Posted on 10/09/2013 5:07:35 AM PDT by Kaslin
Government wants you to play a role in the "shutdown" of the federal government. Your role is to panic.
Republicans and Democrats both assume that shutting some government is a terrible thing. The press concurs. "Shutdown threatens fragile economy," warns Politico. "Federal workers turn to prayer," laments The Washington Post.
If the public starts noticing that life goes on as usual without all 3.4 million federal workers, we might get dangerous ideas, like doing without so much government. Politicians don't want that.
They'd rather have us worry about how America will cope.
President Obama gave a speech where he actually said we need to keep government open for the sake of people like the person working for the Department of Agriculture "out there helping some farmers make sure that they're making some modest profit," and the Department of Housing and Urban Development "helping somebody buy a house for the first time."
Give me a break. Farmers don't need bureaucrats to teach them how to make a profit, and Americans can buy first homes without HUD helping a chosen few. Americans would make more profit and afford better homes if they didn't have to spend a third of national income on federal taxes.
Bureaucrats, acting like bullies, protest the partial closures by doing things like cutting off access to public parks -- even privately funded ones. Federal cops block access to outdoor war memorials and much of Mt. Rushmore. They block access to motels and order people out of private homes that happen to sit on federal land. The Washington Free Beacon reports, "The closure of a Virginia park that sits on federal land, even though the government provides no resources for its maintenance or operation."
This is shutdown theater.
It's similar to the fake "austerity measures" in other countries. We're told that Europe's slow economic growth is a result of "austerity" embraced by European governments.
But there hasn't really been any austerity. England, where a "conservative" government is in charge, increased government spending by 4 percent.
"Austerity" in Greece -- supposedly so drastic that the public has little choice but to riot in protest -- meant changes like reducing mandatory severance pay to one entire year (instead of two!).
In the U.S., Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Cal.) told CNN the federal government has cut so much spending that there's just nothing left to cut: "The cupboard is bare! There's no more cuts to make!"
What? The federal government spends almost 4 trillion dollars! The government cupboard overflows! We fund entire cabinet departments that are worse than useless. The Labor Department interferes with actual labor. Commerce would flow more smoothly without Commerce Department bureaucrats channeling money to their cronies.
The government hasn't cut spending -- it never does. After the last shutdowns, politicians even voted to award retroactive pay to government workers who didn't work. Bet they do it again this time. The federal government remains the biggest employer in the country. President Obama says so with pride.
Compare this to what happens in the private sector in tough times: AT&T cut 40,000 workers. Sears cut 50,000. IBM: 60,000. They weren't easy decisions, but they enabled the companies to stay profitable. With fewer workers, leaner companies found more efficient ways to get things done.
And the rest of us barely noticed. We expect change and adaptation in free-market institutions. But it doesn't happen in government. Government just grows.
Maybe the ugliest part of this story is that the city that whines most about suffering through the shutdown, Washington, D.C., is now the richest geographic area in America. Washington got richer while the rest of America didn't. Over the past 12 years, median income in the U.S. dropped about 6.5 percent -- but not in D.C.! There, it rose 23 percent. Four of the five richest counties now surround Washington, D.C.
No wonder politicians and bureaucrats are convinced big government is essential to keep the economy going -- it is essential to keep them going.
No panic here...just overwhelming disgust.
and dismay that only a few people will dare speak the truth.
The U.S. taxpayer is a fool. The Founders would be so disgusted that we have allowed the least competent among us take our money and rule us with an iron fist.
John, you are preaching to the choir.
The single biggest thing that perpetuates the problems created in Washington DC is the propaganda machine of the democrats known as the media.
Their assignment this month is to blame the Republicans, TEA party, and Ted Cruz, while deflecting anything that looks too closely at Obama’s, Reid’s and the democrats’ role in all this mess.
An objective, non-partisan look/coverage would change everything and end the intransigence being played by those who “refuse to negotiate”.
The other point is the democrats and Obama very much WANTED this shutdown to occur, as they thought they could repeat the coverage that supposedly stuck that the democratic media did for them in 1995—blaming the Republicans.
This whole ‘barring people from public areas’ stuff makes me think of the old Errol Flynn version of “Robin Hood”.
King barry doesn’t want the ‘peasants’ on HIS lands. He’s acting JUST like the Claude Raines’ character and forcing our park rangers and the like to act like the Basil Rathbone characters.
Only... Claude’s character doesn’t blame ANYBODY else for what he’s doing...
It’s all political
I normally don’t do this...but happened to have the TV on this morning (going in late to work). The first two news articles were death benefits to soldiers CDC and salmonella deaths. The first article was strong rhetoric towards Tea Party Republicans an how disgusting it was that they were witholding payment, which is a lie. No counterbalance except for a 2 second clip from Boehner say that yes, benefits are available. Then the CDC article about salmonella, and how the CDC is not in full force to fight this horrific disease...
I had to get away. It will be amazing if the Republicans will escape this unfazed....
What is really needed is a million man protest in Washington. In other countries, this would have already happened.
Lets just make this shut down hurt Vets, Military, KIA survivors, seniors, kids with cancer as we can, the Gutless Old Party will then cave in to our demands. So I can get back to my golf game and I can send Mooch on another vacation and shopping binge so she won't holler at me. She can take her mom,the dogs and the girls and pay the girls as her STAFFERS
who needs them, except for the military
the thing can stay shut down forever as far a I am concerned
I am sick of sending them my money to be siphoned off by corrupt politicians who simply want to be rich and screw
The “old msm” that is.
What if they had a shutdown and nobody noticed?
Pray America is Waking Up
That is an extremely good point.
National Park visitors are disproportionately white, so closing them is just a redress for slavery, like the tanning booth tax.
This will win OBama what?
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