Gubbermint Shutdown? Not such a bad idea after all.
Bloated and overreaching, couldn’t we actually do without all this so-called non-essential spending in the first place?
Why do we pay people to not work? The risk of having a government job in a bloated bureaucracy is you might not keep that job.
Category: Politics
Love Stossel. Been a fan of his since the 80’s. Always a common sense, straight shooter.
Seems people don’t learn the lesson from these shutdowns that a good chunk of government really is non-essential. Every time we have a shutdown it’s a big nothing event.
Stossel must be suppressed. Children are starving. Pregnant women are suffering. Our elderly are dying on the streets of our cities. Chaos and anarchy from Nome to the Keys! End the government shutdown!
That sounds terrible. I just got back from the Piggly Wiggly and they still have bread and milk.
Oddly, I have never seen a Muslim in a Piggly Wiggly.
But those Guubbermint Assistance cards seem to be swiping just fine.
I am all for a trickle-down shut down.
I am loading 45-70 ammo today if you find yourself without anything to do.
Of course they had bread and milk. White Privilege!
You are white,
Bread is white,
Milk is white……..
Your privilege shields you from the deadly effects of the gubment shuh’down.
I’ve reached a point in my life where anytime the government can’t be passing new laws to fuck me out of my hard earned income is a good time for me. I laugh when people talk about tax and spend liberals like the newly elected Cortez as if the Republicans in Congress haven’t met a spending bill they didn’t love in the last several decades. Fiscal conservatism is dead and gone in this country. Each party loves them some bloated government. Perhaps they love different aspects of bloated government but in the end it’s the opposite sides of the same overspending coin. I see on the Book of Face a bunch of morons doing the ten year aging challenge where they post a photo from ten years ago and one from today showing how they’ve aged…. Here’s my take on that challenge, ten years ago we owed 9 trillion dollars and now we owe over twenty trillion dollars now if all of you taxpayers could just cough up your 180,000 dollar share of that we’d be all set… When a nation’s federal, state and local employees number over twenty million and the largest private employer is a tenth of that and a retail enterprise selling the cheapest goods in the nation it’s a safe bet the nature of the country is changing economically whether we like it or not. So what are we the people doing about it? Not a goddamn thing, because that would require us to put aside our petty differences and start following the money. That would require people to consider that the six corporations that own pretty much the entire new media might have a vested interest in telling you stories about “others” for you to hate instead of actually revealing how your politicians on both sides of the aisle are routinely paid for by those corporations and their allies. It might make you consider that what you’re seeing is the largest redistribution of wealth upwards in the history of this nation, and that the reality of 1% of the population owning 40% of the country… Read more »
Well said. I don’t wear my tinfoil hat often, but the older I get, the more I get the feeling that our petty squabbles and ideological division are purposefully sown to keep us weak and distracted about who really runs the show from behind the curtains. Although money is constantly being printed, its distribution is still a zero-sum game. The increased portion siphoned off by the top 10% is now absent in the pockets of the rest. We have more shit and gadgets cluttering our houses and apartments than in the past, but our actual wealth is declining, forcing many people into working 2-3 jobs just to make ends meet.
Comparatively, the cost of the wall is a drop in the bucket and I’ve read that the cost of the furlough has already surpassed it. But yet, it’s all the news will talk about. Makes me wonder…
The best government is the one that is in recess and leaves me the hell alone. I don’t think there is much more of my life that is left for them to control. I’m sure they’ll think of something, though.
The American public won’t be able to stand for the media running images of the kids that can’t get into Yellowstone Park, a vacation they plan for every year.
What they fail to realize is that the buffalo crap just like they did over 100 years ago.
Sure, the trashcans are overflowing and you can’t discard your apple juice sipper so, God forbid, you may have to carry it with you.
There’s a difference though. Remember when the goverment was shut down when Obama was in office. The squirrels overran Michelle’s garden project. Well, there are horror stories about families not being able to tour the Whitehouse. Under Trump, I doubt the media will run a story about someone crying because they can’t get into the Whitehouse.
They’re too outraged that he bought Clemson burgers out of his own pocket at the moment.
“a vacation they plan for every year“, f***********ck me.
An expensive vacation they plan for EVERY YEAR?! Must be mighty nice having that kinda money….
If I’d just eat the store brand soup instead of the fancy stuff that I buy on sale, carry the one square root of pi clicking of abacus, I’d be able to afford a Yellowstone trip about 2090.
In the short term, I actually sympathize with those affected by the shutdown. When a regular paycheck stops, households are disrupted. The ill-prepared and those who all ready maxed out their credit cards or who can’t get a loan are screwed. They will have to do things such as take day jobs and ask family and friends for help–the old-fashioned way. In the long term, I have little doubt that many of their jobs should be eliminated altogether. One other thing. Why are they protesting outside of the White House? It’s Congress that won’t come to a meeting to discuss compromise.
Most of the American public seems to think that all federal employees make 6 figure salaries. Nope. Not hardly.
Why are they protesting outside of the White House? OPTICS. It’s all about the sound bite and five second clip these days. GOTTA be Trump’s fault, cuz “Orange Man bad!”
But did you notice that it was the Union protesting? Guess who supports the Dems? Oh, and contractors still collect the trash in the functioning offices.
Everyone needs to do more than “pray for us” and “feel our pain” and sympathize. Get on the horn and tell your “representatives” to get those who ‘have’ to work [prison guards/tsa/air traffic controllers] PAID.
I don’t make enough to be WELL prepared money wise all the time, but I don’t have stupid debt either.
Sooo, if a portion of the government is shut down, shouldn’t that percentage be deducted from our Federal Income Tax payments?
Somebody put a cardboard sign on the public boat launch down the road.
“closed due to govt shutdown”
The lake is frozen.
Like him, love him, or hate hi, dTrumpster is making a spirited attempt to full fill his campaign promises. He is not only the enemy of the dumbocats, he is the enemy of re-pubic-cans. The entire government from local all the way up the federal level is as Trump said; a swamp. A stinking festering morass of corruption and evil that has no desire to do what is right for the people. They are all only concerned with their own re-election. And the majority of the country has got the government they deserve. They keep electing the same self centered, egotistical maniacs year after year. Nothing has changed until very recently. They just elected another, younger, more socialistic version of what they’ve had. Drain the Swamp.
I will not give up. I will not be assimilated.
I’m in the minority… this isn’t hurting the pols and bigwigs, this is hurting a lot of people like Coast Guard and in may cases folks who live paycheck to paycheck and aren’t getting one. How about instead stopping pay for the pols for a few months? Screwing over the equivalent of a deck seamen so Nancy and Donny can hurl dueling soundbites is bullshit.
The Coast Guard is unaffected. The threat was eliminated and existed b/c they are DHS.
Wrong. The coast guard is not getting paid but they are being required to work.
https://taskandpurpose.com/coast-guard-pay-government-shutdown-2625991311
Just a bunch of lazy, entitled slackers, huh?
It’s a shame that every time there’s a government shut down the know-nothings on the right come out with the same nonsense about how government employees are all a bunch of paper pushers anyway so what’s the big deal?
The truth is that not every government job is a desk job, and not every person affected by the shutdown is sitting at home watching TV and stuffing his face with pork rinds.
Also: TSA agents, air traffic controllers and Federal prison guards are required to work but are not being paid. A VERY large percentage of these people are veterans.
I don’t know of too many right wingers who claimed that. I do know there are way too many people working for the government though. In the Department of Defense alone there are over 820,000 civilian employees. You cannot tell me that we need more civvies to help the DOD run than the Airforce and Navy COMBINED have in their ranks. And I work for the gubmint and am a very right winger who agrees fully that a good many of my fellow feds are lazy useless fucking slackers who need to get of their asses and get a real job. Your faux outrage is tiring, particularly given that in every one of the last four shutdowns I have been involved in, everyone got every penny they would have gotten anyway, and they know it. Maybe you don’t or maybe you are simply being disingenuous, I don’t know. This is squarely on the shoulders of the socialist democrats who are ALL busy out fucking off rather than working with the president, who is so evil in insisting on border security that Jewmer and San Fran Nan were all for back when a socialist mulatto from Chitown was in charge.
Whoa, first calm your tits on the antisemitism and racism! I can tell you don’t like democrats, but what does their religion and skin color have to do with this?
Second, what do you think happens if we just got rid of all the DoD civilians? Do you think they’d take the work they are currently doing with them? I’ll grant you that some fat could be trimmed, but civilians exist so that actual service members can focus on putting rounds on target. Do you want Privates working the DFAC again?
Furthermore, much expertise exists in the civilian sector that can’t be easily acquired through service members. We already have Specialists leaving in droves after just one enlistment, because they can use the skills the Army taught them to make many times more as a civilian without dealing with Army life bullshit. How would you expect to hire and retain top Engineers, Scientists, and other Experts on a military salary? Admittedly, the majority of GS jobs are not in that expert category. But they nevertheless perform necessary work that would otherwise have to be completed by a service member. So if you got rid of all the civilians, then you would also need to grow the DoD by several 100k service members, complete with the lengthy and costly training pipeline that entails.
How bout you not try to order somebody to “calm your tits” on here, mmmkay, turbo?
Got it. Next time I’ll tell him to hakuna his tatas. Or destress his breasts. Or undo the calamity that is his mammaries. Or soothe his boobs. Or don’t have a rack attack.
Thanks, I’ll see myself out now.
I think it goes without saying that if someone is going to spout racist, anti-Semitic nonsense then that person can be advised to “calm your [word of choice]. It’s kind of a general rule of asshattery.
There are conservative Jews in politics. Unfortunately, it seems that they are all found in Israel.
Real Jews, for the most part found in Israel, are very often conservative folks. Of interest, if you ask them, they tend to hate American Jews with a passion, because they tend to be fucking stupid. BTW, no racism in my post above. Obama is factually a socialist mulatto, by virtue of his being half blac, half white. Statement of fact assuming he was not lying about his forebears. Would he like me to refer to lil’ chucky more formally, as Hebrewmer perhaps?
While you are factually correct that Obama is half-black and Schumer is jewish, those facts are irrelevant to the argument you are making. By bringing up their religion (“Jewmer”) and race (“socialist mulatto”) as a means to attack them, you are essentially saying that those traits are negative. And that is racist/bigoted.
Again, you are entitled to your opinion and can call them an asshole or worse for all I care. I would only suggest you don’t use race and religion as a means of disparagement.
I loved it when the privates ran the mess hall. I got to know a few of them and I had 3x cheese on my omelets. A bloated attitude civilian would have never done that for me. Hmmmmmm.
BTW someguy, if there were not over 820,000 civilians in the DOD doing jobs that the military can and used to do for themselves, the average troop would then be able to be paid significantly more. And many of them are leaving because of the toxic stupidity of leadership, because they don’t care to be a social equality experiment when the results are already known to be bad, and other such more basic things. When I came in back in 1978, there were very few civilians in the DOD and the Military either did it themselves or contracted it out as absolutely necessary. And we weren’t nearly as bloated or dependent on people who don’t for the most part deploy.
You think any extra money would go towards our salaries? Can I interest you in a fine bridge?
I couldn’t find an authoritative source, but it seems that in 78 we had about 2 million service members, compared to today’s 1.4 million. We currently have troops deployed all over the world, while also fighting a war in two countries for the past 17 years. We are able to do far more with 1/3 fewer people precisely because we outsourced non-warfare related jobs to civilians. Like them or not, the work they do frees us to concentrate on what matters most: fighting wars.
Thanks for the nod in our direction !
Signed,
Pissed off Unpaid Prison Guard
Wrong? Yes and no. My comment was based upon the fact that the coasties’ last paycheck was at risk but, at the last minute, the White House and DHS worked it out and the Coast Guard was paid on 31 December. My mistake–where I was wrong–was in thinking that the fix was a permanent one. The issue has now reappeared and the White House and DHS are trying to get legislation that would serve as a permanent solution. If it doesn’t happen, it will be thanks to Congress.
Sorry 2/17. Didn’t mean to report you.
Saved me the trouble of reporting myself. Thanks.
I can not justify paying people to defend our shores if we refuse to defend our borders.
It is sad that people get caught up in this. I, however, would not pay them back pay.
They are laid off and should be treated as such. That what we pay all the unemployment for.
Dave, it is an odd but fine line here. The people not actually working are Furloughed, and it meets a certain legal technical standard for their pay. At the same time, they cannot collect unemployment or file for it because they are not unemployed. But no one can stop them doing part time jobs or otherwise working if they can get something going in the meantime. All of this horseshit could easily have been avoided if the congress followed federal law and created a federal budget each year, which they are currently in violation of.
Except they were about to pass a budget before Trump threw a hissy fit at the last minute and refused to sign. This is all about him grandstanding. He couldn’t get the wall funded in his first two years with a majority in both houses and he knows that he won’t get it passed now that the Democrats are back in power. All he’s doing is putting on a show for his constituents, pretending like he did everything in his power to make it happen. Sad!
What a sparklepony
*yawn*
Cover your mouth when you yawn.
Trump was trying to get this done for the last two years. He’s sick of kicking the can down the road as both sides in the establishment want to do. Trump has had enough of the “let’s just open the government and then we can talk about it.”
It takes two sides to reach an impasse. Neither the Democrats (being led by Schumer and “I reject your facts” Pelosi) are willing to budge (“not $1”, remember?) nor is the President. Someone has to be willing to work with the other side, from what I’ve seen Trump has repeatedly tried.
So in your words, I posit that the Democrats are grandstanding and putting on a show for their constituents. They got reelected on a “never Trump” and “#RESIST” platform, so that’s what they’re doing.
That’s it, Mason. Those who were previously in favor of stronger border security are no longer in favor of it. That’s curious. Trump talked this up before he was elected and since being elected. It is just a blatant falsehood to claim it’s a last minute hissy fit. He wants to negotiate. He knows how to play give and take. He has been doing that his entire business life. Congress won’t budge; ergo, Congress is responsible for the shutdown.
Trump is doing what he said he would do, and what his supporters demanded he do, before he was elected.
Obama put on a show for his Iranian constituents…..
At no point was anyone in congress about to pass a budget. They might have been about to crap out a continuing resolution, as they have been doing for about 10 years onw in violation of federal law. And based upon the millions and millions of dollars being raised by several GoFundMe sites to build the wall, there is very substantial support for border security and that wall. What is sad is that the socialist dems in power were all in favor of border security and a wall right up until January 2017. There is plenty of speech video showing the words coming out of their mouths. That is beyond sad, it is fucked.
“folks who live paycheck to paycheck”
Sorry but anyone with a decent job should have been saving money for this sort of thing. Time to sell the boat, snowmobile, camper and all the other toys.
Food, shelter and clothing in that order.
Not Ipad, Iphone and cable.
EBT cards are being filled early for February by Dept of Ag. Nobody starving.
Nobody going without weed.
Get your priorities straighjt, 26. Sex, food, shelter, sex.
And beer. No, wait… that falls under “food”. Disregard.
And how many lower government workers make decent money? ‘Paycheck to paycheck’ I believe was the phrase. BTDT and remember being one medical issue from catastrophe many times. Sure, most will eventually get paychecks…while their credit is getting trashed by late payments. Hard to make payments using “well, I’m gonna get paid someday” for cash.
What the fuck do you think happens when a small business shuts down in the private sector? I bet you don’t get all worked up over there trashed credit, late payments, potential medical issues, and their someday pay. Sheeshhhh. False outrage.
*their*
You’d lose that bet. Worked for 25 years to try and get overseas jobs brought to the US before I retired. Seems to me that one of the prime draws of civil service was that while pay sucked, stability was great. Now due to the pols’ lack of ability to play together, lots of little folks get screwed. So they got poor pay AND instability. No unemployment possible, either, since they are not unemployed, just getting stiffed by their employers.
*Bingo* !!!
It’s true. When it’s “the other guy” who gets worked up? Not me and, I would guess, not the lion’s share of the public servants (bwhahahahahaha)) now affected. But this is what happens in these types of things: sides are drawn among us little people. Rather than that, all of the focus should be on Congress to negotiate with the White House and stop this anti-Trump bullshit.
Well, in the corp world, we had MULA’s one year. That is, mandatory unpaid leave act. You basically took one week off without pay each quarter. You were able to get unemployment for 3 of them. I just worked at the house and detailed a few cars.
Some interesting info. on gov’t. vs. private sector wages;
https://federalnewsnetwork.com/all-news/2017/09/latest-study-on-federal-compensation-puts-public-private-pay-gap-at-widest-margin-yet/
Don’t government employees have a union? Doesn’t that union have benefits for laid off workers? I seem to remember when auto workers were laid off for months or years they received union benefits.
Not wanting to point fingers but, I’m pretty sure among the protestors, I saw several I have had the misfortune of speaking with on 800 calls.
The Gubberment is on strike? Oh Noes! Who will spy on me, demand I pay them tribute and hold me in contempt?
On the downtick… the unpaid employees are merely pawns. This is a certain case of the government abusing the public, civil servants, and all, by a few renegade elected RICH heathen.
Let the furloughs continue until those of the largess are reduced to becoming recipients of such largess.
Haha, it would be fun to watch Trump out-source the whole damned thing to competitive enterprise, by executive order.
At what point does Pelosi’s posse become a mutiny?
Tough shit. The ignoring of Americans being replaced and murdered by illegals has come full stop. That is what the shutdown is about a bunch of faggot politicians that have chosen their side and it’s against America and it citizens. Go protest at their homes then scoff when they aren’t there and instead on vacation because they are still getting theirs even after 60 years of selling America out. Hopefully you won’t be murdered by an illegal while doing so but somebody will be.
Someone actually did do that to Nancy Pelosi and brought a couple of illegals to Pelosi’s house looking for sanctuary. Needless to say she was not interested. I honestly like the idea. It’s high time that the left puts their money where their mouths are.
I was lucky enough to watch the entire event in its 2:45:00 run and it was actually hilarious. The deputies appear to loosen up a bit and let things continue while trying enforce no trespass law in California. At the same time, action not taken did point out the hypocrisy of the democrats espousing their belief of lack there-of, how the wall would an immoral act in their book. I give Laura Loomer a Troll Level: Savage rating.
I’m writing this without looking to see other comments here.
I am working at a federal correctional institution without pay. The TSA is working without pay. [hello Atlanta gun not found]
I don’t give a rat’s ass about anything else but getting paid my salary. NO extra. Just what I am earning watching this country’s scumbags.
Sure, there are LOTS of dead weight in Federal Government jobs. Shit, we are HEAVY “management” and supervisors just marking time until they can promote away – no LEADERS anymore.
I am surviving and I DO NOT want to use my savings to survive so some asshole can make a point.
Pay those who “must” go to work.
Get a non government job if you don’t like it.
Thanks for your truly helpful suggestion. (irony)
So you don’t get anything from being a veteran? NEVER take a discount/etc ’cause you work private sector ! ! Good for you!
I was a grunt. LOVED it. Not a bunch of transferable job skills for the private sector without additional training.
I’ve been doing this job over 23 years now. IF I have to, I’ll get a second job to support my family.
I just want to get paid for working my job. Nothing more.
Amen, Mike W. I’m in national security and have spent years dealing with some very awful people. I can’t think of a more rewarding, meaningful job than what I do in the government. I’m fine, continue to work (without pay), and have part-time income from USAR, but cringe at the thought of going into savings for day-to-day stuff if this persists. If the president wants to make his point and push for the wall thing, then why crap all over our national security professionals, USCG, TSA, etc? Why not hold up something like so-called entitlements? And why wait until the eve of Dems taking over the House to dig in? What happened during the previous two years?
You have savings. You use what you need and then, when you are paid–and you will be–you replace that which you took from savings. What am I missing?
Some of “us” don’t have TONS saved that are liquid.[I think that’s the term.] I DO NOT want to touch my TSP account.
Yeah, it’s pretty asinine to make the argument that we need to improve national security through .. sacrificing national security by not paying the professionals responsible for it. And I’ve yet to hear a single reasonable answer as to why, given this ‘crisis’, POTUS waited until his party lost the House to demand a spending bill from it with funding for the wall.
This is weapons-grade stupid, and I hope you and Mike W are direct federal employees and thus get backpay once this is resolved. It doesn’t help in the meantime, but it at least makes the end result a little easier.
I suspect Paul Ryan, and the rest of the “never Trumpers” are the reason nothing happened in the last two years, wrt this issue.
I also suspect that is why the Republicans lost the House.
There are other perspectives on this than “Look at what they are doing to me!” or “Suck it up, buttercup!” One is that those affected are involuntarily helping the country by forcing the border security issue to be addressed by Congress. In that regard, if the effort is successful, Americans will retake our sovereignty and the rule of law will be preserved. Another take is the matter of perspective. As Veterans, we know the great sacrifices made by others, some of whom with which we served and some by us. In the great scheme of things, this wait-for-the-pay matter doesn’t amount to much.
With respect to this subject, Bongino linked to this at the American Thinker.
About four paragraphs down is this link to the Daily Caller for an anonymous post by a “senior administration official” who states that he also is furloughed.
Finally, at the bottom of the American Thinker post is this link posted by Monica Showalter to Slate with an interesting bar graph detailing those affected by the shutdown.
Are folks getting hurt? Undoubtedly.
Why didn’t this happen while the Republicans held both Houses? I suspect Paul Ryan, who despises Trump, is the one responsible.
I also suspect that is the reason they lost the House.