund the
war by defunding the government – showing he was perfectly willing to “hold the
government hostage” when it suited his purposes. Just a touch of hypocrisy there. And as Pelosi said they’d pass the law by any
means possible, even as part of a reconciliation bill not intended for that
purpose. Is that more legitimate than
the GOP initially making funding of it part of a larger government funding
package as part of a going-in position which was subsequently modified in
negotiation? That’s always been the way
of legislative negotiation – e.g., as clearly illustrated in the movie Lincoln
Ms. Applebaum goes on to quote an Egyptian
tweeter who said that it was “impressive how everyone in the U.S. Egypt Egypt Chicago
And she closes bemoaning the “...damage we are
doing not only to the credibility of the United States U.S. Egypt or Russia
The Good Old Days
A friend “Heard about a really
good book called something like "Tip and the Gipper" -- the author
was on NPR and it sounded very interesting. There was a discussion of how Tip
O'Neill got along with Ronald Reagan, and about how Newt got along with Clinton
My sister also brought up those good old days. To which I replied, “...yes, the old days you described seem to be a dream of the past. Not sure if the ideological differences are larger or more dogmatic now. But clearly the rhetoric, personal attacks, divisiveness & demonization are at a new level, and hinder negotiation. I think those are typical of the community organizer & Left tactics that have now gone national. While both parties probably carry some blame, it seems to me the Dems carry more, and make it harder for us to remain civil. I think we more often want to talk issues & logic, and they (incl. the media) often steer away from them. They talk bipartisanship but are fine acting unilaterally (e.g., Obamacare) and demanding one-sided "compromise."
Obama says he won’t sign anything with
Republican ideological strings attached.
And there’s nothing ideological in the Democrat’s expanding
spending? They apparently really believe
that Republicans are the only ones that are ideological – as if Leftism/Progressivism
are simply objectively, scientifically, absolutely true, and beyond the realm
of ideology, beyond scrutiny or legitimate questioning without being labeled
irrational or terrorist.
A Crisis of Leadership
Arthur Brooks wrote an op-ed Oct. 4 in the LA Times, “Obama is
Ducking a Leader’s Duty.” He wrote that
an axiomatic trait of leadership is that “Effective leaders take responsibility
for problems around them; they do not shift blame to others. As Winston Churchill put it, “The price of
greatness is responsibility.... The conventional narrative is that conservative
policymakers are holding the nation hostage and hamstringing the helpless
president. Americans will likely see
through this.”
“Obama's image as a strong
leader has dropped like a stone since 2009.
...85% in 2009, ...42% last week.
... logically due to a growing sense that
the president is unwilling or unable to take responsibility in difficult
circumstances and blames others instead. Indeed, half of Americans currently
say he "spend[s] too much time blaming others," according to the Fox
News poll cited above.
“Is this assessment fair? Sample his public pronouncements and
judge for yourself. Just this week, he washed his hands of the government
shutdown by asserting that Republicans alone are "shutting down the
government over an ideological crusade."
“Or consider the recent Syria
“... the House of Representatives is certainly opposed to many of
his initiatives. But that makes “leadership at the top all the more important.
Great leaders negotiate and own the consequences.
“The Republicans represent a mainstream position that many
Americans support, not an extremist fringe that a decent leader would vilify.
In the budget and debt-limit fights of the coming weeks, Obama can show a
leader's courage to take ideas from the opposition — such as delaying
implementation of the Affordable Care Act — and forge agreement with enough
Republicans to produce a deal.
“There is a lesson here for Republicans as well. .... simply
blaming Obama for the current stalemate would lead the GOP into the same trap
into which the president has fallen.
“Ultimately, though, responsibility falls to the boss. So what is
the likelihood Obama will step up at this crucial moment as a responsible chief
executive? We probably got the answer from his senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer, who
told CNN on Sept. 26 that "we're not for … negotiating with people with a
bomb strapped to their chest." Sadly, he was talking about his Republican
colleagues, not the actual terrorists who aim to kill us.
In another example of terrible leadership, the
Obama administration has now promoted incompetence, at best, malfeasance or
criminality at worst. The manager of the
IRS division responsible for the Tea Party discrimination has now been elevated
to a position in administering Obamacare.
Late Update (Fri. Oct. 11, 2013, from
PatriotUpdate.com):
“House Republicans have sent the White House a
revised proposal to lift the debt ceiling for six weeks, as well as reopen
government through December 15th, which was their original spending proposal
before the partial shutdown. The revised GOP plan reflects the demands Obama
made in a meeting with House GOP Leaders on Thursday. It also reflects the
unwillingness of the DC GOP to face a fiscal showdown with Democrats.
“The proposal would fund Obamacare, lift the debt ceiling, reopen
the government, and reverse sequester cuts.
“In exchange for meeting, at least momentarily, all of Obama’s
demands, the House GOP is seeking a “framework” for future negotiations on
addressing longer-term budget issues. These negotiations would be led for the
Republicans by Rep. Paul Ryan, who is likely to seek a “grand bargain”
resolving the nation’s structural budget problems.
“Read more at http://patriotupdate.com/2013/10/house-gop-blinks-will-lift-debt-reopen-government/#EIMPkmvwdVxzL0c4.99
Apparently they have lost their
spine, and are negotiating their own surrender, as one ABC reporter put it,
with only the hope of future negotiations working out, having now lost any
remaining leverage. The whole idea of
negotiation is when each party has something (Dems call what Republicans have a
“gun”) to hold over the other’s head – a bargaining chip. Otherwise, there’s just capitulation.
Another report said maybe a 2 year delay of the medical device tax
(that has driven thousands of hi-tech jobs overseas) will be part of the
negotiations.
I've heard that the sanctions have impacted Iran Syria , Cuba ,N. Korea , .... They're motivated to at least appear
moderate, but this same new president has made just as despicable statements in
the past. And once they've gone nuclear (weapons), they'll care even
less. I tend to believe the Israeli intelligence -- they're good, and
motivated.
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