[Peace-discuss] AFL-CIO: 8 Things You Need to Know About the Shutdown

["E. Wayne Johnson 朱稳森"]

Let's find ways to make the shutdown permanent.


On 10/04/13 5:31, Robert Naiman wrote:
>
> http://www.aflcio.org/Blog/Political-Action-Legislation/8-Things-You-Need-to-Know-About-the-Shutdown
>
> 8 Things You Need to Know About the Shutdown
> Seth D. Michaels
>
> This post originally appeared at Working America.
>
> In case you haven’t heard, the government shut down [Tuesday morning] 
> as Congress failed to pass a “continuing resolution” to keep it 
> operating. You’ll hear a lot of people saying this is a “standoff” or 
> a simple case of two sides being unable to compromise. But it’s not 
> politics as usual—it’s an unusual, and dangerous, hijacking of 
> politics by a determined minority. Here are eight things to keep in 
> mind as you watch this play out.
>
> 1. It’s Totally Optional: First and foremost, there’s no reason for a 
> shutdown, except that House Republicans refuse to pass a continuing 
> resolution (CR) without attaching unrelated provisions to undermine 
> the Affordable Care Act. This is not an inevitable crisis. It’s a 
> manufactured one.
>
> 2. About 800,000 People Aren’t Working, Many Working Without Pay: 
> That’s according to this good, comprehensive overview by Brad Plumer 
> of The Washington Post. “Non-essential employees” like medical 
> researchers, pesticide regulators, wage-law enforcement officials and 
> veterans’ benefits processors are staying home today, and it’s unclear 
> whether they’ll get back pay. That hit households hard.*
>
> 3. A Lot of People Could Go Without Benefits: Per Plumer’s report, 
> some services provided by the government—like disability claims and 
> pensions for veterans and food aid for low-income parents—will fall 
> short if the shutdown goes on too long.
>
> 4. That’s Awful for the Economy: When people don’t get the money 
> they’re expecting to get, they can’t do things like buy food or pay 
> rent. When families and businesses don’t know when government will 
> re-open, that makes matters worse. One economic research firm 
> estimates the cost of a shutdown to our economy at $300 million a day.
>
> 5. Senate Democrats Have Already Compromised: The CR that Senate 
> Democrats have passed, multiple times, isn’t based on their ideal 
> budget. It’s based on the House Republicans’ lower spending levels, 
> which lock in place sequestration cuts.
>
> 6. Keeping the Government Open Isn’t a Concession: House Republicans 
> are trying to say that they’re just trying to “negotiate” with the 
> Senate. But “do what we say or the economy gets it” isn’t a 
> “negotiation.” It does not constitute a compromise on their part to 
> “offer” to fund government operations. It’s called “governing.”
>
> 7. Many Republicans Understand What They’re Doing Is Crazy, Are Doing 
> It Anyway: It’s simply not the case that most, or even all, 
> Republicans, are enthusiastic about forcing a standoff. Even 
> conservative writers admit that this is about a small, committed 
> ideological caucus within the Republican Party. As Kate Nocera 
> reports, Wisconsin Republican Reid Ribble called the shutdown strategy 
> “irrational” and admitted that it would cause “risk to our economy.” 
> And yet—out of loyalty to leadership, fear of a primary opponent or 
> some other mysterious reason—he voted with the rest of his party for 
> the “irrational” and economy-damaging strategy at every opportunity. 
> You get zero credit for knowing the right thing if you keep doing the 
> wrong thing anyway.
>
> 8. It’s Undemocratic: Government by manufactured crisis and 
> hostage-taking violates the basic norms of democracy—and the polls 
> show that shutting down government to block or undermine the new 
> health care law is a deeply unpopular position. Republicans are 
> engaging in this behavior because they couldn’t win enough power in 
> elections to get what they want any other way. It’s absurd to accept 
> that as normal.
>
> As this situation unfolds, keep those eight points in mind.
>
> *Full disclosure: as the spouse of a federal employee, I’m part of one 
> of these hard-hit households.
>
> -- 
> Robert Naiman
> Policy Director
> Just Foreign Policy
> www.justforeignpolicy.org <http://www.justforeignpolicy.org>
> naiman at justforeignpolicy.org <mailto:naiman at justforeignpolicy.org>
>
>
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