The government shutdown and the debt ceiling

[Vanquisher]

Okay, iMSN. Where do you stand?

[Vanquisher]

I may not love everything about the ACA, but I find republicans wholly responsible for this hot mess. You don't get to hold a country hostage because you didn't get your way. The ACA passed the house, the senate, the president, and was found constitutional by the Supreme Court. Pass a clean funding bill!

I am worried that this will drag out, and I am worried that we will default on our debts.

http://america.aljazeera.com/article...democracy.html

[HouseofWool]

I kinda feel like each member of congress should be given a copy of Dave Ramsey's books...

[v-girl]

I kinda feel like each member of congress should be given a copy of Dave Ramsey's books...

This. I hate politics and most, if not all, politicians are assholes. I don't call people that often.

[HouseofWool]

I fully agree that this comes across as a giant temper tantrum. I am frustrated by the childishness of politicians across the board recently. (We had some huge issues in the last couple of years here where members of the state assembly snuck across state lines and hid in hotels in Illinois for MONTHS because they didn't get their way.)

This probably is the place to admit that I don't fully understand the debt ceiling. Why bother having one if we are just going to keep on raising it?

[HouseofWool]

This. I hate politics and most, if not all, politicians are assholes. I don't call people that often.

At the local level, probably not so much, but once you get to the state and federal levels? Yeah, assholism seems to abound.

[diggitydot]

The government shutdown and the debt ceiling

I may not love everything about the ACA, but I find republicans wholly responsible for this hot mess.

Agreed. When the Senate Dems have asked 18 times in the last 7 months to go to committee so they could hammer out a deal and were refused by House GOP, the House Republicans own this fuck up.

[v-girl]

At the local level, probably not so much, but once you get to the state and federal levels? Yeah, assholism seems to abound.

We even have some on the local level. He'll our public school board has one of epic proportions.

[ladymoreta]

Actually I wish you had Tea Party as an option on there. Because they really need to stop hijacking the GOP and just be their own breakout party.

This. I was a pretty solid republican before they started their antics. In the beginning, I thought they had some good thoughts (but terrible "leaders"), but now they just seem like a bunch of people who don't understand their job description. Is anyone else worried about our national credit rating because of these budget holdups? I just significantly reduced our US bond allocations for our 401k... I admit to being a little worried that the rest of the world won't put up with this much longer, but I don't understand a whole lot about that stuff.

[SoonerTexan]

Great Smoky Mountain National Park better be open at the end of October. That's all I can say.

[SuzySunshine]

I agree the republicans are all acting like big babies, this is ridiculous and thousands of families are suffering for it!!

And I agree with ST Pearl Harbor better be open by the 19th!!

[BonBon]

Frankly, they're all culpable for the mess we're in. I'm going to lose my ish if they raise the debt ceiling again. Heaven forbid anyone take an actual look at the budget and make cuts. As in, actual cuts, not cuts in projected increases so the increase isn't quite so much. That's not a f'ing cut.

[HouseofWool]

I think the debt ceiling thing is beyond stupid. They obviously don't know how to balance a budget for real. There are real and painful cuts that will need to be made. It sucks. It sucks for everyone. There aren't many who will be happy about the cuts. But they need to happen, just like they happen in our household budgets when times are tight. The recession is NEVER going to end unless we can get the egregious spending under control.

[ladymoreta]

It will suck, but I think they need to drastically reduce spending *and* raise taxes. And yes, I know that reducing spending will mean people will lose their jobs. My theory is that they should raise minimum wage to a level where someone working full time wouldn't need any government assistance; that would reduce a lot of spending and increase tax revenue. Additionally, they would need to firm up laws on "part time" employment to make sure companies weren't keeping too many workers part time to force the government to subsidize their employees.

[PrincessFiona]

I honestly don't know. I'm not sure that I even understand the government shutdown. It does come across as a surprising move by the members of the so-called tea party. Defunding Obamacare at the last minute or now pushing it out a year doesn't seem like it belongs in a budget negotiation. What does need to be addressed is our debt and raising the debt ceiling. No more raising of the debt ceiling. I can get behind that. We can't just keep printing money and hoping for the best.

It doesn't seem that the shutdown is about much more than obamacare ... at least that I have heard. I admit that I haven't been listening to the news much. I am not a fan of obamacare personally, but I can't get behind shutting down the govt. during budget negotiations to push defunding it ... what is their reasoning? Is it that obamacare will bankrupt us?

I am much more concerned about the debt ceiling. Frankly, I might support shutting stuff down to deal with the debt ceiling and to talk more about our debt issues. Is that a part of this? I don't get the impression that the shutdown is about that. Toss out all of the bullshit about obamacare and focus on the debt and debt ceiling. Then I might get on board. All I hear about is obamacare. I also think the republicans will get their asses handed to them over this and that they will then lose any negotiating power when it comes to the debt ceiling.

If there are talks right now about the debt ceiling then it goes to show how uninformed I have become on this issue. Sadly, I've gone from feeling like an informed voter to being so busy hanging on with my family that I don't have all the facts anymore.

I voted I don't know ... because frankly, I'm not informed enough to make an educated decision anymore.

Kris