Friday, October 11, 2013

Government Shutdown Day 11: Thin Gruel

Us Feds are still hanging in there

















The WaPo is running a long End Of Week Two Story about the government shutdown (here), and I fully agree with this part:

The federal government has become the behemoth that cried wolf. For more than two decades, budget brinksmanship has been such a mainstay of Washington politics that many Americans long ago grew skeptical of claims that if one deal or another weren’t made, the Statue of Liberty would close or the nation’s highways would seize up in the mother of all gridlocks.

-- snip --

But the reality is that the government is too large and too complex for something as dramatic as a shutdown to cause anything as dramatic as an actual shutdown. At the peak of this latest closing, 800,000 out of about 1.9 million civilian federal employees were put on ice. Many arms of government still had half, three-quarters or even nine-tenths of their workers coming in every day, despite the closing of the money spigot.

"The government is too large and too complex for something as dramatic as a shutdown to cause anything as dramatic as an actual shutdown." Um .. okay .. if that means what I think it means, I agree. The administration has to dramatize the real shutdown - that is, the budget impasse - by staging a phony shutdown. Hence, the passive-aggressive nonsense of roping off open air monuments on the Washington Mall and scenic overlooks in national parks to make the impasse visible to Joe Citizen.

Would Joe Citizen otherwise notice the shutdown that some parts of the federal government are not at work? Truthfully, no. Not unless he's employed by the feds either directly or via a contractor, or married to someone who is, or gets a check from some social program or other, or works for a business that gets regulated. That's a lot of people, but not nearly so many as the Washington hive assumes.

Meanwhile, I'm warming up my soup.

The Crisis Continues 


10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Me too TSB but it looks like the checks will start rolling next week for the long-suffering fed workers. gwb
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/10/11/House-GOP-Caves-Will-Lift-Debt-AND-Reopen-Government

gwb

Anonymous said...

TSB: Did you see the size of that cyclone that is landing in Bengal India about now? It's bigger than India! gwb

http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/phailin-on-course-to-devastate-1/18611884

Juan Cole notes that India is investing big in coal plants... which he calls suicide. Stand by for flying tigers!

James said...

More Sir, please Sir!

Anonymous said...

James: The Onion has deciphered all the rhetoric on the bipartisan shutdown. My favorite: What happens if the government defaults on its debt?

The United States will lose the credibility and respect we incorrectly assume other nations still hold toward us. gwb
http://www.theonion.com/articles/the-onions-guide-to-understanding-the-debt-ceiling,34177/

Anonymous said...

James;TSB: How about this great idea from Ron Paul?
http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2013-10-12/fed-could-simply-cancel-2-trillion-government-debt

Presto-Chango!..The government has a $2Trillion debt to itself so just cancel it and you have no more debt ceiling problem and you can keep on borrowing and spending for a couple more years!gwb

James said...

GWB: "Presto-Chango!..The government has a $2Trillion debt to itself so just cancel it and you have no more debt ceiling problem and you can keep on borrowing and spending for a couple more years!" I guarantee that's what a lot of them are thinking.

Anonymous said...

TSB: I came across this book from 2007 today in the 'New Book' section. This guy predicted exactly what's happening in DC.(we are trapped by our own clever contradictions..or we would admit that we are tapped out.)

THE DILEMMAS OF DOMINATION

'The empire seems unassailable, but the empire is weak and precisely because of its quest for global domination.' So argues Walden Bello
I think this NSA deal was a significant historical event on our road to total world domination.gwb

Anonymous said...

TSB: Pepe has a great post (atimes.com) on 'Prince Bandar's failed secret trip to Moscow; our pivot away from regime change in Syria and sudden embrace of peace with Iran. The Isreali-Saudi axis vs Iran is looking like a loser and those angry callers to C-Span are already getting food stamp cut notices in the mail. (Connecticutt) gwb

TSB said...

The idea of forgiving our 2 Trillion debt to the U.S. Treasury (AKA ourselves) is a genius move.

It reminds me that FDR did the same thing. There was a famous political cartoon of him and his 'kitchen cabinet' saying "we owe it to ourselves." I'll post it if I can find a JPEG.

Anonymous said...

TSB: Strike up the band as the politicians start their song and dance for this week... led by Harry and Mitch and the always bubbly Patty Murray. http://bit.ly/1fx6ijQ

I can't find a photo of Harry and Mitch because I hear they can't stand each other but Patty always looks to me like she has been required to witness an execution that she ordered. (Defending the establishment is sooo boring!) gwb