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Military Pay Delay, but Congress gets Paid...in a Shutdown

GoodWitch58Beach Fanatic
2,108 views
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/07/opinion/07kristof.html?_r=1&ref=opinion
The upshot is that federal workers who do important work for the public ? cleaning up toxic waste, enrolling sick people into lifesaving medical trials, answering medical hot lines, running national parks, processing passport applications ? risk being sent home and going unpaid. But members of Congress would continue to receive $174,000 a year. As the humorist Andy Borowitz wrote in a Twitter message: ?That?s like eliminating the fire dept & sending checks to the arsonists.?

are there no mature, intelligent people in the House?

Edited

Replies

50
Alicia Leonard avatar
Alicia LeonardSoWal Insider
#2
Everything of their should be frozen, until they work it out. This let them eat cake thing is getting old, quick!
idlewindBeach Fanatic
#3
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/07/opinion/07kristof.html?_r=1&ref=opinion

are there no mature, intelligent people in the House?


Are you that blind or partisan? The DEMOCRATS controled both houses of congress and the White House until January. They were supposed to pass a budget by October 1 and refused. They could have come back after the election and passed a budget. They failed. The House has passed H.R. 1 twice since the Republicans assumed control, which would fund the government and the DEMOCRATS in the Senate have yet to pass a finance bill. And the HOUSE needs maturity and intelligence? This all lays at the feet of the Democrats who refuse to accept any semblance of fiscal responsiblity.
30ashopper avatar
30ashopperSoWal Insider
#4
There's always a silver lining - the I.R.S. would shut down. Now come on, isn't that worth the sacrafice? :lol: I say we shut the federal government down and leave it that way! 😀

Edited

Smiling JOe avatar
Smiling JOeSoWal Expert
#5
The funny part of the first post is that people think Congressmen get paid only $174,000 per year for their elected positions.
idlewindBeach Fanatic
#6
As far as quoting the ultra-liberal NY Times, they can't get their facts straight either. Hoover did not discredit cutting spending because in fact he increased spending during his term.

Year GDP-US $ billion Total Spending-total $ billion
1930 91.2 11.92 i
1931 76.5 12.18 i
1932 58.7 12.44 a
1933 56.4 12.62 i

As a percentage of GDP, Hoover increased spending dramatically.

Hoover tried to spend his way out of the Depression (like Bush) and
Roosevelt tried to double down (like Obama) and neither cured the depression. World War II finally pulled the US out of the Depression.
30ashopper avatar
30ashopperSoWal Insider
#7
I'm starting to think the whole "we're on the verge of another great depression" meme was cooked up by the bankers and the FED as cover for one of the greatest taxpayer fleecings of all time.
beachmouse avatar
beachmouseBeach Fanatic
#9
There's always a silver lining - the I.R.S. would shut down. Now come on, isn't that worth the sacrafice? I say we shut the federal government down and leave it that way!

For most of the year, it's not a bad thing, but for the month of April, it's a horrible move because you really don't want to mess with the peasants with pitchforks when they learn that their income tax refund checks are being delayed because of the shutdown.
BeachSiO2 avatar
BeachSiO2Beach Fanatic
#10
On the IRS front, I have never understood the desire for people to receive a refund. That means you have let the government spend your money all year. Although I never want to pay the IRS, I would rather have access to my money throughout the year. Then again, if I truly was king of the universe I would implement the approach SJoe has mentioned a number of times which is for everyone to get their full check every week and then have to send in a check to the Treasury. By withholding money, it's out of sight, out of mind. Kinda like the "pay yourself first approach" to saving, except it's "pay the guvm't first."
beachmouse avatar
beachmouseBeach Fanatic
#11
Our goal is to write a $5 check to the feds every year, and we usually get pretty close. (Last year's refund was for $17) The only reason I'm paying attention to the IRS in this is because we got to claim a fair amount of energy tax credit for the remodel, and the $200 we're going to get back counts as 'real money' to us.
BeachSiO2 avatar
BeachSiO2Beach Fanatic
#12
BM- that makes sense. I was talking about ppl who count on it every year.
Matt J avatar
Matt JSWGB
#13
It's interesting that this is all the Democrats fault for not seizing the power they had and passing a budget, but rather waiting to work with the folks that wanted so desperately to gut it. It really was a lose lose situation for the Democrats, but I think people will remember that they extended an olive branch of working together.

I don't understand why military pay stops, my understanding was that congress continues getting their pay because they (try to hole in laughs) are essential government employees under the constitution. Did they forget about the defend and protect part?
idlewindBeach Fanatic
#14
It's interesting that this is all the Democrats fault for not seizing the power they had and passing a budget, but rather waiting to work with the folks that wanted so desperately to gut it. It really was a lose lose situation for the Democrats, but I think people will remember that they extended an olive branch of working together.

I don't understand why military pay stops, my understanding was that congress continues getting their pay because they (try to hole in laughs) are essential government employees under the constitution. Did they forget about the defend and protect part?


Politicians will always take care of politicians.

I hope people will remember who tried to cut spending and restore sanity to Washington and who played divisive partisan politics. And if the don't think the Democrats have done just that, listen to chuck Shummer and Nancy Pelosi.
poppyBanned
#16
Obama threatens to veto GOP budget extension plan - Yahoo! News

Obama has decided it is all or nothing.

Boehner's move appeared aimed at shifting political blame if a shutdown occurs, but the announcement of Thursday's vote angered Democrats who felt talks were progressing.

It's also about the last piece of leverage Boehner had, using the Pentagon budget to put political pressure on Democrats and to seek to blame them for a shutdown. But after a shutdown, Boehner's options appear to become more limited.

"I have yet to talk to anybody, member or staff, who's been able to explain to me how Boehner's leverage increases during a shutdown," said GOP lobbyist Jack Howard, who worked for House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., during the last shutdowns in 1995-96

So has Boner.
idlewindBeach Fanatic
#17
So has Boner.


The Speaker has decided to pay the troops and let Obama pay the price if he blocks it. The Democrats control 2/3's of the process, its on them.
BeachSiO2 avatar
BeachSiO2Beach Fanatic
#18
House Passes One-Week Government Funding Stopgap

The House passed, 247-181, a one-week stopgap spending bill (HR 1363), that would fund government operations through April 15. The bill would make $12 billion in spending cuts and fund the Defense Department through Sept. 30, 2011. Current federal spending authority expires April 8. Senate Democrats say they will not take up the measure in its current form.
AlphaCrab avatar
AlphaCrabBeach Fanatic
#19
The GOP's decison to wage their divisive culture wars behind a facade of fiscal responsibility while wapped in an American flag and a Teabag hat, has failed, as we knew it would.

...Wake up Boner, Gov. Scott Walker, and Gov. Rick "What's-a-Train?" Scott...your days are now numbered.

Edited

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