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

Fri Oct 4 13:15:55 UTC 2013

The question that I have wondered about is if this Govt. shut-down dispute is " staged " shock doctrine tactics ?
Like the Fiscal Cliff " negotiations " last year.

David J.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: "E. Wayne Johnson 朱稳森" 
  To: Robert Naiman 
  Cc: Peace-discuss List 
  Sent: Thursday, October 03, 2013 11:20 PM
  Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] AFL-CIO: 8 Things You Need to Know About the Shutdown

  I think it's just make-believe partisan crap, exaggeration, accelerated nonsense.

  Shame on all those who support the Obot.

  On 10/04/13 10:07, Robert Naiman wrote: 
    If they were shutting down the Pentagon, I might have some sympathy for your position. But that's the one part of the government that they're not shutting down.  

    There is a big problem with the partisan discussion - it's excluding the Pentagon. A key reason that I agreed to host this event was to make sure that the Pentagon was included in the discussion. 

    On Thu, Oct 3, 2013 at 7:06 PM, "E. Wayne Johnson 朱稳森" <ewj at pigsqq.org> wrote:

      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
        naiman at justforeignpolicy.org

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    -- 
    Robert Naiman
    Policy Director
    Just Foreign Policy
    www.justforeignpolicy.org
    naiman at justforeignpolicy.org

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