Government shutdown inbound next week?

[Fivelives]

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2 ... wn-April-8

So who wants to bet that the politicians will use this as a paid vacation, while everything that relies on the government will get totally boned. For instance, I probably won't get my GI bill payments for May and June, or the GI bill payment to the school for the summer semester. This will totally suck, if it happens.

[mew]

I found out the other day that the lab I work in (and probably most similar labs) are mostly government funded. I always thought that the research was primarily university funded with a mix of private and government grants, but apparently that is not the case.
It's a bit disappointing.

[Fivelives]

Yeah, this is going to affect a lot more people than is obvious at first. If the government stops paying people, life is going to get real hard, real fast.

[Aubade]

I found this fact absurdly amusing when looking up what exactly a Government Shutdown was.

"In the developed world government shutdowns occur only in the United States."

we're doinitwrong

[Chicken]

I found this fact absurdly amusing when looking up what exactly a Government Shutdown was.

"In the developed world government shutdowns occur only in the United States."

we're doinitwrong

That certainly explains why I was wondering what in the world a government shutdown was.

[Fivelives]

It's Exactly What It Says On The Tin. The government grinds to a screeching halt under its own massive weight.

[Aubade]

It's Exactly What It Says On The Tin. The government grinds to a screeching halt (Except for the politicians who still get paid, as well as basic services) under its own massive weight.

Fixt.

[Candiru]

Politicians shouldn't be paid during a shutdown, that would encourage them to pass a budget...

[Fridmarr]

It's Exactly What It Says On The Tin. The government grinds to a screeching halt (Except for the politicians who still get paid, as well as basic services) under its own massive weight.

Fixt.

Well anyone who is still working during the shutdown gets paid, and unfortunately we need the politicians to keep working.

The democrats have completely out maneuvered the republicans here. If the Reps pass a budget they'll get blasted by part of their own base for caving and not doing the right thing. If they shutdown the government they get blasted by the many who are impacted and the media. My guess is that the government won't shutdown, but you never know with the idiots in DC these days.

[Fivelives]

I dunno, Fridmarr. The tea party caucus is all about "No Compromise". That's never a good stand to take in politics, I think. I hope someone throws that whole fucking crowd overboard (weight them all down with Sarah Palin) and lets them drown while the rest of us drink the tasty, tasty tea.

It's like kool-aid, only snootier. And, you can drink it with your pinky out!

[Skye1013]

Yeah... that's going to be interesting... does that mean us military folk don't have to work, since we aren't going to get paid anyway? There goes the war . Hopefully they have all this figured out before FY12 rolls around...when they'll get to start the whole process over again. Glad I've got an emergency fund...


Edit: Nevermind
"Typically, services that continue in spite of a shutdown include police, fire fighting, armed forces, utilities, air traffic management and corrections."

[Fridmarr]

I dunno, Fridmarr. The tea party caucus is all about "No Compromise". That's never a good stand to take in politics, I think. I hope someone throws that whole fucking crowd overboard (weight them all down with Sarah Palin) and lets them drown while the rest of us drink the tasty, tasty tea.

It's like kool-aid, only snootier. And, you can drink it with your pinky out!

Well, the tea party isn't really strong enough in terms of numbers to do much, they a dwarfed by both Reps and Dems. If just a couple of either party cross the aisle, it's more than enough to get anything done.

This budget though is for FY 2011 and was due when the Dems had complete control in both houses. Why wasn't the budget passed when one party had a massive majority, when the budget was originally due? The Dems weren't going to pass a budget that would either alienate their base by cutting back even a little, or energize the opposition by cranking out more huge deficits to make the pasting they were about to get mid term elections even worse. So they punted, and now the onus falls on the republicans (even though they control just one of 3 portions of the vote) who are in an equally bad position.

That said, I don't think the republicans are going to force a shutdown. They might be able to hang their hats on a specific cut (like foreign aid) where perception is on their side to force the Dems hand a bit, but ultimately this probably isn't a fight they are willing to take on given that it's not a huge amount of money relative to the budget. I suspect they are more interested in 2012 when they have the full budget to deal with.

[Fivelives]

Isn't the tea party pretty much taking responsibility for the republican swing in the midterm elections? If so, that'd be one plausible reason the republicans are afraid to lose their support.

Dunno though, I'm pretty bushed, so not really thinking straight. I'll go coma out for a few hours and try thinking about it rationally when my brain decides it's ready to start working properly again.

[Fridmarr]

Isn't the tea party pretty much taking responsibility for the republican swing in the midterm elections? If so, that'd be one plausible reason the republicans are afraid to lose their support.

Dunno though, I'm pretty bushed, so not really thinking straight. I'll go coma out for a few hours and try thinking about it rationally when my brain decides it's ready to start working properly again.

Well the tea party can try to take credit for it, but they'd be wrong. They may have added to it slightly, but congress has had an utterly terrible approval rating for a long time. Turnover was going to happen either way.

Most of what the tea party did was try to get republicans on the ballot that, in theory, were going to stick to their guns on fiscal responsibility. It's always easy to stick to the party platform of good and sensible government when you are the minority party, but both sides have been pretty bad when they've had the majority. So the theory is that those tea party reps will still be good stewards of tax payer dollars if and when the reps have the majority. Maybe I'm just cynical, but I'm not about to hold my breath.

[tinalt]

Yeah... that's going to be interesting... does that mean us military folk don't have to work, since we aren't going to get paid anyway? There goes the war . Hopefully they have all this figured out before FY12 rolls around...when they'll get to start the whole process over again. Glad I've got an emergency fund...


Edit: Nevermind
"Typically, services that continue in spite of a shutdown include police, fire fighting, armed forces, utilities, air traffic management and corrections."

Your chain of command should have talked to you about this. You will be required to continue working your normal duty hours, and you will be getting back-paid once there is funding again. You'll get all your money eventually. I just worry about all the people that are living paycheck to paycheck that won't be able to handle going 2 additional weeks.

Also, I know we're cutting back on military spending and everything, people worried about the deficit (and rightfully so), but it really sucks seeing 1/2 of the contractors in my unit get let go. Our unit is getting smaller and the work load isn't.