One of the big stories from Washington is that there may be another fight over the debt limit, which could mean…gasp, hide the women and children…gridlock, downgrades, government shutdown, default, and tooth decay.
Okay, perhaps not tooth decay, but the DC establishment nonetheless is aghast.
Last year, there were actually two big confrontations between House Republicans and President Obama.
The first fight occurred early in the year and revolved around spending levels for the remainder of the 2011 fiscal year. I explained in February of that year how advocates of smaller government could prevail in a government shutdown fight, especially since the “essential” parts of the government wouldn’t be affected.
But I wasn’t surprised when GOPers buckled under pressure and accepted a deal that – at best – could be categorized as a kiss-your-sister compromise (and, as I noted elsewhere, our sister wasn’t Claudia Schiffer).
Then we had the big debt limit fight later in the year, which led to absurd claims that failure to increase the debt limit would lead to default – even though the federal government was collecting ten times as much revenue as was needed to pay interest on the debt.
Once again, Republicans were unable to withstand the demagoguery and they basically gave Obama what he wanted after agreeing to a “supercommittee” that was designed to seduce them into a tax increase.
Now the game is about to start over. It’s deja vu all over again, as Yogi Berra might say.
Here’s some of what the L.A. Times reported.
Republicans in Congress are heading into summer much the way they did last year — instigating a showdown with the White House by demanding massive federal budget cuts in exchange for what used to be the routine task of raising the nation’s debt limit to pay the government’s bills. House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) is doubling down on the strategy that ended in mixed results last year after the country came to the brink of a federal default before a deal was struck with President Obama. In that go-round, both sides saw their approval ratings with voters plummet and the nation’s credit was downgraded. …The risk for Republicans is not only in presenting another high-stakes showdown at a time when voters have grown weary of the gridlock in Washington.
The reporter’s assertion that the debt limit fight led to the downgrade is a bit silly, as I explain here, but that’s now part of the official narrative.
On a separate matter, I can’t help but shake my head with frustration that GOPers still haven’t learned that America’s fiscal problem is too much spending, and that deficits and debt are symptoms of that problem. Here’s another passage from the L.A. Times story.
“The issue is the debt,” Boehner said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week With George Stephanopoulos.” “Dealing with our deficit and our debt would help create more economic growth in the United States and it would lift this cloud of uncertainty that’s causing employers to wonder what’s next.”
No, Mr. Speaker. The problem is spending, spending, spending.
Returning to the main issue, the debt limit isn’t the only big fiscal fight that may happen this year. There will also be the spending bills for the 2013 fiscal year, which starts on October 1 of this year. That will mean another fight, particularly since the left has no intention of abiding by the spending limit that was part of last year’s debt limit deal.
And if Republicans hold firm, that means another “government shutdown.” Though it really should be called a “government slowdown” since it’s only the non-essential bureaucrats who get sent home.
In any event, since I’m glum about the likelihood of anything good happening, let’s at least enjoy some good cartoons from Jeff MacNelly. He passed away a number of years ago, but these cartoons from the mid-1990s are just as applicable today as they were then.
These are amusing cartoons, so long as you don’t actually think about the fact that government is bloated in part because Washington is littered with programs, departments, and agencies that are filled with non-essential bureaucrats. And don’t forget that these bureaucrats are overpaid, getting, on average, twice the compensation of workers in the productive sector of the economy.
But I don’t want to end this post on a sour note, so here are some good jokes from the late-night comics about government shutdowns.
[…] MacNelly was the Michael Ramirez of the Reagan generation. For example, see these cartoons about government shutdowns, the tax code, and the United […]
[…] and then another major shutdown fight in 2013 (as well as rumors of possible shutdown fights in 2012 and 2014). And Republicans ostensibly were at fault in every […]
[…] David Letterman seems a bit too deferential to Obama, but he has a few good jokes, and his jab about non-essential bureaucrats reminds me of these great MacNelly cartoons. […]
[…] not sure why they’re so agitated. After all, the shutdown is really just a slowdown since only non-essential bureaucrats are sent home. And everyone winds up getting paid for those unplanned vacations, which is why the bureaucrats I […]
[…] not sure why they’re so agitated. After all, the shutdown is really just a slowdown since only non-essential bureaucrats are sent home. And everyone winds up getting paid for those unplanned vacations, which is why the bureaucrats I […]
[…] Not that I was exposed to many options in the pre-Internet dark ages, so my choice may have been driven by lack of knowledge. Nonetheless, MacNelly was a genius with the details, as you can see from these cartoons about IRS complexity and government shutdowns. […]
[…] I’ve previously shared some very good “government-shutdown” jokes, and also two superb cartoons on that topic from the 1990s. […]
[…] Not that I was exposed to many options in the pre-Internet dark ages, so my choice may have been driven by lack of knowledge. Nonetheless, MacNelly was a genius with the details, as you can see from these cartoons about IRS complexity and government shutdowns. […]
[…] Not that I was exposed to many options in the pre-Internet dark ages, so my choice may have been driven by lack of knowledge. Nonetheless, MacNelly was a genius with the details, as you can see from these cartoons about IRS complexity and government shutdowns. […]
[…] I’ve previously shared some very good “government-shutdown” jokes, and also two superb cartoons on that topic from the 1990s. […]
[…] I’ve previously shared some very good “government-shutdown” jokes, and also two superb cartoons on that topic from the 1990s. […]
[…] I’ve previously shared some very good “government-shutdown” jokes, and also two superb cartoons on that topic from the 1990s. […]
Lay off 20% of the federal (and state, and city) employees or cut their salaries and benefits by 20% across the board
[…] “government shutdown” fight was a sign of things to come for the last years, but at least weresuscitated two good cartoons and got some good jokes out of that […]
[…] shutdown” fight was a sign of things to come for the last years, but at least we resuscitated two good cartoons and got some good jokes out of that […]
Negotiating with an Organizer
( Click, then see the link at the upper right )
Fred: If you don’t compromise, I will shoot your sister.
Max: Hah! We both know you won’t do that.
Fred: I give in. It was a bluff.
Max: You should have threatened to shoot my dog.
08/05/11 – ChicagoBoyz by ArtChance
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[edited] The Republicans negotiate from “Getting to Yes”. Obama and his ilk negotiate from Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals.” Obama didn’t want a deal in the recent debt debate. He wanted and got a political process that could be played to his advantage against the “nice guy” Republicans.
Following Alinsky, he never made a concrete proposal, just pie in the sky positions. He made the Republicans negotiate with themselves to present something he would buy. Like negotiating with a public employee union, if you start by wanting an agreement, you wind up compromising yourself into their position. That is what Boehner and McConnell did.
To bargain with a communist-trained negotiator, you must start with a position that would kill him politically or economically if he accepted it. You really have to do what the Dems were accusing the Tea Party of. You must say quietly, “be reasonable so I don’t have to give you this alternative.”
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The Republicans started with “default for a few weeks would be better than your continued spending and increasing debt”. But, they fearfully accepted insignificant and false spending cuts rather than endure what the Democrats claimed was irresponsible and ideological politics.
The Republicans argued for the good, but their negotiating position became a bluff, and the Dems called it. They won’t do any better this time.
They would have to construct a detailed bill which would continue the government “in emergency”. They can’t call it a default. It would provide for debt payments and the suspension of non-essential government workers until the Dems come to a deal. The Pubs would have to call it an Emergency Spending Act and link it to education about just what the country faces. Make the education the news, not an act of default.
Whatever the Pubs threaten, it has to be something that they would want to do.
Reblogged this on Gds44's Blog.
[…] Another “Government Shutdown” Fight in Washington’s Future […]
We need more brave souls like those 66 that voted against raising the debt ceiling last year!!