Republican anarchists didn’t like everything about the shutdown they forced last October. No…it wasn’t the fact that important things like food and aviation safety programs were put on hold. It wasn’t that poor people were going hungry or that “essential” government employees were working but not receiving their paychecks. It wasn’t that untold numbers of applications, hearings, meetings, consultations, and enforcement actions were delayed, sometimes causing damage beyond repair. It wasn’t that scientific research and medical trials were being harmed (sometimes irreparably). It wasn’t that the taxpayers paid for, and lost two, weeks of productivity from millions of government employees.
It wasn’t the $24 billion in damage they caused to the U.S. economy. Oh, well.
Nope…it wasn’t about any of that. It was because…Veterans. And national parks.
“Why were veterans turned away from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial?” House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., asked Wednesday….
“Why were members of the Americans’ finest generation in their 80s and 90s turned away and told they could not visit what would be undoubtedly in many cases their last time at those monuments?” Issa asked. “Why were private businesses and nonprofits operating near park land shuttered?”
Because YOU SHUT DOWN THE GOVERNMENT, you stupid fuck!
Republicans were caught unawares. And then, even with their best efforts, they were unsuccessful in shifting the blame of their own obstructionism to the Black guy in the White House.
What to do for the next government shutdown that could happen again after January 15th? Plan ahead!
The Provide Access and Retain Continuity (PARC) Act, which has 17 Republican co-sponsors, would allow states to keep national parks operating in the event of another shutdown and would make them eligible for reimbursement by the federal government. (During the shutdown, six states entered into a similar agreement.)
That’s right…Republicans are now planning for their own failure to govern. “Screw all the other negative consequences…we want our shutdowns to be less politically painful.”
Bruce Sheaffer, Comptroller of the National Park Service, isn’t having it. He delivered a solid smackdown to G.O.P. obstructionists:
We have a great deal of sympathy for the businesses and communities that experienced a disruption of activity and loss of revenue during last month’s government shutdown and that stand to lose more if there is another funding lapse in the future. However, rather than only protecting certain narrow sectors of the economy…from the effects of a government shutdown in the future, Congress should protect all sectors of the economy by enacting appropriations on time, so as to avoid any future shutdowns.
[…]
[Planning for failure] “is not a responsible alternative to simply making the political commitment to provide appropriations for all the vital functions the federal government performs.”
In other words…DO YOUR DAMN JOB!
Fucking assholes.
Well what with current administration efforts to curb the dark political money of today’s day. I predict it’s a good time to invest in Pearl and Fainting Couch futures.
Proclaiming of the danger of the Kenyan Usurper, AKA ODS, will be better than any fireworks in 2014.
To bad about the collateral damage caused by the show.
Government needs to be made smaller and less intrusive, but this should be done slowly and with carefull planning. I suggest we start be reducing our military presence in the Middle East, Europe and Asia. For example, South Korea and Israel are capable of handling their own defense establishments. We could withdraw, in a measured fashion, from the Korean Peninsula and shrink the US military be a nice amount. Same thing goes for the Middle East and Europe. We simply can’t this massive overseas empire any longer.
Odramacare, is sinking faster than the Bismark…so quick talk about the shut down!
@2 Not much of a strategic thinker, are you?
@ 4 RR
FTFY
4 & 5,
OK, let’s just keep doing what we’re doing and continue this unsustainable overseas empire.
@6 If North Korea invades South Korea, what would you suggest we do?
@7
with the thousands of troops we have there now, there wouldn’t be much choice.
Next year will be like watching the titanic like Owebamma’s sinking poll ratings. 50 to 100 million will lose their health care coverage due to the UCA, and It is an election year when it happens. I cannot wait to see the dems jumping like lemmings, while the Senate turns Republican.
Hey, @9…would that be the same thinking that convinced you and the other delusional bubble people that Mittens won the election? Maybe you need to change you moniker from “I didn’t fall off the bus” to “I just stepped off the curb and didn’t see the fucking thing coming”
@9
Drink a lot of cool-aid, do you?
@9
Sounds like you’re getting a woodie just thinking about millions of your fellow Americans losing their insurance. Getting that warm and fuzzy feeling, aren’t you? Now is the time to reach for your goat and pleasure yourself.
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