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[The Week] America's shutdown indifference

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by Os Trigonum, Jan 15, 2019.

  1. Os Trigonum

    Os Trigonum Contributing Member
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    As a (for the most part) small-government Democrat, I share this general indifference toward the government shutdown.

    https://theweek.com/articles/817553/americas-shutdown-indifference

    America's shutdown indifference
    Matthew Walther
    January 15, 2019

    I have two memories of the federal government shutdown of 2013. One is not actually mine but my wife's. At the time she was employed as a waitress at a restaurant in the Clarendon neighborhood of Arlington, Virginia. During those 16 days she waited on hundreds of furloughed government employees, in many cases during what would otherwise have been their ordinary working hours.

    The vast majority of these public servants left no tips regardless of the size of their bills, some of which were substantial. Many of them instead wrote notes politely explaining that they wished they could contribute a gratuity but given the circumstances they were sure everyone would understand. Perhaps they were under the impression that my wife and her co-workers, most of whom were African-American women who had made the long commute from over the river in Anacostia in order to serve novelty drinks and gigantic appetizer platters to these selfless officials, had Ted Cruz's cell number and could bring the whole thing to a halt if they so chose. Or maybe they were just being the lazy, entitled, self-aggrandizing make-work goons millions of Americans imagine them as.

    The other memory, which is less horrifying but even more ludicrous, is of barriers being erected around various D.C.-area landmarks, including open-air war memorials. To this day I cannot think of any good reason for this save sheer caprice. If the idea was that 550-foot obelisks made of granite simply could not be meaningfully serviced during those lean two weeks in 2013, then who was responsible for putting up the rent-a-fence barricades around them? Civic-minded volunteers? The U.S. Marine Corps? Barack Obama himself? It was beautifully cynical, and I congratulate whoever came up with it.

    I mention these anecdotes not because I think the present record-setting shutdown is good or sane policy but because I am trying to illustrate why I and other Americans have a hard time caring much about it. In the popular imagination — and sometimes in dozens of little-read memos from the inspectors general of various departments — the average federal employee appears to be lazy, incompetent, performing meaningless tasks for too much pay, with an enviable array of benefits and other amenities (I still roll my eyes in disgust whenever I am reminded that there exist special credit unions for federal employees, whose pay and job security would be the envy of a hundred million other Americans). Government employees, at both the state and federal level, are among the only workers in the United States who continue to be represented by powerful unions, despite the fact that by definition they're not bargaining against capital but against their fellow citizens.

    This is to say nothing of the vast assortment of contractors, consultants, and hangers-on whose "work" has been temporarily interrupted by the shutdown. Their grotesque salaries have blighted the landscape with McMansions and driven housing prices in Maryland and northern Virginia to a level beyond what most families with children will ever be able to afford. So the people whose job it is to bid up the price of useless airplanes or dream up rival marketing schemes for some "cloud" project while our nation's capital lacks a functional public transit system are going to have .05 percent fewer billable hours for the year? Boo hoo.

    Comparatively few people are outraged about the fact that as I write this General Motors and Ford are preparing to lay off many thousands of workers because management paid consultants millions of dollars to give them the idea. Few care about the shuttering of small auto parts plants, like this one in a small Michigan town not far from where I live, or the hourly employees affected, who lack the financial and other resources of our federal workforce. When Capital One kindly announces its "solutions" for customers affected by the shutdown, I ask myself why this courtesy is not extended to the millions of other Americans who also struggle to pay the debts they are tricked into running up with the credit card companies.

    All of this is a long way of saying that while I wish the Department of Commerce were operating at full steam I do not have an inordinate amount of sympathy for the workers temporarily affected by it. Nor can I agree with those who argue that the current shutdown is Trump's and only Trump's fault. The leadership of the Democratic Party is using people's paychecks as leverage against the president, just as Republicans did in 2013. They are claiming, pace their position only a few years ago, that the construction of a border wall is on its face immoral rather than overly expensive or impractical. If they have genuinely changed their minds, more power to them. But they should understand that principles come with a price and that it cannot always be the GOP's fault.

    I wonder when pollsters will finally come around to the fact that Americans hold many views that they don't necessarily wish to discuss over the telephone with strangers, even under the pretense of anonymity. One of these is almost certainly widespread indifference about the shutdown, which is not the same thing as thinking it is a good idea or something that should be sustained in order to ensure the construction of a border wall. In casual conversations with family, friends, and acquaintances in the rural Midwest over the last several weeks I have not heard a single person, including lifelong Democratic voters, express anything like the sort of horror that appears every day in newspapers and on cable television. Most people dismiss the shutdown as nothing but more paid time off for people who already receive more of it than they ever will. Are they wrong?

    The answer to all of this should not, of course, be to congratulate people like us on our cynicism but wider recognition of the fact that economic uncertainty is not the exclusive province of otherwise well-remunerated unionized federal employees once every half decade or so.

     
  2. NewRoxFan

    NewRoxFan Contributing Member

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    [​IMG]
     
  3. Os Trigonum

    Os Trigonum Contributing Member
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    as far as I know, I'm the ONLY person who has recently posted his Democratic primary ballot filled out for all to examine.

    ballot Sept 13 2018.jpg

    I'll add that I've voted for every Democratic presidential candidate since 1980 (when I first voted for Jimmy Carter) until Hillary.

    If you want to mock me, fine, but then you are again being as insulting to me as you have been today to other posters.
     
    jcf likes this.
  4. Major

    Major Member

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    Sounds to me like you're just a pretty ignorant person who doesn't really know what services government provides.
     
    adoo likes this.
  5. NewRoxFan

    NewRoxFan Contributing Member

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    OK, and if you consider my "Sure Jan" to be insulting, my apologies... though curious how you consider how many people constantly and personally attack others here... but sure, my apologies.

    Also curious how you jibe being a "small government Democrat" with your steady barrage of trump and republican support. I don't know NY candidates so can't comment on Hochul but you couldn't get a more different candidate than trump than Nixon.
     
    CometsWin and Os Trigonum like this.
  6. Os Trigonum

    Os Trigonum Contributing Member
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    yeah I guess you're right
     
  7. Os Trigonum

    Os Trigonum Contributing Member
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    fair enough

     
  8. Invisible Fan

    Invisible Fan Contributing Member

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    The moment we normalized the shutdown as a political tool and textbook hostage negotiation tactic is exactly when the idea that "both sides are to blame" took root and began being parroted by ignorant dittoheads appealing to people in the semblance of balance.

    Democrats don't have control over the Senate. Sure, play up big mean Schumer, but he's not the majority leader.
     
    dobro1229 likes this.
  9. dachuda86

    dachuda86 Member

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  10. Os Trigonum

    Os Trigonum Contributing Member
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    Who knew that beer brewers needed the permission of the Federal government to print the labels for beer bottles?

    "Federal law requires brewers to get pre-approval for their beer bottle labels, apparently in order to avoid 'various false, misleading, obscene, or misleading statements, and the disparagement of competitors' products.' But though the pre-approval generally comes within three weeks, it's now on hold because of the government shutdown. The motion for a preliminary injunction in Atlas Brew Works, LLC v. Whitaker (D.D.C. filed Jan. 15, 2019) argues that this violates the First Amendment. (The case is being litigated by Alan Gura, who is famous mostly for his Second Amendment cases, but who handles many First Amendment ones as well.)"
    Small-government types might consider this to be an example of stupid Federal overreach. Beer lovers everywhere on the other hand are ready to declare that Federal Beer Bottle Approvers are "essential" government employees. :rolleyes:

    https://reason.com/volokh/2019/01/16/the-shutdown-and-the-first-amendment
     
  11. juicystream

    juicystream Contributing Member

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    A great example of when the government goes overboard. Set the rules, and if they break them fine them. Prior approval is crazy.
     
  12. Buck Turgidson

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    Do you have any idea of the stupid ****, TABC regulations, that are placed on Texas brewers, simply at the behest of the distributor lobby?

    Look it up, it will piss you off.
     
    DonnyMost likes this.
  13. SamFisher

    SamFisher Contributing Member

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    I don't often concern troll on nights when Harden obliterates Wilt.

    But when I do it deserves its own thread.
     
    Buck Turgidson likes this.
  14. Harrisment

    Harrisment Member

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    Never mind.
     
    #14 Harrisment, Jan 16, 2019
    Last edited: Jan 16, 2019
    Buck Turgidson likes this.
  15. Os Trigonum

    Os Trigonum Contributing Member
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    More news of panic in the streets from the government shutdown: "How the government shutdown will affect the Super Bowl."

    https://www.city-journal.org/media-portrayal-of-govt-shutdown

     
  16. Os Trigonum

    Os Trigonum Contributing Member
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  17. Os Trigonum

    Os Trigonum Contributing Member
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    "The Real Lesson of the Shutdown":

    "One of the lessons of the Trump–Pelosi standoff on border security is that government shutdowns are a foolish way to resolve partisan disputes.

    "But the other lesson may be far more important. The partial shutdown, with agencies such as the Transportation, Agriculture, and State Departments, as well as other independent agencies, closed for business, demonstrated how irrelevant so much of our $4 trillion government is to the everyday lives of Americans.

    ". . . It was also telling that the only real “victims” of the shutdown (about whom the media obsessed) were 800,000 government employees who were furloughed. Yes, I know many people in Washington who work for the federal government who faced financial stress for several weeks (and I also know many for whom this was a deferred-pay vacation).

    "But wait a minute. What is the primary purpose of a government program or agency? To give workers a paycheck? I thought these agencies were in business to serve the taxpayers and provide important services for our economy and our citizens. Businesses don’t keep workers on the payroll if what they produce isn’t necessary to customers or if they don’t add to earnings. They certainly can’t do that if they are losing money. The federal government is $1 trillion in the red a year despite record revenues in 2018."​


    https://www.nationalreview.com/2019...eveals-much-of-federal-government-irrelevant/
     
  18. NewRoxFan

    NewRoxFan Contributing Member

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    I usually don't get too upset about right wing blogs and newsletters... sometimes even learn a thing or two. But is this guy suggesting the government shut down was a way to balance the budget? This despite the news today that the shutdown cost the government $11B, of which $3B was irretrievably lost?

    The government shutdown cost the economy $11 billion, including a permanent $3 billion loss, Congressional Budget Office says
    https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/28/government-shutdown-cost-the-economy-11-billion-cbo.html
     
  19. Os Trigonum

    Os Trigonum Contributing Member
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    talk about a non sequiter. no, I think the summary paragraph encapsulates what "this guy" is suggesting. Much of modern government is irrelevant to the lives of most citizens. Combine that with administrative and regulatory excess, I think he's simply suggesting that we could all live without quite a bit of that government and still have quite happy lives.
     
  20. NewRoxFan

    NewRoxFan Contributing Member

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    So... he was suggesting we could do with less Coast Guard, FBI, IRS, TSA, air traffic controllers, and border patrol? Since it seemed those were people impacted by the shutdown.

    I realize the goal of republicans like the author of that article want to reduce government... but it would seem to be something that Congress and the executive branch could come up with better ways other than a temper tantrum over trump's vanity wall.
     

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