It looks like the federal government is going to have a partial shutdown (which means at the very least, the National Parks will close). The White House Press Office mainstream media will blame divided, constitutional government, Harry Reid will call anyone who doesn’t accept a fascist state an anarchist, and the San Diego Free Press will parrot Markos’ little nicknames for the fiscal conservatives in the House.
The world will still turn at midnight tonight, the economy won’t tank (although the subsidized stock market might), and San Francisco won’t be invaded by Communist China… (hmmm).
Republicans DO have a way to educate the populace about the proper role of the federal government while outflanking President Obama and Majority Leader Reid. Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) has the right idea:
The House passed the military pay bill unanimously on Saturday night. Instead of reconvening the Senate on Sunday as some had called for, Senator Reid chose to wait until Monday afternoon to call the Senate back into session, increasing the possibility that the fight over Obamacare could put military pay in jeopardy.
This is the right tack to take tomorrow morning. Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution enumerates the 18 discreet, specific and unique powers delegated to the federal government. Each day, the House should post how much revenue is expected for the following month (about $200B). Then, each day, the House should send a 90-day CR to the Senate, funding one of those functions until the $200B is exhausted. If the Senate rejects it, add each power to the previous day’s resolution until Reid blinks.
Americans will realize that the Department of Education’s SWAT team is probably not a necessary function of the federal government, Republicans can start putting points on the board, and we might not even have to debate the debt ceiling increase.
Comments 4
“federal government is going to have a partial shutdown (which means at the very least, the National Parks will close). ”
I still wonder why we have to have “national” parks. I know its a legacy of TR’s progressivist centralization of America. But shouldn’t that land belong to the states? Really, I don’t think the federal government should own land, it can lease it, but not own land. Now would be a good time to turn back to the states while the feds aren’t running it.
In case it comes up about feds owning land – the land DC is on is from Maryland (AFAIK Virginia took it share back) so DC residents should be added to whatever congresional apportionment Maryland gets and federal buildings should be leased from Maryland IMO.
Author
“I still wonder why we have to have “national” parks.”
It’s the beauty of centralized planning. Now, if they can just figure a way to make sure that the rubes can’t go into the “national” parks, the politburo can build dachas for themselves
President Obama cannot have it both ways
He has 19 times granted exceptions of some kind to Ocare.
The exchanges are not ready, Delay it a year to sort out the problems and issues.
Defund it if the problems cannot be resolved
Exempting groups and Congressional staffs should not be allowed under the equal protection clause.
I do not understand or find credible this funding for 6 or 8 weeks. You are being paid to do a job, get it done, cut spending per the GAO report that outlines 400B to 500B of waste and redundancy.
The one thing I wish the GOP would do is offer an alternative to obamacare. the old system isn’t anything defensible – its a hodgepodge of subsidies and monopolies and little transparency. I’ve heard so much fearmongering that the GOP is going to get rid of the preexisting condition change and other popular provisions too. if we address those fears with a better option then obama would have no one to rally.