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It's been about 16 years since the congressional Republicans forced a government shutdown, and since the last ordeal was considered a political fiasco for the GOP, policymakers have generally been eager to avoid another one.
That said, attitudes appear to be shifting. In the last Congress, Republican leaders threatened a series of shutdowns -- none of which happened, though they came close -- and as the new Congress gets underway, some GOP lawmakers appear to be rooting for another.
Rep. Matt Salmon (R-Ariz.) appeared on CBS' "Face The Nation" on Sunday, voicing firm support for a suspension of government services. He cited 1995's federal stoppage, pegging that event as the "impetus" for "some real serious compromise." [...]
Host Bob Schieffer responded: "You think that's a good idea?"
Salmon did not budge, replying "Yes, I do."
"You really do?," Schieffer asked, prompting Salmon to add that he thinks "it's about time" for the shutdown to happen.
Around the same time yesterday, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich boasted, "I helped close the government twice. It actually worked."
Yesterday's comments come on the heels of similar remarks from a variety of other Republican officeholders. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) argued last week that a government shutdown "may be necessary"'; Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) told MSNBC last week that the GOP needed "to be willing to tolerate" the possibility of a shutdown; and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) hopes to sell the idea that a shutdown would produce great resulst. "I think the last time we saw a shutdown, the fact that Republicans were willing to stand together -- on fiscally conservative principles -- ended up producing a result that was responsible and that benefited the country and that ultimately produced enormous economic growth," Cruz said last week.
And how, pray tell, does the GOP intend to force this result? That's unclear.
By some accounts, it appears that Republicans, including Cornyn, believe the desirable -- or at a minimum, tolerable -- shutdown is the natural result of a debt-ceiling crisis. If that is the GOP strategy, it's important to note how crazy this is.
It's true that if Congress refuses to allow the country to pay the bills for money that's already been spent, much of the government will have to be shut down. But really, that would be just one of many problems associated with a national default and a deliberate decision to trash the full faith and credit of the United States.
If Republicans think it'd be a lot of fun to shut down the government, and are looking for an opportunity to do so, the preferable move would be to force a budget fight, not a debt-limit fight. They're both dangerous moves, but the results of the latter would be far more catastrophic.
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I don't understand why we don't just raise the debt ceiling but this time raise it way up there so we don't have to bother with this for a while, raise taxes on all Americans that are middle class and above, and print some more money while we're at it.
Wake up people, increased borrowing to pay off prior creditors is called a Ponzi scheme and will inevitably collapse when there are not enough buyers left for US bonds. It has to stop or it will make the fiscal cliff look like a speed bump made from Obama's last cigarette butt. Not only will there not be enough for government pensions, military or infrastructure - there won't be enough to pay off banks. The country fails, banks fail, its 1929 all over again (The Great Depression for those who skipped history in school).
Sooner or later we do have to either reduce the amount of money we spend or increase the amount we bring in.
CommonSense001, here is your homework assignment. It is important so do a good job and do it quick.
Oh, by the way, what I am asking to do is part of what we ask members of Congress to do.
Tell us all exactly what services or agencies are not needed and how much money cutting it would save.
commonsense001 - do you have a personal life? a checkbook? a credit card? a mortgage? a car loan? your whole life is a ponzi scheme!!! and it's supposed to be. however, none of those transactions, or any others you may engage in, are conducted in a free market. NONE. you know the company you work for borrows to pay you, right? in fact YOU lend to them an amount equal to each unit (of whatever) that you produce ... and then they borrow from them bank to pay what they "owe" you ... and the bank borrows from some other bank or from the fed .... and all the transactions are regulated and and oh yeah, they charge you not to pay you ... nothing 'free' about this market t all.
This is not how the debt ceiling works.
This is not what caused The Great Depression
CS001, apparently you need the wake-up call!
The Crash of 1929 wasn't due to the Federal government borrowing too much or spending too much; it was due to an unregulated Stock Market and a tax system rigged to favor the top 5%. In 1926, well before the Crash, studies showed that almost 50% of those employed weren't making enough to provide the minimum needed for the most basic necessities.
That was what caused the Crash - just another, earlier example of failed "trickle down" economics.
It is entirely possible that Greece could go bankrupt, because unlike the United States, Greece doesn't print its own currency. The last I looked Greece is part of the EU and its currency is the Euro. Countries like the US who print their own currency don't go bankrupt until they have exhausted their printing presses and trillion dollar bills are pathetically common because countries drowning in debt always try to print their way out of their problems.
What happened in 1929 is similar to what happened in 2008. Neither was the result of government action. Both were the result of government inaction and market manipulation.
If we were as close to where Greece is we would be seeing rapid inflation. We aren't seeing rapid inflation. Again a key difference between Greece and the United States is Greece doesn't print its own money. If it did the Drachma would be inflating like mad.
America doesn't have a debt problem. It has a demand problem. We need to get more money in the hands of consumers so they can buy more of the stuff we make.
THANK YOU Ron! Finally someone understands it!
We have a problem right now with there existing too much credit and with that credit existing only at the top end of the income spectrum. In other words we have people who are already wealthy making money off of their money. It's a pointless system that doesn't produce revenues for the nation and doesn't produce jobs. What we need to do is to get the credit unlocked and either get it distributed more evenly OR get the money that is being created and invested at the upper end to then higher and increase wages as the middle and lower end. One way to do this is through tax policy, another way to do this is through regulations, and another is through governmental investment in things like infrastructure and in particular energy.
Government has to right to print money. Just keep on printing and let the machine work. Don't just aim at the 1%, 22% or 10%.........
Transform the country to communist party and everybody will have the same treatment and no one need to work for their livings. Just enjoying life........ come to live in the community housing and eat together in the community kitchens. This will be fair to all...........
And since the Continuing Resolution under which the government is currently operating expires on March 27, the opportunity to do so is at hand. If no CR extension is passed between now and then, the government shuts down at 12:01 a.m. on March 28.
Forget the NCAA's March Madness this year - we'll have the GOP's March Extortion Madness instead, between the sequester kicking in on February 28, the CR expiring on March 27, and hitting the debt ceiling for real probably somewhere in between.
The reason so many people seem to be for this stupid idea is they believe shutting down the government doesn't affect them, it only affects people in DC or going to National Parks.
This time, furlong every civilian employee in KY, then Ohio, then Wisconsin, then Kansas....
A message to Senator Mitch McConnell...
The most serious pressing issue facing the United States of America is NOT spending ..
It's JOBS !... It's getting the American people BACK TO WORK !...
It's coming together as a NATION to introduce another NEW DEAL !...
There is $3 Trillion dollars of Infrastructure spending that needs to get done in this country that can put millions of Americans back to work. But of course that is not what the Mainstream Media or Republicans in Congress want to focus on, Because it's not a good talking point and wont get any media airplay...
No sir, Republicans want to focus on screwing the elderly and middle class Americans currently receiving Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare benefits.
And saving the 'Tax Loopholes' of the people that contribute to their political campaigns, that would be the 1%...
I predict that the House of representatives will again be in democratic control by 2016, if and when John Boehner forces president Obama into a government shut down, a lot of political media pundits seem to forget that republicans in the House actually LOST seats in this election cycle.
And that Republican senate seat currently held by Mitch McConnell in Kentucky is starting to look ripe for the picking by democrats, if they choose the right candidate to run against Senator McConnell..
Obamacare is a tax--on the middle class.
The USA is broke--and has to borrow money from China.
Obama's campaign continually promised spending cuts--but, never once articulated one single specific example--and still hasn't
The Fiscal Cliff (part 1) was "solved" with the expectation that the Dems would identify cuts--it still hasn't--and won't.
Democrats to Republicans: quoting Eric Stratton ("Otter") from Animal House, "You @!$%#ed up...you trusted us!"
President Obama had already agreed to $1.7T. I would call that a spending cut. The republicans aren't interested in cutting spending, they want to cut is SS and Medicare. During the 112TH congress the House tried to increase defense spending by a great deal. Now they are after SS and Medicare big time.
I am at a loss as to why people are still complaining about Obamacare. It is not perfect, but is better than things were before. We should have a single payer universal healthcare plan. Obama care is a gift to the insurance companies. Hopefully they will be able to take Obamacare and make it into a great healthcare plan. I'm sure some of the senators will be getting good jobs with the health insurance industry.
The Obama Administration proposed over $4 trillion dollars in specific spending cuts during the campaign. If you're talking just about this most recent deal neither Democrats or Republicans provided specifics on what programs would be cut because neither side believed that would lead to good negotiating strategy. I do not hear you getting upset with Republicans for the same failure which means you either do not understand the absence of specific cuts or you do not actually care.
No it's not. You will be denied a larger deduction and rebate if you do not have health insurance. It works exactly like the mortgage tax credit.
Do you even know what it means for a nation to be broke? I don't think you do. A nation that is "broke" in the context you're speaking is a nation that cannot print money. The US has never been broke in it's entire history except during the rule under the Articles of Confederation. That's it.
The US does not literally borrow money from China- that's not what it means when people talk about the government "borrowing" money. In order for us to borrow money in the way that you're proposing that would mean that both China and the US use the same currency. Since we do not we can not. What "borrowing" money is means is that the US issued so much in treasury bonds that were then traded on the public market and so much was purchased from China. This only happened one time. We aren't continually issuing bonds that are then being purchased by the Chinese. We did this one time to fund stimulus efforts to stop the bleeding of the economy during the Great Recession. Since then we haven't "borrowed from China."
"President Obama had already agreed to $1.7T"
My point exactly. NO ONE; not obama, nor any senator of representative, nor you, can NAME A SINGLE THING that has been offered to be cut.
obamacare was sold as being anything or everything EXCEPT a tax. Even after the SCOTUS defined it as a tax, obama said it isn't and the sheeple believe it.
obamacare is NOT better. It is costly and people like you and I are going to pay for it and the 47% takers are going to quickly increase to 52%, then 57%. All the while businesses are going to rightly protect themselves at the expense of employing the 47, 52, 57%. It is causing a socialist downward swirl not unlike that in your toilet bowl.
Welcome to the not-so-United Socialist States of America (USSA) .
No it wasn't. You are confusing the lies given by the GOP about Obamacare as anti-health care reform spin with reality. There never was a mandate in the health care bill. From day one it was an issue to do with your income tax and that was it. And it's not a tax. The Supreme Court did not say that it was. What the Supreme Court stated was that the mandate aka the healthcare deduction was constitutional under the taxation powers of congress. If you'd actually bother to read these rulings instead of allowing Fox News to tell you what is or isn't true you'd know this.
Obamacare doesn't raise taxes on you or I. It will- after time- lower the cost of insurance premiums through the insurance exchanges assuming you have a state that's smart enough to actually participate. As for the argument about the 47%- first it's 42% now, not 47%. You seem to not understand that, that figure came from a CBO year end estimate taken at the height of the recession REFLECTING the effects of the recession. Under the George Bush Administration roughly 35% of the US population were exempt from paying income taxes (and no one complained). It only increased because of the giant recession. The qualifiers haven't been changed- you will likely see the number of people not paying returning to 35%. And for the record these people aren't "takers." They are people who work full time, but do not currently earn enough to pay income tax (they still pay federal taxes, just not that ONE particular tax). And if corporations wants to keep their tax cuts then they do not get to complain that the rest of America gets to keep the middle-class tax cuts. In which case the private sector could solve this problem by very simply INCREASING the wages it pays it's earners. But you won't hear that because that would require companies taking responsibility for themselves. And personal responsibility only matters to Republicans when that phrase is being used to blame other people.
Please explain what socialism is and how Obamacare meets the definition of socialism. I think you will find that Obamacare more closely aligns with oligarchy (the opposite of socialism).
Shutting down government as a means of governance and bragging about it to boot.
Cruz and Cornyn: two of the better arguments for expelling Texas from the union and building a wall around the place.
Linda Graham: proof that South Carolina is indeed "too small for a republic and too large for an insane asylum."
The rest of the southern scum prove that we did indeed let them off easy in 1865 for their treason.
Of course they're willing to encourage this - but they don't even think about the hundreds of thousands of government employees who'll be affected by this. I'm afraid to pay off my credit card bill this month because what if they shut down? I can't pay my rent if I pay off my credit card and the government goes into furlough.
I'm fortunate enough to have friends and family who may be willing to chip in and help me make payments, but there are many more who aren't so fortunate.
Hmmm ... I wonder if bankruptcy is in the works? Then will the US be owned by China or Germany? If we get owned by china, will all the repubs and blue-dog demos belly-aching about paying just a few more percentage points in taxes wish they had paid just a little bit more?
Much of our debt is held by bond holders and the SS Trust fund. People, institutions, and financial institutions hold treasury bonds. People who own US Savings Bonds own part of the national debt, people make money off the debt. Contrary to what many think, China doesn't own but about 9% of our debt. The deficit is not that big of a deal.
The republicans are not really interested in cutting spending.
agreed
Mike P, cut the "hostage" crap. What country do you live in? Iran? TC in LA, "Nuke them?" Really? Your fellow Americans? DEMS showing their true colors here.
The president doesn't have to negotiate. If he does, it will be because he wants to. He and the corporate talking heads and a good number of Dem politicians want to eviscerate Social Security and Medicare. We should not let them do it.