Government shutdown thread

[itroitnyah]

Let's discuss. I don't much care for politics, but I'm thinking that either the whole congress is going to get replaced, or the USA is just going to run out of money altogether and then we'll be in a pile of shit and maybe get taken over or something.

What I'm hoping will happen is that congress will stop being shitheads

[Freewave]

Do we really want to get in a political discussion here? I can't see it ending terribly well.

.....And yes i blame Congress.

[vladnuke]

im pretty sure exactly none of that will happen, and that they'll end up passing obamacare anyway.

[ClaviSound]

Oh yeah, that one thing with the people that's happening right now.

The way I see it, shutting down for a couple days has happened multiple times before and generally won't cause much impact outside of those directly affected. The economy won't curl up and die; heck, Clinton did it for three days during his tenure and history didn't remember anything about that other than that he couldn't keep it in his pants with a secretary.

Give it a week or two though, and you're going to start running into problems that will make arguments over Obamacare seem like squabbling over a children's toy. As far as I know, negotiations are not forthcoming, so they'd better get their asses in gear and start compromising if they don't want the country to fall to shambles around them.

Blame party polarization. Members of Congress seem to have gotten it into their heads that there's only one way to skin a cat: their way.

im pretty sure exactly none of that will happen, and that they'll end up passing obamacare anyway.

Thing is, Obamacare's already passed, but its opponents are digging their heels in as much as they can to destroy its funding. This is why the government is shutting down; the government can't function until they establish a budget.

[itroitnyah]

I thought the government shut down because we hit our debt ceiling?

In which case, why are they still paying congressmen?

[ClaviSound]

Debt ceiling is old news. The fiscal year for the government was midnight September 30th, so they had to decide on a budget by that date or shut down until they decided on one.

Congressmen are still getting paid because lolololololololololololololololol

[itroitnyah]

Well hm. Yeah, congress is full of idiots then, haha.

[Captain Ironhelm]

In which case, why are we still paying congressmen?

fixed.

[Magnitude Zero]

What I'm hoping will happen is that congress will stop being shitheads

Blame party polarization. Members of Congress seem to have gotten it into their heads that there's only one way to skin a cat: their way.

That's pretty much the gist of it. This is the problem with what is essentially a two-party system: republicans want to cut funding to Obamacare because democrats want the funding, democrats want the funding because republicans want to cut it. Maybe somewhere in there they actually give a shit, but I think mostly each party just wants to fuck over the other as much as possible.

[Facade]

what happened to riots >:C i wanted to see riots

[HMage]

Riots are useless if every communication channel is (indirectly) controlled by the system you're opposing.

[Facade]

lol i dont care about the outcome i just like watching idiots do stupid stuff

[Bloo]

Oh so THAT's what's going on. Thank you for this informative thread.

[vladnuke]

why riot?
the govt is fighting itself we dont need to kick it while its down
would be interesting to see someone try tho

[ClaviSound]

Uh-oh, looks like shots were fired in front of the US Capitol. The building's on lockdown. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/ ... 3-14-31-51

[Bloo]

Wheeeeee!!! Doesn't it seem like MORE effort to close down open air national monuments with all the people hired to put barricades and some such around them?

[itroitnyah]

This is interesting to watch. I wonder how it will be resolved, haha

[ClaviSound]

But we need that military, or at least according to one of the two main parties in our government. Heck, we need MORE military! Errybody's a soldier at heart, amirite?

It's not really about the budget so much as it's about Obamacare. In the conservatives' eyes, this is the last chance to stop its momentum. From the perspective of liberals, this is the final hurdle before it's enacted. Thus, impass.

[Nine Volt]

What's with the passive-aggressive hate towards the military there, Clavi?

[Facade]

we honestly probably need more military the way things are heading

[FLAOFEI]

Lol, murica...

You need no military. The only thing they do now is invade other countries, why not just be happy with having the 2nd largest country in the world and admitting it's more important to use money for causes than violently throwing it at strangers.

I'm laughing now, I probably won't be when WWIII :I

I don't know nor care much bout politics though... so hopefully my prediction is wrong...

[ClaviSound]

What's with the passive-aggressive hate towards the military there, Clavi?

Ehh, blame my upbringing. My dad's a disabled vet from the first Gulf War, so... yeah, influences. I apologize if I was being insensitive.

I guess you could argue I have a distaste for what passes as important in government debates in general, so when people start screaming for more soldiers here or there or there's another civil war in some Middle Eastern country it's like "let's keep our noses out of it for once, dig?"

[Nine Volt]

Lol, murica...

You need no military. The only thing they do now is invade other countries, why not just be happy with having the 2nd largest country in the world and admitting it's more important to use money for causes than violently throwing it at strangers.

I'm laughing now, I probably won't be when WWIII :I

I don't know nor care much bout politics though... so hopefully my prediction is wrong...

*4th largest, by area. 3rd if we're talking about population (though second - India - has about 6-7 hundred million more people).

Also, we need no military? Yeahno. I don't want to sound like a stereotypical war-happy American but our military is important (both to the country as a whole and to many Americans in general, military or not) whether you like it or not (not necessarily speaking to anyone in particular here, mind you). I mean, what 3rd-world country will take us seriously if we can't annihilate their armed forces in a few months?

(bear in mind that that last sentence is only half serious)

@Clavi:
I understand, sorry about that. With regards to the last statement, it's a little interesting that the government has decided not to airstrike the Syrian government after their little chemical weapons fiasco. But if we did decide to do it, it would not be because we just want to get involved - if we don't enforce the Geneva Convention then nobody will follow it as they know nobody will really do anything.

[colortwelve]

You need no military. The only thing they do now is invade other countries, why not just be happy with having the 2nd largest country in the world and admitting it's more important to use money for causes than violently throwing it at strangers..

Not really trying to defend it, but the amount of industry that's been built up around the military (and has been doing so for long enough that Dwight Eisenhower knew it would be a problem in his time) means that straight cutting it would hurt our economy on a ridiculous scale. It's not like every military tech company in the states could suddenly and seamlessly switch to private contracting, or outsource to other countries' militaries :/

[ClaviSound]

Such is the problem with being a "leader of the free world"; you have to choose when it's the right time to lead.

In other news, more details on that shooting at Capitol Hill: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/ ... W520131003