America is just days away from a potential government shutdown, as lawmakers have yet to come to an agreement on spending. House Republicans are holding firm on their vow to defund Obamacare. Senate Democrats, meanwhile, sent a continuing resolution back to the House on Friday that maintains funding at current levels while rejecting plans to strip the health law’s funding. Members of Congress from both parties are going back and forth over who will be to blame in the case of a shutdown. Watch this video to see some of the most heated moments.
I hope the federal government DOES shutdown. About 95% of what the federal government does today is wasteful and\or unconstitutional. And I don't give a damn what John Roberts says about OBAMACARE. Let's start by slashing the federal budget, and eliminating many government agencies and functions, as private companies can do many of these things cheaper and better. Let's start to prove I'm right by COMPLETELY CLOSING DOWN AND ELIMINATING the U.S. Postal Service. It's lived long past it's usefulness. To send messages, letters, and packages, we have email, texting, U.P.S. & FedEx. We pay our monthly bills online. Let's start there and see how well it works out. Remember Lawrence Garfield and the story he told about the buggy whips.
The Debt-Budget Stand-Off at OK Corral
If the Executive doesn't have power to borrow money for IOU's incurred by Congress, it has to respect and make payment on such debts by raising money from other sources, eg, by selling or leasing out household assets (national assets), or selling services. Well, they sell surplus government equipment, offices, government land and lease out natural resource rights all the time don't they?
So they can rent out or sell and (optionally) leaseback the Congressional House and Senate office buildings (obviously inefficently used) to the highest bidder on eBay, Sotheby or whatever. To make things even handed, they should include the White House, some national monuments, a couple of dams, a few US interstate highways and maybe a few armed force bases in the Congressional Districts that are being difficult on the matter, and an aircraft carrier or two in the package. Of course those Congressfolks who object to increasing the debt limit will be absolutely delighted at these "privatizations" in support of the unleashed capitalism they espouse.
The debt-budget standoff being a repetitive conduct syndrome, these sale-leaseback contracts and any related paperwork suitable for a wide variety of assets, and services that can be performed by the government, should all be prepared and ready to go, since, if not needed now, they probably will be needed at some point in the future. To facilitate the process, contingent bids could be accepted in advance for anticipatory contingent funding needs to leave unquestioned that the debt of Congress, ummm, the US, shall not be questioned, per the 14th Amendment.
Some in Congress will object, but will have to pass a constitutional amendment to prevent it, and that WOULD conflict with the 14th Amendment. Good luck.
Cheers (with tongue in cheek)
I vote that Democrats not participate in a "showdown." This is a House responsibility, enumerated in the Constitution, and they should simply do their job. If the Republican majority introduces a clean CR, Democrats should duly vote for it. Anything else, let the crybabies negotiate with themselves.
If you see defence, education, welfare, healthcare and national infrastructure to be unconstitutional - since they make up most of that so-called 95% waste - then you don't even know what a country/nation is, and has to be, so go away. If you start talking about State's power and responsibility, then you don't want a SINGLE country at all - but a collection of smaller individual countries - and if that isn't against the constitution of the single country - the United State's of America - then I don't know what is...
All the issues you're talking about are a drop in the ocean compared to those I just mentioned. If you want to cut back there is ONLY one place to start - and that's defence, because the waste there probably outweighs every other department put together. My suggestion is to cut back on defence and put what you can into infrastructure...
@PerryWhite1 Get ready to have the ACA. You can accept the law as has been duly passed like a gentleman, or have it shoved down your throat like a petulant child. Personally I hope you choose the latter.
@KeillRandor Then WHEN is The Obamaniac going to "end the wars" like he promised in 2008 ? ! Why did he lie about that ? ! And why is he continuing to pour trillions of taxpayer dollars into the dreaded and hated Stalinist OBAMACARE which ALL polls show the American people don't want ?!
@outsider @KeillRandor In the words of a famous congressman: "YOU LIE !" The Obamaniac had DEMOCRATIC MAJORITIES in BOTH houses of congress for TWO SOLID YEARS. WHY didn't he close Gitmo then ? ! Why didn't he "end the wars" then ? ! I'll tell you why: The Obamanaic LIED. People DIED. Why won't he even tell the TRUTH about the murders of our government officials in Benghazi instead of running around yelling "What does it matter ?" ? ! The Obamaniac LIED. Americans DIED.
He hasn't been trying ? next year for Afghanistan. Already out of Iraq.
It's funny the right stops him from fulfilling his promises, then complain about it.
Remember Gitmo? Said he'd close it - congress wouldn't fund it.
Don't blame Obama, without first blaming the GOP.
And speaking of wasteful spending, how about 40 attempts to defund the law of the land? You ok with that $40 million being wasted?