Government Shutdown on the clock thread

[StrangeSox]

So when do federal workers go back to work? Tomorrow, if it's signed tonight?

[cabiness42]

So when do federal workers go back to work? Tomorrow, if it's signed tonight?

 

I don't know for sure. I don't know the chain of official notification between the President signing the bill and the agency heads getting the instruction to open. We have a call-in line that is generally used to provide operating status during inclement weather. We've been told that it will be updated by 5am each morning as to whether or not we are open for business. I guess I have to set my alarm tomorrow morning and call in to find out. Funny thing is that, during this entire shutdown, tomorrow is the first weekday that my wife, son, and daughter were all off from school on the same day and we were going to do a fall color tour of Southern Indiana. I was almost hoping the deal wouldn't happen until after midnight.

[StrangeSox]

Pto!

[cabiness42]

Just passed the House 285-143. Only 87 Republican votes.

[Texsox]

BTW, is there a little irony that the most conservative leaders voted to keep people home and collecting (eventually) a government check without working and the liberals wanted people to actually work for their government check?

[cabiness42]

BTW, is there a little irony that the most conservative leaders voted to keep people home and collecting (eventually) a government check without working and the liberals wanted people to actually work for their government check?

 

Yes, there definitely is irony in that.

 

[Big Hurtin]

BTW, is there a little irony that the most conservative leaders voted to keep people home and collecting (eventually) a government check without working and the liberals wanted people to actually work for their government check?

No, because I don't subscribe to right-wing radio's dog-whistle meaning of liberal.

[Jake]

Might as well keep this thread open.

 

Hickory, I'm sorry that it seems like you're going to become a pawn in a partisan dick measuring contest for the foreseeable future. I hope something happens in the intervening weeks to kick the can more than just a few months down the road

[cabiness42]

Might as well keep this thread open.

 

Hickory, I'm sorry that it seems like you're going to become a pawn in a partisan dick measuring contest for the foreseeable future. I hope something happens in the intervening weeks to kick the can more than just a few months down the road

 

I had already been trying to find a new job in the Indy or South Bend areas for family reasons. This just gives me more incentive to find something.

 

[pettie4sox]

I am glad they did the right thing. Hopefully republicans will try to win elections to influence policy in the future.

[cabiness42]

I am glad they did the right thing. Hopefully republicans will try to win elections to influence policy in the future.

 

Well, they ARE trying to win elections--they're just doing a very poor job of it. I would have thought the Lugar/Murdouck fiasco would have taught them a lesson but it doesn't seem that way.

[cabiness42]

Such a bizarre day at work. I spend a lot of time working with data from the previous day, except that for today, the "previous day" is September 30.

[pettie4sox]

Such a bizarre day at work. I spend a lot of time working with data from the previous day, except that for today, the "previous day" is September 30.

 

Bwhahaha glad to see you back in the grind, Hickory.

[bmags]

Such a bizarre day at work. I spend a lot of time working with data from the previous day, except that for today, the "previous day" is September 30.

 

Congrats on being back!

[Balta1701]

75 year old Republican Senator Thad Cochran from Mississippi who voted in favor of restarting the government last night gets a Club For Growth/Tea Party primary challenger entering the race today.

the Madison Project wrote that there is simply no justification from a conservative perspective to re-elect Cochran, “especially in a state as conservative as Mississippi. Like many old-bull Republicans, Thad Cochran has voted for endless spending, tax increases, abortion funding, energy regulations, and most recently – funding for Obamacare.”

[Texsox]

Who cares we signed the Cuban . . .

[southsider2k5]

[Balta1701]

I'm going to guess you're posting that because of the green spike - the horror, they undid all the costly emergency measures of moving funds around that the SecTreas does. Remember, every time they hit the debt limit and use the extraordinary measures, it costs a ton of money - $1.3 billion according to the CBO.

[lostfan]

The debt ceiling is f***ing stupid, it's an anachronistic relic from the gold standard era that just needs to go away. It's not in the Constitution and the congressional budgeting process already fulfills the requirements of what the Constitution actually does say anyway. Besides, the assholes in Congress pretending to care about the deficit all of a sudden and who actually voted for most of the debt of the last 10 years didn't care about it until 2 years ago... this graph should show you how they were cool with it when they were the ones spending the money, disabuse you of any silly "both sides do it" nonsense, and show you who's really responsible for this all at the same time if you take note of who was running Congress and the presidency in which years (Dems were not in charge of Congress in '06 and Obama was not president in '08, FYI, and Obama didn't have anything to do with the skyrocketing deficit in '09 despite what people pretend to believe)

 

[Texsox]

We do need to talk about it. So I do reject they "we never talked about it before so we shouldn't talk about it now" argument. I would prefer a discussions about the debt and balancing the budget over the hysterics and grandstanding about the debt ceiling.

[StrangeSox]

We don't need to balance the budget, especially when we still have unemployment over 7%.

[Texsox]

We don't need to balance the budget, especially when we still have unemployment over 7%.

 

Our debt is now over 100% of our GNP. How long are we going to continue borrowing to basically give it to Americans to maintain our lifestyles?

[StrangeSox]

Why do we need a balanced budget? Show your math.

[Y2HH]

Why do we need a balanced budget? Show your math.

 

The math is simply 17 trillion in debt. That has to be paid back, or the interest payments alone will begin to outweigh income. If this isn't paid back, a default is inevitable, it's not a matter of if, but when.

 

I'm not saying the time is NOW to balance the budget, but it has to be done, and that debt level has to come down, and the excuse of spend during bad times has become just that, an excuse. The issue is the same, and it will remain the same. The reason given that government should spend during bad times will get used -- correctly -- however, the government never draws back during good times and pays down the debt created during those bad times, and therefore it simply becomes an excuse.

 

They spend during good times, they spend during bad times, the debt level grows, interest payments grow, and so on...eventually it has to happen.

[Balta1701]

The math is simply 17 trillion in debt. That has to be paid back, or the interest payments alone will begin to outweigh income. If this isn't paid back, a default is inevitable, it's not a matter of if, but when.

 

I'm not saying the time is NOW to balance the budget, but it has to be done, and that debt level has to come down, and the excuse of spend during bad times has become just that, an excuse. The issue is the same, and it will remain the same. The reason given that government should spend during bad times will get used -- correctly -- however, the government never draws back during good times and pays down the debt created during those bad times, and therefore it simply becomes an excuse.

 

They spend during good times, they spend during bad times, the debt level grows, interest payments grow, and so on...eventually it has to happen.

Ah, the classic "this is a big number it must be bad!" post.

 

That debt level does not have to come down. It has to eventually balance as a share of GDP...which has already happened. Budget projections show that the debt as a share of GDP is stable for the next decade already. It could start going down in fact if we actually could get people back to work, but long ago we decided unemployment is a low priority.

 

But since you brought up interest payment outlays...it's worth noting that adjusted for GDP, interest outlays for the last decade are 1/2 what they were between 1980 and the Clinton administration, and despite the large increase in total debt over the last 5 years, interest payments have fallen as a share of GDP.

 

The interest on the debt is actually taking up less of a share of the economy now than it was in 2000 or 2006, and it's 1/2 of what it was in the early 90's, and there is zero evidence of a trend towards increasing interest payments as a share of the economy.