Government Closed, Sun Still Expected To Rise

[Hoss]

Gets a little more disgusting.
WWII Memorial, Carol Johnson w/the Park Service says they were "excepted from furlough" and told to close the site by White House.

A perfect example of a head fake.  Complete with the pre-requisite Gass blue fontification!

[swake]

Gets a little more disgusting.
WWII Memorial, Carol Johnson w/the Park Service says they were "excepted from furlough" and told to close the site by White House.

Apparently there is a law from 1870, the Anti Deficiency Act, that specifically prohibits:

accepting voluntary services for the United States, or employing personal services not authorized by law, except in cases of emergency involving the safety of human life or the protection of property.

So the only thing the federal government can do, by law, is protect these monuments and parks. They cannot provide any other services related to them. Thus the security and the barriers. The penalties for violation are:

Federal employees who violate the Antideficiency Act are subject to two types of sanctions: administrative and penal. Employees may be subject to appropriate administrative discipline including, when circumstances warrant, suspension from duty without pay or removal from office. In addition, employees may also be subject to fines, imprisonment, or both.

http://www.gao.gov/legal/lawresources/antideficiencybackground.html

[Gaspar]

In 1995, Bill Clinton did not order the closing of the open air monuments and parks. The shutdown only served to furlough staff in federal buildings and parks.  Public spaces remained open to the public.  This is theater, and not good theater. 

[Townsend]

This is theater, and not good theater. 

[swake]

the Chamber of Commerce has sent a letter to Congress signed by about 250 business groups urging no shutdown and warning that a debt ceiling crisis could lead to an economic disaster. They say that the policy disputes over health care and spending that are separating Democrats and Republicans should be debated later.

http://www.boston.com/2013/10/02/some-gop-not-heeding-old-big-business-allies/lQFNhick3DpRCdzeVMhFMM/story.html

[carltonplace]

In 1995, Bill Clinton did not order the closing of the open air monuments and parks. The shutdown only served to furlough staff in federal buildings and parks.  Public spaces remained open to the public.  This is theater, and not good theater.  

That was pre-911...well before all of the security measures were installed around these monuments.

But aren't the janitors, groundskeepers, trash collectors and other staff that cleans up after the public off work?

[Gaspar]

That was pre-911...well before all of the security measures were installed around these monuments.

But aren't the janitors, groundskeepers, trash collectors and other staff that cleans up after the public off work?

They installed barrycades at Mt. Vernon this morning, but they have since been taken down, when the administration learned that Mt. Vernon is private.  In fact it prompted a rather humorous post on their website. http://www.mountvernon.org/

There are also apparently mounted park police at the WWII memorial today and the NPS has stationed officers along the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal that runs 184 miles from Washington, D.C. to Cumberland, Maryland to make sure nobody uses the bike paths (that are typically unmanned by parks personnel).

Just like with Sequesterpocolips, the president is attempting to harm the public to show illustrate the necessity of "non-essential" (their word) government services.

[Conan71]

Newt Gingrich, love him or loathe him (I happen to be on the loathe side), was on Leno last night.

He pointed out a government shut-down is not a "crisis", but it's making for good news hits so it's a "big deal" right now.  Boehner is referred to as a "terrorist" for allowing this to happen, but I don't ever recall Tip O'neill being called a "terrorist" when government shut down 12 times while he was the SOTH.

The government shut down on October 1 for the 18th time since 1976, after the House and Senate could not agree on a resolution to fund it. Democrats have accused Republicans of negotiating with "a bomb strapped to their chest" and putting "a gun to everybody's head," as if it were an anomalous development in the modern political era for Congress to seek to extract policy concessions from the White House by withholding spending authorization. The resulting shutdown, Democrats now suggest, is as unprecedented as it is deplorable. Or, in the words of one esteemed liberal, it is "the end result of a 50-year GOP push to make govt = welfare and welfare = black people."

Historically speaking, it is rather remarkable that Washington hasn't experienced a government shutdown in nearly two decades. The shutdowns of the mid 1990s have been the subject of much debate. Beyond that, however, the chattering class appears to suffer from a short memory, as it often does.

At this point in Ronald Reagan's second term, for example, the government had already shut down six times, for a total of twelve days, as a result of failed budget negotiations between the White House, a Republican Senate, and House Democrats under the leadership of Speaker Tip O'Neill (D., Mass.) — precisely the opposite of the political dynamic that exists today. Former O'Neill staffer and MSNBC pundit Chris Matthews has written an entire book extolling that era as a time "when politics worked." (You can probably guess how he feels about the current situation.)

O'Neill presided over a total of seven government shutdowns under Reagan, and five during the Jimmy Carter administration, meaning that he played a role in precisely two-thirds of all the government shutdowns since the modern budgeting process has been in place. Representative Raul Labrador (R., Idaho) pointed this out to Matthews on Meet the Press on Sunday, noting that O'Neill was never called a terrorist for shutting the government down over budget negotiations. Matthews didn't care for the reminder and even questioned the source of Labrador's claim; it was the Washington Post.

Interestingly, nearly all of the shutdowns that took place during the Carter administration, when Democrats also controlled the Senate under Senate majority leader Robert Byrd (D., W.Va.), were the result of disagreements over abortion policy, and lasted more than ten days on average. In several instances between 1977 and 1979, the Democratic House resisted the Democratic Senate's efforts to expand the number of cases for which federal funds, via Medicaid, could be used to pay for abortion. The government partially shut down three times for a total of 28 days between September and December 1977 as lawmakers negotiated a compromise on the issue, although it would be revisited several times during subsequent shutdowns.

The shutdowns of the Reagan-O'Neill era, on the other hand, were more budget-focused, and the disputes they involved were over a wider range of policies. They also took less time to resolve. The first such shutdown occurred in November 1981, less than a year into Reagan's first term. Reagan had demanded at least $4 billion in domestic-spending cuts, and when Congress did not oblige, he vetoed a spending package, triggering a government shutdown. Technically, the shutdown lasted only a few hours, until Congress approved a three-week spending resolution to give lawmakers time to negotiate a long-term deal.

The government briefly shut down twice the following year, the first time because the House simply failed to pass an agreed-on spending bill before funding expired. According to the New York Times, party leaders missed the deadline in order to attend "major social events," which included a barbeque at the White House and a high-dollar Democratic fundraiser. Reagan ultimately accepted a funding agreement even though it called for higher levels of spending than he would have liked.

Months later, the government shut down for several days in part over the House's refusal to fund an intercontinental-missile program that Reagan supported. The House also wanted more than $5 billion in funding for public-works projects, which Reagan had threatened to veto. In the end, the public-works funding was scrapped, but so was funding for the missile program.

Another shutdown occurred in November 1983 after House Democrats requested an additional $1 billion in funding for education and reduced spending on defense and foreign aid. Less than a year later, the government shut down after the House, as well as the Senate, sought to tie a number of extraneous measures, opposed by Reagan, to a resolution funding the government. That standoff resulted in a three-day continuing resolution to buy time for further negotiation, but the government shut down again when lawmakers failed to reach an agreement.

The final shutdown of O'Neill's political career was in October 1986. House Democrats had picked fights with Reagan on a number of issues, including labor, energy, and welfare policy. The differences between the two sides weren't resolved in time to prevent a shutdown, which lasted about a day, and ended when Democrats relinquished many of their demands.

Of course, the current scenario is unique given the controversy surrounding Obamacare — legislation of historical scope that was passed in partisan fashion and remains unpopular, notwithstanding the reelection of its namesake. Perhaps if the situation were reversed, House Democrats would never be so irresponsible as to allow the government to shut down. History suggests otherwise.

— Andrew Stiles is a political reporter for National Review Online.

[Townsend]

Newt Gingrich, love him or loathe him (I happen to be on the loathe side), was on Leno last night.

He pointed out a government shut-down is not a "crisis", but it's making for good news hits so it's a "big deal" right now.  Boehner is referred to as a "terrorist" for allowing this to happen, but I don't ever recall Tip O'neill being called a "terrorist" when government shut down 12 times while he was the SOTH.

I've never heard the crazies call the President any names...

It might be more of the issue that those crazies are now controlling the House...not that the "big deal" is happening.

These guys want their names to stay in front of the people who fall for their crap so they can get elected again.

Michelle Bachman had support.  I shouldn't have to point out anything else.

[swake]

Newt Gingrich, love him or loathe him (I happen to be on the loathe side), was on Leno last night.

He pointed out a government shut-down is not a "crisis", but it's making for good news hits so it's a "big deal" right now.  Boehner is referred to as a "terrorist" for allowing this to happen, but I don't ever recall Tip O'neill being called a "terrorist" when government shut down 12 times while he was the SOTH.

No, we are not in crisis mode yet, this is very bad, but not yet a crisis. The crisis starts October 17th.

[Gaspar]

President Obama is now attempting to throw the financial markets into a panic, but this too is failing to work for him.
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2013/10/03/obama-to-investors-please-panic-at-least-a-little-bit/?mod=WSJBlog&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Asked in his CNBC interview Wednesday  whether Wall Street is right to remain calm over the standoff, Mr. Obama replied: "No."

"I think this time's different," he said. "I think they should be concerned....

. . .and this morning the National Journal sums it up perfectly.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/who-broke-washington/barack-obama-a-divider-not-a-uniter-20131003

[nathanm]

Tip O'neill being called a "terrorist" when government shut down 12 times while he was the SOTH.

Tip O'neill didn't shut down the government because he didn't like a law that had been passed by a previous Congress. The Senate Majority leader did a couple of times, though, over Medicaid funding for abortions in limited cases. You'll note that even that was actually about money. Repealing Obamacare would increase the deficit.

[Gaspar]

Repealing Obamacare would increase the deficit.

. . .and driving my car saves gas!

[swake]

President Obama is now attempting to throw the financial markets into a panic, but this too is failing to work for him.

It's not Obama, again I already posted this. But the United States Chamber and 250 other business groups are leading the charge against the shut down and possible failure to raise the debt ceiling.

the Chamber of Commerce has sent a letter to Congress signed by about 250 business groups urging no shutdown and warning that a debt ceiling crisis could lead to an economic disaster. They say that the policy disputes over health care and spending that are separating Democrats and Republicans should be debated later.

http://www.boston.com/2013/10/02/some-gop-not-heeding-old-big-business-allies/lQFNhick3DpRCdzeVMhFMM/story.html

[nathanm]

Gaspar, from the page you got that image from (or your source got it from):

Those amounts do not reflect the total budgetary impact of the ACA. That legislation includes many other provisions that, on net, will reduce budget deficits. Taking the coverage provisions and other provisions together, CBO and JCT have estimated that the ACA will reduce deficits over the next 10 years and in the subsequent decade. (We have not updated our estimate of the total budgetary impact of the ACA since last summer; for that most recent estimate, see

Pay attention next time.