Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Zangi]

Generally wouldn't expect old people that arn't the tech-knowy sort to get into this newfangled Twit thing kids are messing with these days anyways.

[smjjames]

Generally wouldn't expect old people that arn't the tech-knowy sort to get into this newfangled Twit thing kids are messing with these days anyways.

'generally', yes, but Trump isn't 'generally'.

Anyhow, the bill to avoid shutdown got defeated in the Senate. Other than obviously the shutdown, not sure what's next, heard rumors about some alternative CR of a few days.

Maybe they should take the time to do a proper budget, I found that they haven't even done a proper budget for like 20 years now.

[Doomblade187]

I unfortunately don't believe that our Congress is capable of balancing partisan concerns here to do so.

[Frumple]

It's apparently perhaps surprisingly common for older folks to be fairly active on social media, for what it's worth. Seem to recall it not being twitter that much, but even folks not exactly tech savvy can pick up how to leverage a website or two.

And yeah, a proper budget would be great. It'll probably happen about the same time the dems get a congressional supermajority and either the presidency or enough seats to override a veto. Until then you'll have kludges, CRs, and republican attempts to "downsize" that are about as much budget as renal failure is healthy kidneys. Unless something really odd happens to the GOP politician pool and their attitudes towards government, anyway.

[smjjames]

They're still trying to work out some sort of deal atm apparently, not enough time for a last minute deal though (since they didn't have a plan B). The fact that it's a weekend helps mitigate the shutdown a little, but still.....

[misko27]

The thing I've noticed is Republicans basically expected Democrats to vote for anything on the budget due to democrats being "Big government" and thus unwilling to sacrifice the government for political interests; and that they'd be able to use that to pass budget deals with primarily Democrats and the help of red-meat stuff to get conservatives in line and fill in the gaps. But since Republicans are the government, their negotiating position is like holding a gun to their own head and saying "Agree with me! Or I'll shoot!"

[smjjames]

That seems pretty naive, especially for politicians. Then again, people are people.

[Frumple]

Well, that and GOP electoral strategy over the last while have left them with(/chained to) odd notions of what the term "deal" means.

... though, that said, do remember some of the major causes of this have not been politicians for long, and varyingly ran on a platform of specifically being goddamn incompetent not being one. It's entirely possible there actually is some stuff somewhere being naivety and willful sodding ignorance going on, since some of the folks involved effectively aren't politicians in any way outside of having been elected.

[smjjames]

Plus Trumps inability to actually lead and the constant indecision on what he wants isn't helping either.

Also, some Dems are trolling with the proposed CR spending end date on the day of the State of the Union.

[Folly]

We are officially in government shutdown!
So...now what? Does this mean we don't get any more mail?

Regarding the blame game...

Dems are refusing to do their job, because they want Trump to do his job first.
Trump is refusing to do his job, because his racist constituents don't want him to do his job.

So yeah...it's all pretty stupid, and I think we only have ourselves to blame.

[smjjames]

Essential stuff includes the postal service.

[Frumple]

Think at least some of the post office stuff keeps running, so you'll probably still get some mail. There's summations about what gets paid or not floating around the net.

Beyond that, well, it depends on how long it lasts. If it doesn't last long (say three weeks or less), probably not much besides some folks kinda' pissed off. It lasts more than a month or two, well, our economy starts getting increasingly fucked (it turns out turning off the paychecks of massive swaths of the largest single employer in the country has some negative effects on the market :V) and we get to experience playing economic chicken with an oncoming global recession train.

[wierd]

Hilariously, those "Negative effects on the market" are a GREAT proxy to study for wage disparity against inflation, as the same sorts of effects happen, just much more slowly.

But of course, such a study will never happen.

[Karlito]

I don't believe USPS is funded through the budget. They can borrow money from the Treasury, but they're responsible for paying for their own operating costs by selling stamps and such.

[smjjames]

Think at least some of the post office stuff keeps running, so you'll probably still get some mail. There's summations about what gets paid or not floating around the net.

Beyond that, well, it depends on how long it lasts. If it doesn't last long (say three weeks or less), probably not much besides some folks kinda' pissed off. It lasts more than a month or two, well, our economy starts getting increasingly fucked (it turns out turning off the paychecks of massive swaths of the largest single employer in the country has some negative effects on the market :V) and we get to experience playing economic chicken with an oncoming global recession train.

There's a debt ceiling limit coming up under two months, and a prolonged shutdown could actually move that forward.

I really doubt it'll last a week, looks like they can fix this within 48 hours. They'll punt it to February and then I bet they'll punt it to March where that debt ceiling is lurking.