There is so much news and opinion about this now real government "shut down" that it's almost overwhelming ~ I've been reading and thinking about this for days now, trying to stay focused on facts ~ and I've saved a number of articles, which make it very clear what happened ... and WHY ~ I am admittedly a progressive liberal ~ but bottom line for me, this is NOT based in ideology ~ nor is it based in sanity as we know it ~ emphasis/bolding below is mine ~ Sooz

Why Republicans shut down the government
By Steve Benen - Tue Oct 1, 2013 8:00 AM EDT

Many Americans are probably waking up this morning to some unsettling news: congressional Republicans shut down the federal government last night, the first time since congressional Republicans did the same thing 17 years ago. And I imagine Americans who don't follow day-to-day developments in Washington will ask a simple question: "Why?"

The good news is, it's a surprisingly easy question to answer. The bad news is, the answer is wholly unsatisfying.

Kevin Drum had an item last week that summarized the entire political dynamic in just 92 words.


This may seem like an exaggeration, but it's entirely accurate. Ezra Klein added yesterday, before the clock struck midnight, "This is all about stopping a law that increases taxes on rich people and reduces subsidies to private insurers in Medicare in order to help low-income Americans buy health insurance. That's it. That's why the Republican Party might shut down the government and default on the debt."

At a certain level, this probably seems insane -- and there's an excellent reason for that. Shutdowns over spending levels or taxes are probably easier to grasp, but GOP lawmakers, after being rebuked by the American electorate, have decided to throw an extraordinary and dangerous tantrum over a moderate health care reform law that mirrors a policy enacted by the most recent Republican presidential nominee and adheres to a policy blueprint drafted by the Heritage Foundation.

It's this centrist law that has, for reasons that confound, pushed Republicans into almost sociopathic rage. Whether it's sane or not is apparently irrelevant.

Indeed, last night, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) tweeted that Democrats shut down the government -- he clearly has an excellent sense of humor -- because Dems don't want to "discus the failures" of the Affordable Care Act.

I'm not at all confident that the inept Speaker even knows what these words mean. The government closed its doors because one party wouldn't have a conversation?

Tell you what, Mr. Speaker, end the shutdown and I'll bet Democrats will "discuss" the relative merits of "Obamacare" all you want.

http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/10/01/20771002-why-republicans-shut-down-the-government?lite

Not all of the government is shut down, but it's a horrible thing. Congress should not be paid for their efforts (not that that will matter to them), because they were NOT in good faith.

No one understands the Affordable Care Act. Truthfully, they should have made more public service announcements on TV. The administration is at fault for very shoddy PR. People don't understand it and they don't realize parts of the act have been in place for quite some time. Having the ability to keep up to 26 year olds on your parent's policy is part of the ACA and people have been using that benefit for some time.

The GOP/TPers' belief that Obamacare is Armageddon is not based in fact ~ in fact, the exact opposite is true ~ the old saying "if you repeat a lie over and over, it becomes your truth" at work ~ GOP/TPers are terrified the law will work ~ bolding/emphasis below is mine ~ there are "live links" to more/corroborating info in the original ~ Sooz

Why the GOP can't avoid responsibility
By Steve Benen - Tue Oct 1, 2013 8:36 AM EDT

It's understandable that no one in Washington wants to be blamed for the government shutdown, even those responsible for it, because crises like these are wildly unpopular. The electorate has come to expect sharp partisan differences, but shutdowns are tantrums that the public tends to find repulsive.

And so, we will hear many congressional Republicans and many in the political media suggest Democrats bear some or all of the responsibility for this fiasco. For those who care about reality in the slightest, anyone making such an argument deserves to be laughed at.

The detail to keep in mind is that most GOP lawmakers aren't bothering with the pretense. They know that Republicans shut down the government -- and they're proud of it.


Oh, and by the way, blame Democrats?

Republicans picked this fight; they rejected a center-right spending measure Democrats were willing to accept; and now they're boasting about having done exactly what they wanted to do.

This is less about value judgments than demonstrable facts. Maybe you think the shutdown is a great idea; maybe you're disgusted. Either way, that congressional Republicans are responsible for these developments is not in doubt. Anyone who suggests otherwise is playing Americans for fools.

http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/10/01/20771365-why-the-gop-cant-avoid-responsibility?lite

My oldest niece has aged out of her parent's insurance so she'll have to sign up for Obamacare, lucky for her.

Obviously, the GOP/TPers meme as "fiscal conservatives" FAILS ... BIG ~ and these numbers don't include the $50M+ already spent on the 40+ efforts to defund Obamacare ~ ~ there are "live links" to more/corroborating information in the original ~ Sooz

Breakdown: Here’s The Economic Cost Of Shutting Down The Government
By Annie-Rose Strasser on September 30, 2013 at 7:23 pm

A shutdown isn’t just bad politically, it can also be damaging to the United States’ economy, taking the paychecks of federal employees out of the mix, and disrupting tourism across the country.

Here’s a look at some of the latest numbers on how a shutdown might affect our economy:

• A shutdown that lasted between three and four week could cost the economy about $55 billion, by the estimate of Moody’s Analytics economist Brian Kessler.
• Washington, DC, would lose $200 million a day on lost wages and lost spending by those who get furloughed. That estimate doesn’t include tourism, and the huge losses DC will feel from the museums and national mall being closed.
• The shutdown would “reduce federal spending” by about $8 billion, which could reduce GDP growth by .8 percent annualized, according to a report released Monday by Goldman Sachs.
• Moody’s Analytics’ Mark Zandi pegs the amount lost in economic growth in the fourth quarter at as much as 1.4 percent.
• One billion dollars a week from the pay of the roughly 800,000 federal employees will be lost from the U.S. economy.

These numbers, of course, don’t count a lot of things: The loans that the Small Business Administration will stop making, the permits that the Environmental Protection Agency won’t issue, the contracts that will be put on hold, and the nutrition assistance for infants and mothers that won’t go out. Or, of course, a tanking stock market that could ruin consumer confidence.

As ThinkProgress’s Alan Pyke previously noted, “Most of the costs of a shutdown are hard to tabulate because they involve damage to consumer, investor, and business confidence coming out of a shutdown, and lost time spent preparing for the worst in the weeks before a shutdown.” But Republicans are already feeling the political costs of forcing a shutdown: Their business allies, who recognize the potential damage a shutdown could do, have broken ranks and urged Republicans to call off the shutdown.

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2013/09/30/2706091/cost-of-shutdown/

I have a question. Are the furloughed (laid-off) workers eligible for unemployment benefits?

I think this says it all...

I went through two short term, shut down furloughs when I worked for the IRS. If I remember correctly (this was back in the 80s), we were told we could apply for unemployment if we we out more than a week. In my case, we were back at work within a day or two. I don't know what the procedure is now.

If they can collect unemployment, that just adds to the cost of the shut down.

Targeted, succinct, TRUE ~ we don't have the same constraints Krugman faces at the NYT, so I will post the "visual" Krugman mentions in his opening paragraph next ~ there are "live links" to more/corroborating information in the original ~ Sooz

October 1, 2013, 9:27 am
The Economics and Politics of Chaos

The best commentary I’ve seen on what just happened is visual, and can be seen here. Unfortunately, I don’t think I should put that image on a Times web site.

But how did we get here? Interestingly, Ezra Klein implicitly offers two quite different interpretations.

First, he describes very well what the policy issue, such as it is, amounts to:


Indeed. There’s a definite class-war aspect to this fight, pitting the interests of the 0.1 percent against those of lower-income families. But at this point the 0.1 percent, by and large, are pleading with the GOP to knock it off. So while class war may have been where this started, the monster has long since escaped from its cage; even Karl Rove, more or less the designated defender of upper-class privileges, is whining that the party won’t listen to him.

In a different post, Klein alludes to this by quoting Mann and Ornstein:


It’s very important, I think, to realize that while right now the GOP seems to have been taken hostage by its radical wing, the general strategy of responding to a lost election by trying to gain through blackmail what the party couldn’t gain at the polls was a consensus decision, arrived at way back in January. If the leadership is now dismayed by where it finds itself — leading a party of “lemmings with suicide vests” — it has only itself to blame.

And a crucial piece of the story, I think, is the conservative bubble, which among other things means that many on the right have wildly distorted ideas about Obamacare. A fair number of GOP politicians may actually believe that it’s a communist plot, or the moral equivalent of slavery, or something.

Coming back to the class warfare issue: my working theory is that wealthy individuals bought themselves a radical right party, believing — correctly — that it would cut their taxes and remove regulations, but failed to realize that eventually the craziness would take on a life of its own, and that the monster they created would turn on its creators as well as the little people.

And nobody knows how it ends.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/01/the-economics-and-politics-of-chaos/?_r=0

Here's the visual Krugman likes ~ I do too ~ Sooz

Which lawmakers will refuse their pay during the shutdown?
By Ed O'Keefe, Published: October 1 at 12:12 pmE-mail the writer
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Hundreds of thousands of rank-and-file federal employees were forced out of the office this morning because of the start of a government shutdown and won't be paid over the course of the impasse.

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) (AP)

But members of Congress and the president, who are so at odds over who caused the shutdown, will continue being paid and must be by law. That's because their jobs are authorized by the U.S. Constitution and are paid with mandatory funds, not discretionary spending dependent on annual appropriations.
Rank-and-file lawmakers of the House and Senate earn $174,000 annually, while congressional leaders earn more. Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) makes $223,500 a year, slightly less than the $230,700 salary for Vice President Biden and about half of the $400,000 salary for President Obama.
Several lawmakers have already said that they plan to donate or refuse compensation earned over the course of the impasse. Here's a running tally that we will continue updating through the day:
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio): His office said in a statement that the senator "will not accept his federal salary accrued during the government shutdown and will instead donate it to charity. In 2011, Brown pledged to forego his salary in the event of a government shutdown. Following the 1995 shutdown, Brown donated his salary to various charities in his then-House District." He will donate his salary this time to the Ohio-based Honor Flight Network.
Sen. Thomas R. Carper (D-Del.): The senator plans to donate pay earned during the shutdown to a Delaware charity, a spokeswoman said.
Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.): He has asked that his pay be withheld "for the length of the shutdown," according to his office. He is a co-sponsor of the Government Shutdown Fairness Act,
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.): A spokeswoman says the senator "will not be paid during the federal shutdown. He donates to charity and does not believe a government shutdown should necessitate charitable contributions, compassion for fellow man should."
Rep. Steve Daines (R-Mont.): He will donate his salary during the shutdown to the Big Sky Honor Flight, his office said Tuesday.
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii): She said last Friday that "until federal employees who must work during the shutdown are paid. I am proud to stand with the hardworking federal employees at Camp Parks in Dublin and across the country by ensuring that I am treated no differently in this situation.”
Rep. Pete Gallego (D-Tex.): The freshman lawmaker said Monday, "I will be donating my salary to an organization that helps military men and women who are injured while serving their country. They have sacrificed - Congress should heed their example." On Saturday he also introduced the "Shutdown Member of Congress Pay Act," which would -- you guessed it -- withhold lawmaker pay in the event of a shutdown.
Rep. Derek Kilmer (D-Wash.): On his Facebook page, he said he would give up his pay "for the duration of a government shutdown. I am dead set against a shutdown because it will have serious effects on our economy and because many people rely on services provided by federal agencies. The fact that some in Congress would risk a shutdown in order to score political points demonstrates why Congress is currently held in lower regard than head lice."
Rep. Markwayne Mullins (R-Okla.): He is donating his pay over the course of the shutdown, according to his office.
Rep. Gary Peters (D-Mich.): He announced last week via Twitter that he would donate his pay during the shutdown to charity.
Rep. Scott Rigell (R-Va.): He is likely to donate his salary for the duration of the shutdown, according to aides, who note that he already gives 15 percent of his salary back to the U.S. Treasury to help pay down the federal debt.

Rep. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.): He announced about a week ago that he plans to donate his pay earned during the shutdown to charity.
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.): The freshman announced Monday that he would refuse his pay "until federal employees who must work during the shutdown are paid."
Rep. Niki Tsongas (D-Mass.): In a statement issued Tuesday morning, she said she "will not accept a pay check for the duration of the government shutdown."
Rep. Ann Wagner (R-Mo.): On her Facebook page, she said "As a result of partisan bickering and gridlock, I have waived my salary for the duration of the government shutdown because Congress didn’t get the job done. Those who make the laws should have to live by those laws, and I will continue to fight for the people of Missouri’s 2nd District."
Others who have said they will refuse their pay:
Rep. Ron Barber (D-Ariz.)
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.)
Rep. Colleen Hanabusa (D-Hawaii)
Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Ohio)
Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-Fla.)
Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn.)
Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.)
Rep. Robert Pittenger (R-N.C.)
Rep. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.)
Rep. Bill Flores (R-Tex.)
Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-N.M.)
Rep. John Barrow (D-Ga.)
Jeff Simon and Aaron Blake contributed to this report.

During the transportation bill fight the FAA was shut down. Workers were given conflicting messages about unemployment. It took 3 weeks and much aggravation to get the first check for $357. Eventually, pay was restored and we had to refund the $357 to unemployment.

That was once agency shut down. There is no way the DC unemployment office could handle requests from all the workers affected by this job, and in fact the DC government is supposed to be shut down as well, but the mayor is defying the shutdown and declaring all DC employees essential. He will eventually be taken to task.

After the serious harm these antics are intentionally heaping on others and on the economy "just because", what is really enraging me are the games being played ~ it reminds me of playing "hot potato" or "musical chairs" as a child ~ they don't have a clue what to do ~ and WE all pay the price for their ignorance fueled by their egotism and arrogance ~ and John Boehner has proven himself, again, to be the weakest/worst speaker in history ~ ~ Sooz

House Republicans suggest government a la carte
By Steve Benen - Tue Oct 1, 2013 4:56 PM EDT

Plan A was for the House to pass a spending measure that gutted the Affordable Care Act, which the Senate could then clean up and send on to the White House. Plan B was the House bill to go ahead and defund the health care law and dare the Senate to pass it. Plan C was the House bill to delay health care benefits for a year and dare the Senate again.

Plan D was a half-hearted House Republican effort to embrace budget talks that House Republicans spent six months avoiding. And Plan E is, well, kind of silly.


Why House Republicans don't just make Cruz the Speaker and get it over with is unclear.

Regardless, this new plan is hilarious. Republicans could pass a center-right spending bill and end the shutdown, but what they'd prefer to do is break up the federal spending bill into chunks, and slowly turn the lights on piecemeal. Staffers were referring today to "mini-CRs."

The idea, apparently, is to identify the parts of the Republicans' shutdown that make the public upset, then pass a spending measure that resolves just that part of the crisis while leaving the rest of the government shut down. Americans are annoyed by closed federal parks? No sweat, Republicans say, they'll pass a mini-CR that provides funding to reopen the parks -- and nothing else.

And then when some other part of the shutdown creates public pressure, presumably Republicans would consider flipping the switch on that, too. The goal, apparently, is to shut down the government without feeling the political repercussions of a wildly unpopular government shutdown.

Sigh.

It didn't take long for Democratic policymakers to dismiss the nonsense.


Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) called it "just another whacky idea." Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) asked why opening federal parks is more important than "ensuring seniors, poor mothers, and children have access to meals and critical services?" A senior Senate Democratic aide said the House gimmick has "no chance" of success.

House Republicans can either keep their shutdown going, or they end this fiasco. The time for stunts, gimmicks, and partial pseudo solutions has long since passed.

http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/10/01/20776192-house-republicans-suggest-government-a-la-carte

One good thing happened:

http://freakoutnation.com/2013/10/01/kkk-rally-at-gettysburg-had-to-be-canceled-because-of-the-government-shutdown/

KKK Rally at Gettysburg had to be canceled because of the Government shutdown
October 1, 2013
By Anomaly

A planned Ku Klux Klan rally at a historic landmark of American history was cancelled due to the government shutdown. Park officials said they rescinded all permits for special events because of the shutdown that began at midnight.

The permit had been approved for a Maryland-based KKK group, the Confederate White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, for a Saturday gathering.

The KKK has the sads today.

The KKK event at Gettysburg National Military Park was canceled, as all National Parks are closed now due to the shutdown.

NBC Philadelphia reports, “Park officials had defended granting the permit, saying they have a responsibility to make the land available for citizens to exercise their right to freedom of speech, even if the views expressed are contrary to those of most Americans.

The group held a membership rally last month at the Antietam National Battlefield near Sharpsburg, Md., where thousands died in a Civil War clash that set the stage for the Emancipation Proclamation.”

Karma, it’s a thing.

That's because "Obama refuses to compromise" by eliminating his life achievement aka ACA. The nerve of this president!

News from the front.

Approximately one third of the Federal Aviation Administration Technical Center is essential this week. If the shutdown continues to next week there will be more drastic cuts, If it continues to October 15, the technical center will reduce to a skeleton staff of approximately 100. (A huge reduction from approximately 2500 employees).

We often hear that "confession is good for the soul" ~ I admit Stutzman's "confession", coupled with Steve Benen's interpretation, is very good for my soul ~ ~ Sooz

Marlin Stutzman and post-policy nihilism
By Steve Benen - Thu Oct 3, 2013 9:03 AM EDT

For many of us, to remember the last time Republicans shut down the federal government is to think of then-Speaker Newt Gingrich. Specifically, the far-right Georgian admitted in November 1995 that he closed the government in part because President Clinton hurt his feelings on Air Force One -- the president didn't chat with Gingrich during an overseas flight and then made the Speaker exit at the rear of the plane.

It was a moment that captured the entire fiasco quite beautifully. A petulant, out-of-control Republican leader shut down the government largely to spite the president who made him feel bad.

We don't yet know if a similar moment will come to define this Republican shutdown, but I'd like to nominate this gem as an early contender.


Go ahead, Republicans, tell us another one about how the shutdown is Democrats' fault.

I've long argued that congressional Republicans are now defined by a post-policy nihilism, but even I'm surprised an elected GOP member of Congress would say this out loud, on purpose, and on the record.

The quote is just ... perfect. "We're not going to be disrespected" helps capture the extent to which Republican lawmakers are acting like a street gang, hurting the country deliberately out of some twisted sense of self-serving pride. "We have to get something out of this" reinforces the way in which GOP officials are holding the country hostage, expecting a ransom to be paid.

And "I don't know what that even is" makes clear that Republicans are being driven by a mindless radicalism. There's no meaningful policy goal in mind; there's no substantive motivation; there isn't even a strategic end goal. There's just a primal instinct and a right-wing id causing a national crisis.

http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/10/03/20801266-marlin-stutzman-and-post-policy-nihilism?lite

We have elected an ungovernable collection of snake-handlers, Bible-bangers, ignorami, bagmen and outright frauds, a collection so ungovernable that it insists the nation be ungovernable, too. We have elected people to govern us who do not believe in government.

We have elected a national legislature in which Louie Gohmert and Michele Bachmann have more power than does the Speaker of the House of Representatives, who has been made a piteous spectacle in the eyes of the country and doesn't seem to mind that at all. We have elected a national legislature in which the true power resides in a cabal of vandals, a nihilistic brigade that believes that its opposition to a bill directing millions of new customers to the nation's insurance companies is the equivalent of standing up to the Nazis in 1938, to the bravery of the passengers on Flight 93 on September 11, 2001, and to Mel Gibson's account of the Scottish Wars of Independence in the 13th Century. We have elected a national legislature that looks into the mirror and sees itself already cast in marble.

We did this. We looked at our great legacy of self-government and we handed ourselves over to the reign of morons.


Read more: Government Shutdown - The Reign Of Morons Is Here - Esquire
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Visit us at Esquire.com

I actually believe that, but gopqed would be lecturing me saying I call people stupid for not agreeing with me. I think it is the Reign of Morons. Intellectualism has become a bad thing and people want drinking buddies as their elected officials.

Closing down government because of a childish hissy fit is NOT acceptable in any way.

Jeff sent me this text this morning at 7:49.

I've been at the Technical Center for over an hour. I am the only one in the cafeteria. Four others have come through for breakfast & coffee but left. Scary and sad. Obviously more people have been cut since yesterday.

not sure how well it is working. i have read literally 100+ comments so far today, and NONE mentioned Obama (i know, you didn't say Obama), and only about half mentioned ANY party. the ones that mentioned party were disproportionately Republican. most people EITHER blame "political games" or "Republicans".

this is not going to be a PR win for the GOP.

Straight from the horse's mouth ... so to speak ~ Sooz

Even Hastert Doesn’t Think Boehner Needs To Follow Arbitrary ‘Hastert Rule’
By Josh Israel on October 3, 2013 at 9:00 am

Though it appears a majority of the House now backs a clean continuing resolution, Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) has thus far suppressed consideration because the idea does not have majority support within the GOP caucus and would thus violate the so-called “Hastert Rule.” But even the arbitrary requirement’s namesake, former House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-IL) says the Hastert Rule is a “non-entity” to which even he didn’t adhere.

Despite the disastrous and wide-ranging effects of the government shutdown his party forced, Boehner has steadfastly refused to bring up a straight bill to re-open the government, without dismantling Obamacare. Asked Monday whether he’d allow the House to give an up-or-down vote to a clean continuing resolution, Boehner told reporters, “That’s not going to happen.”

In an interview with Eleanor Clift for The Daily Beast, Hastert –the longest-serving Republican House Speaker in the nation’s history — said, “The Hastert Rule never really existed. It’s a non-entity as far as I’m concerned.” While he acknowledged that in 2006 he had explained he “philosophically” preferred to have at least half of the GOP conference behind legislation, it “wasn’t a rule.”

“The Hastert Rule is kind of a misnomer,” Hastert added. “The real Hastert Rule is 218,” a simple majority of the U.S. House when no seats are vacant, he continued. “If we had to work with Democrats, we did.”

A Huffington Post tally finds 20 House Republicans have now indicated they would be willing to back a clean bill. Combined with the 200 House Democrats, they could provide more than 218 votes to pas a clean continuing resolution — should Boehner bring the measure to the floor.

The Ohio Republican has previously disregarded the “Hastert Rule” to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, avert the “fiscal cliff,” and to provide Superstorm Sandy emergency aid funding.

Hastert declined to criticize Boehner directly, but noted, “You can’t be in Congress and shut down government and get anything done. It’s an oxymoron.”

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2013/10/03/2724581/hastert-rule-non-entity/