Government Closed, Sun Still Expected To Rise

[heironymouspasparagus]

They were all most likely "Swift Boaters"...trying to make political hay by pushing on a button they knew was deactivated, then complaining about it when it didn't work...reactionary extremists!  Where have we seen that before?  Oh, yeah...with the Swift Boaters....


Well, actually, that is pretty stupid not to have the open air monuments open.  But hey, that's what your Boehner wanted, so that's what he country is getting screwed with.

[nathanm]

Most probably didn't even notice.

DEPARTMENT OF REDUNDANCY DEPARTMENT

Funny how you only hate law enforcement when it's directed at rich white people. Usually you're so far up their donkey you're the one saying "do you know why I stopped you?"

[nathanm]

Tom Coburn may officially go love himself. He should be seen as a traitor to his country for advocating default that we default on our debt so his side can get what it wants.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/coburn-need-managed-catastrophe-now-to-make-difficult-budget-choices

[nathanm]

And this might hit a little closer to home for some of you guys:

http://news.yahoo.com/shutdown-means-no-beer-craft-brewers-051509016--finance.html

[Gaspar]

Tom Coburn may officially go love himself. He should be seen as a traitor to his country for advocating default that we default on our debt so his side can get what it wants.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/coburn-need-managed-catastrophe-now-to-make-difficult-budget-choices

Failing to raise the debt limit is not the same as default.  You know that don't you?  It wouldn't be a good thing, but it would not cause a default unless the president chooses not to service the debt and that is unlikely (we hope).  If we don't raise the debt, it would be necessary to cut about 1/3 of total spending to stay in the black (LOL we would still be in the red).  Coburn is simply playing his part in the puppet show.  I think their is plenty of opportunity for spending negotiation.  We have learned that this president typically won't make budget decisions until he is under significant duress, and has the opportunity campaign and make a couple dozen speeches, so we have to go through this theater frequently instead of grown-up budget activities.

Try to enjoy the show.  Unfortunately it's the only thing on.

[Townsend]

Everyone The U.S. Government Owes Money To, In One Graph

If Congress doesn't raise the debt ceiling soon, the U.S. government won't be able to pay its debts. Here's who the government owes money to — all the holders of U.S. Treasury debt, broken down by category and by how much government debt they hold.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/10/10/230944425/everyone-the-u-s-government-owes-money-to-in-one-graph

[Townsend]

[Gaspar]

Yesterday groups tore down all of the Spite House tape.  The parks police have backed down but some are still getting $100 fines for using public spaces. 

[Townsend]

Yesterday groups tore down all of the Spite House tape.  The parks police have backed down but some are still getting $100 fines for using public spaces. 

[Conan71]

Government still hiring for some great paying jobs:

The federal government is shut down, but that hasn't stopped agencies from running lots of "help wanted" ads.
More than 4,000 job postings remained active on the federal government's hiring site as of Tuesday. Although many ads first ran before the shutdown began, nearly 500 posts were placed in the past three days.

The vacancies include some high-priced positions: a media relations officer job paying up to $155,000 at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the agency in charge of implementing Obamacare, and a senior communications and marketing specialist for the Patent and Trademark Office, making up to $136,000.

The newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau placed an ad Friday for a chief of staff to the chief information officer, a position that advertises a salary of $121,000 to $224,000.

With so much of the rest of the government closed, including national monuments and parks, the advertising of so many job postings raises larger questions about the shutdown, according to one government watchdog.

"It goes to the whole discussion about how much of a shutdown this really is in the first place," said David Williams, president of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance.

"It's more of a slowdown or a selective shutdown where they're shutting down things that are getting the biggest bang for the PR buck," Mr. Williams said. "It's a strange thing to be shutting down memorials and, at the same time, they keep trying to hire people. That makes no sense."

The government's hiring database — usajobs.gov — is run by the Office of Personnel Management, which has notified the public that some of its websites might not work until after the shutdown. Still, the jobs site, which the agency says isn't funded with annual appropriations, seemed largely unaffected.

On Tuesday alone, agencies posted at least 182 new job ads, including a supervisory information technology specialist at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency offering a salary of $98,000 to $182,000 per year.

While many ads offered jobs at the Department of Veterans Affairs, which the House has voted to exempt from the shutdown, other agencies posting ads included the departments of defense, energy, homeland security, justice and Treasury.

Several agencies, such as the Commerce Department, weren't available to discuss the hiring efforts and their newly placed job ads. Calls to public information offices were met with voicemail messages saying nobody could return calls until after the shutdown. Among other agencies, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau isn't funded by congressional appropriations, so it isn't impacted directly by the shutdown.


Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/oct/8/thousands-of-federal-job-openings-posted-in-spite-/#.UlaZQiIdDkI.email#ixzz2hKZ2JFD5
Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter

I'm in the wrong line of work.

[Townsend]

Shutdown Day 10: House GOP will propose a short-term debt ceiling proposal

http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/10/politics/shutdown-showdown/index.html?sr=fb101013gophouse1145p

House Republicans will propose a temporary increase in the debt ceiling to allow for negotiations on larger deficit-reduction issues, House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday. Boehner also said he welcomed a meeting with President Barack Obama planned for later in the day, saying he hoped it would be substantive discussion on measures to reduce the nation's deficit but adding he didn't want to set any preconditions.

[Townsend]

[DolfanBob]

Do the animals know this?

[nathanm]

Failing to raise the debt limit is not the same as default.

You really think people are just going to blithely keep holding treasuries when our government is so politically dysfunctional it can't even raise the debt limit, which would need to increase even if the budget were balanced? I thought you understood business. Yes, not paying bondholders would be even worse, but expecting no consequences whatsoever is bucking stupid. If nothing else, what makes you think tax revenue won't decrease markedly when the economy shrinks something like 7% overnight?

Moreover, we do not have the tax revenue necessary to pay all obligations when due, even with prioritization. I cannot believe you seriously just said that failing to raise the debt limit wouldn't be a problem. How much more disconnected from reality can you possibly get?

[nathanm]

I just realized I ought to expound on the point about the debt limit needed to be increased even if the budget is balanced for those who don't know (thanks to Congressional Research Service reports, I now know this). Because of the way we account for the various government trust funds, incoming revenue to the trust funds requires the federal government issue interagency debt, which for whatever reason does count against the debt ceiling. So if we pay $100 billion in payroll taxes and only pay out $60 billion in Social Security and Medicare payments, we have to issue $40 billion in debt by law. Doesn't matter if we're going to spend that $40 billion on something else or if it's just going to sit in Treasury's account at the Fed.

As part of the Treasury Secretary's powers to take extraordinary measures once we've hit the debt limit, issuance of debt to some trust funds can be delayed, but not SS and Medicare.