Government shut down stuff
I’ve been shutting down my portion of the government this morning. It’s harder work than my real job. But some of us got this nice letter from the President; Message from the President to U.S. Government Employees-2. basically none of this is his fault – you know that’s real leadership.
The House passed a funding bill that was rejected, so the compromised – you know that cryptic term, that no one on the liberal (in the neo-liberal sense) side of government understands and the compromise was shot down. But somehow Republicans are “the party of “no”” according to my liberal friends on Facebook. And, oh, yeah, it’s all about race, too.
Republicans only wanted to do the same favor for individuals and families what the administration has done for employers – give us a break on the Affordable Care Act for a year. And, the administration was so prepared for the launch of that healthcare beast this morning that the website for signing up is down for four hours.
We’re in this shut-down mess because Congress hasn’t passed a budget since 2007 – when Democrats took control of the House and the Senate. I listened to Harry Reid call conservatives “anarchists” this morning. And he said that conservatives are doing the same thing over-and-over which caused this. I submit that the Democrats have been doing the same broke-dick things over-and-over for fifty years.
Reid forgot that for two years that the Democrat Congress’ only focus was defunding the Iraq War – a vote they took over-and-over again instead of passing a budget. Who knows what their excuse is now, other than the fact that they don’t want to do their job.
Me? I’m doing fine – I have three months of money stashed in my checking account since this budget mess started. Now I’m going to take a nap.
ADDED: From MCPO NYC USN (Ret.), apparently computers don’t trust the Affordable Care Act either;
Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden, Congress sucks
and as of this writing the Dow, after losing money for days, is up 70. So much for the government helping the economy.
In addition to Republicans being racists, I overheard in my private-sector office this morning that it’s Bush’s fault. I don’t know how that man keeps up such a busy schedule of running a shadow government for the last five years Obama’s been the President.
The feds (and the idiots that think they can’t live without momma gub’mint) might want to take a look out their windows this morning.
The sun is shining, birds are singing, people are smiling. Bottom line, life didn’t end. Matter of fact, some folks I know are a LOT happier with the thought of a MUCH smaller government.
Piggy banks are the way to go.
Checking accounts can be compromised.
Fed Govt Knock Knock Joke:
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1. I get to go home.
2. I have to use my Paid Time Off
3. I can not use Leave Without Pay until my PTO is exhausted.
4. Oh but as a nicety, they will allow me to take 40 hours in the hole of leave.
5. My contract is actually forward funded until Dec 15th and my contractor has the money from the government and will sit on it.
/as we all were used to in the military…BOHICA.
Did you guys see Obama’s letter of support for race being used as an admissions factor in higher education?
Yeah, this is after SCOTUS trimmed the cause and effect by a 7-1 vote. Race can be used but only after a race-neutral means of merit comparison have been utilized.
And the liberals are calling who what when they are reaching back and bringing this up again?
What a terrible administrations. And what is worse, they cannot even get politics right.
Amateur hour, indeed.
I stayed up last night to watch the drama unfold.
Just after mid night … with the Dems refusal to negociate as per House and Senate rules, Harry blamed it all on the “Tea Party … Anarchists.”
Can’t make this stuff up!
Yo, Chip …. I have copyrighted that joke!
At least give me the damn credit for the joke … geeze!
I am out of work over here!
Fed Govt Knock Knock Joke: (Copyrighted) 01 OCT 2013 MCPO NYC USN (Ret.)
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Full faith and credit, Chief…
How many Bureaucrats does it take to change a lightbulb today?
NONE, they’re laid off, and life goes on!!
@Jonn, I read the Presidents “it’s all the republicans fault” letter this morning when I got into work as well. What a farce… I think it is one of the very things he knows how to do well, blame the other guy. I bet he was that kid, you know the one who would break a window then blame some poor kid who had nothing to do with it.
Class A dickless wonder.
Fortunately VA Health Care was forward funded and we are not closing down or scaling back operations. Kind of wish they had… have all my annual training to do over the next month.
Today is the 123rd anniversary of Yosemite National Park, established October 1, 1890.
“Dear visitors … get the fu*k out. We are closed!”
Just out of curiosity, until this (and the last one, too) happened, didn’t things run along smoothly, no matter what goofball was in office?
Or is my memory sort of clouded by that ‘good ol’ days’ nostalgia that I get when I go to Cracker Barrel?
This is a schism that will not easily be repaired, no matter who gets the job next time. And yes, it takes a certain amount of arrogant assism to say ‘I had nothing to do with this debacle’ when the ‘debacle’ could have been done better with a bit mor common sense.
Cross-posted as I went to the wrong thread.
“The amendments pushed by House Speaker John Boehner also had maintained previous attempts by Republicans to modify President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law. These included a one-year delay of a mandate for individuals to acquire coverage and a requirement that members of Congress, their staffs, and executive branch appointees acquire healthcare coverage through new insurance exchanges that started operating on Tuesday, but without any government subsidies.”
http://news.msn.com/us/senate-rejects-latest-house-gop-effort-on-budget
This last ditch effort was voted down along mostly party lines. However, I really like the last part.
Liberal democrats want your vote but will NEVER lower themselves to you standard of living.
And I am a moderate democrat.
Personally, I don’t want a one-year delay in the “individual mandate.” Fuck that. I want the low-information voters who put this douchetool and his party hacks into office to FEEL THE PAIN of what they voted for. Twice.
I want anyone who even marginally supported this abortion of a law to hang their heads in shame when they see what they’ve done with the most powerful economy in the world.
Then again, the people who did this have no shame.
There is harping on the loss of permanent jobs right now on the Senate floor (not paying attn. to which senator, just the gist of the monolog) and the impact on people who will not get hired because of this health care law and gov’t shutdown.
Like I said on the other ‘shutdown’ thread, if you lose wages because of this shutdown, you will likely not get them back when you return to work.
There are so many boondoggles turning up on this, including the software glitches in the exchanges not returning accurate info on who is eligible for premium assistance, and including high error rates, breakdowns, etc., that this is probably a bigger disaster than a breaking dam.
@16: Won’t matter. They will still blame others for the pain they are in. It’s the fault of those meany haters on the Right that universal health care isn’t working!
Remember what almost happened in Greece, Jonn. Don’t leave all of your money in the bank. Bury it out in your yard, if you have to, but don’t think our government won’t raid bank accounts if this whole thing gets messy.
Yeah, give Congress a pass on Obama Care, give certain businesses a pass on Obama Care, f$ck everybody else and wonder why every one is suspicious of this sh1t.
The law of unintended consequences already has many, many retailers taking employees from 40 hours to 29.5 to avoid having to cover them. This gives those businesses the added benefit of being able to take away vacation time, sick time, or holiday pay because part timers don’t need to be given those benefits either….
Can anyone explain to me how a person who used to have a 40 hour paycheck and vacation time, sick time and holiday pay but now has been reduced to 29.5 hours is going to afford this wonderful obama care bullsh1t? Can anyone explain how some guy with zero experience in any executive capacity thinks he understands the complexity of 1000s of pages of legislation that the idiots voting on it haven’t even read? So 1000s of people who used to have 40 hour jobs are now part timers thanks to OBama…where’s the nightly outrage from the democrats? Don’t those lying 4ssholes pretend to be the party of the working man? Their guy just f@cked thousands and thousands of Americans out of 40 hour jobs and gave them part time work instead…the rush to create a 3rd world nation out of a super power continues unabated, government shutdown? Big f#cking deal, just wait until the folks who have a 25% paycut from obama have to pay for healthcare and fail….guess who’s left to foot that bill. No way this could get much worse right? I mean it should stop the tens of thousands of people who were dying each year because hospitals were turning them away due to their lack of health care right? So that’s a good thing, oh wait nobody died from that, it was a lie…wonder what else these b4stards are lying about?
Better idea.
I gave my seven year old about 30 pounds of change … worth probably 700 bucks. I told him to hide it and save it for a rainy day.
If I told you what he did … you would not believe it!
Give your money to your kids … they can hide sh*t quite well!
@ 13 – The Master Chief is giving us some pearls today
@17–as we speak, they’re trying (officially) to cut 10 percent of the workforce in my company. Personally, I think it’s closer to 20-25 percent within the next year, they’re just doing it in 10 percent increments.
And my girlfriend just got notified at her work that they’re losing 90 PERCENT of their workforce and closing 80 percent of their service centers nationwide within the next six months. Fortunately she still has a job. For now.
Where’s this “improving economy” I keep hearing about?
Gee, what could possibly go wrong here? Disgruntled employees with access to the most personal of information on every citizen in the country stored in broken and/or partially operable systems guarded by people who don’t care or perhaps just don’t know better. Sounds a bit like every fraud and huckster around the world have been given a huge gift.
Yeah-this is what happens when you try to make policy regarding a significant sector of the economy on a straight party line vote.
Meanwhile, Ace is reporting that a group of visiting veterans did not take the closing of the WWII memorial as part of the shutdown as a given and have taken over the memorial themselves http://minx.cc/?post=343821
Guys … ask Jonn to post what I just sent him. It is quite unbelievable!
@25, WAPO is also reporting it here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/visiting-veterans-storm-closed-wwii-memorial/2013/10/01/0fc2a376-2ab4-11e3-8ade-a1f23cda135e_story.html
“Vets Storm WWII Memorial”
@26 Have you got a link? The suspense is killing me.
Jonn: Post what the Master Chief sent you.
There; I did my part, Master Chief.
@27 And all the comments on the article are bellyaching about how the vets broke the law. “Sorry, closed means closed,” one said. The whining posters need their asses kicked for two reasons: being hypocrites for not supporting those vets and being morons for not seeing the implications of their (the vets’) actions.
Please post what Master Chief sent you, Jonn.
Watching the Presidents speach right now. I timed it and it took him all of 16 seconds to blame the Republicans.
The buck stops here is now the buck stops anywhere but here.
In *my* job, we all get over our little differences, because priority number one is to keep the damn place running. Somewhat after that goal’s in the bag we worry about changing things. Of course I got the furlough today. No shortage of people reminding me that I had recently upgraded from contractor to civilian for the job security. lulz.
I generally lean a ways right, or at least libertarian, but I’m seeing enough blame to go around to everybody on this. And shame on anybody who holds generally routine operations hostage hoping to get their way. It’s is costing my ass $250+/day to sit around on my playstation. Do they remember that government employees tend to vote?
I hope some of our good veterans who live in the Washington, D.C. area are keeping a close eye on the Viet Nam Memorial, so it doesn’t get vandalized during this shutdown.
Just got home after spending the morning shutting down my office, canceling appointments for the rest of the week, etc. I’m going to take a break from thinking about those idiots in Congress – I’m going to mow my lawn.
The suspense is killing me. What did MCPO NYC send you, Jonn?
Look above added in article.
Good one!
Thanks oum Master Chief, I did look and it speaks volumes.
No mail delivery today, so my monthly bills aren’t delivered, but I can handle that. I have the previous month’s copies.
I am drinkinmg a cold one. Thank God my wife make 4 times what I make. That’s right, I am a kept man. And not because of my intalect! This furlough is an embarrassing unscheduled vaction for me.
It has just now been announced that all previously scheduled recreational trips and activities at the Armed Forces Retirement Home in Gulfport, Mississippi have been cancelled.
They did have some really great trips and recreational activities scheduled for this month, including going to the circus tonight.
But, I always miss out on all that stuff anyway, because I’m usually in too much pain, and rarely ever leave my room.
http://www.breakingnews.com/item/ahZzfmJyZWFraW5nbmV3cy13d3ctaHJkcg0LEgRTZWVkGMqBjBUM/2013/10/01/white-house-rejects-gop-proposal-for-series-of-sma
So now you know whose agenda comes first.
John @ the ole’ Vets Home in Miss:
Do this instead:
Buy a keg of beer and a shit load of ice. Contact the local strip club and tell them your situation and politely ask them to come out to entertain the old troopers. Remind them that you have an ice cold keg of beer. Tell the strip club management that they can bring a few of their polite and respectful high roller clients. Take plenty of photos and for God’s sake do not tell the manager of the Vet’s home.
Good luck and send photos.
Who among us is a veteran, but not a retiree that might be eligible for VA health benefits? I tried seven years ago, didn’t get there. Tried to check for S’s & G’s and wait for it…a complete clusterfuck. It booted me out because it could not comply.
Does anyone know of income limits or maybe lower premiums even if…?
@43.
That is the best idea have heard all day!
Quality, sound advice.
@ #44: The VA has all sorts of issues, but keep trying. I AM a retiree, but the VA says that I did 4 months AD in 1973, and that is all. Not quite true, of course. And that is why I retained a copy of every single set of AD orders throughout my career. One of these days I will throw the box filled with those orders at them. But for the time being, there are a bunch of folks who need VA services more than I do, so my jacking them up can wait.
Defend USA, I’m a vet and retired, but from civilian work, not the military.
I enrolled in VA health care a while back, right around when I enrolled in Medicare. I recently received a form letter from the VA recently regarding VA health care, and the ACA.
It is not supposed to be based on income, although they do ask for your prior year’s income in some cases. There are no premiums. You can simply go to a VA HCC and register in person.
Only NSC and 0% noncompensable SC veterans have to complete the financial information section. (SC = service connected).
I sent scans of the info part of Fomr 10-10EZ to Jonn to forward to you.
ALL vets are eligible for VA health care coverage.
@ 44. STOP and listen.
Go to your state depart of Vets affairs and ask them to submit your claim on your behalf.
END
@ 45 … There is more to my suggestion. I have a lot of time on my hands right now!
Shot – Jameson! Two Fingers Straight.
Ex-PH2: that may have been true in the past. Unfortunately, that’s not the case today.
Veterans not currently enrolled in the VA healthcare system who (1) have no service-connected medical conditions/disabilities, or (2) who are noncompensable 0% service-connected in general can enroll only if their income and net worth falls below VA-defined thresholds or if they are considered by the VA to be “catastrophically disabled”. See discussion at end of Priority Group 8 at
http://www.va.gov/healthbenefits/resources/priority_groups.asp
Even if eligible to enroll, many veterans will be required to pay copayments relating to treatment of or prescriptions for non-service-connected conditions.
DefendUSA: MCPO’s advice is sound. Go see your state VA rep (most states have their own Veteran’s Affairs departments) and let them assist. They’ll know the system better than most, and can assist you in getting your application filed.