Military Pay Delay, but Congress gets Paid...in a Shutdown

[GoodWitch58]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/07/opinion/07kristof.html?_r=1&ref=opinion

The upshot is that federal workers who do important work for the public ? cleaning up toxic waste, enrolling sick people into lifesaving medical trials, answering medical hot lines, running national parks, processing passport applications ? risk being sent home and going unpaid. But members of Congress would continue to receive $174,000 a year. As the humorist Andy Borowitz wrote in a Twitter message: ?That?s like eliminating the fire dept & sending checks to the arsonists.?

are there no mature, intelligent people in the House?

 

[Alicia Leonard]

Everything of their should be frozen, until they work it out. This let them eat cake thing is getting old, quick!

 

[idlewind]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/07/opinion/07kristof.html?_r=1&ref=opinion

are there no mature, intelligent people in the House?

Are you that blind or partisan? The DEMOCRATS controled both houses of congress and the White House until January. They were supposed to pass a budget by October 1 and refused. They could have come back after the election and passed a budget. They failed. The House has passed H.R. 1 twice since the Republicans assumed control, which would fund the government and the DEMOCRATS in the Senate have yet to pass a finance bill. And the HOUSE needs maturity and intelligence? This all lays at the feet of the Democrats who refuse to accept any semblance of fiscal responsiblity.

 

[30ashopper]

There's always a silver lining - the I.R.S. would shut down. Now come on, isn't that worth the sacrafice? I say we shut the federal government down and leave it that way!

 

[Smiling JOe]

The funny part of the first post is that people think Congressmen get paid only $174,000 per year for their elected positions.

 

[idlewind]

As far as quoting the ultra-liberal NY Times, they can't get their facts straight either. Hoover did not discredit cutting spending because in fact he increased spending during his term.

Year GDP-US $ billion Total Spending-total $ billion
1930 91.2 11.92 i
1931 76.5 12.18 i
1932 58.7 12.44 a
1933 56.4 12.62 i

As a percentage of GDP, Hoover increased spending dramatically.

Hoover tried to spend his way out of the Depression (like Bush) and
Roosevelt tried to double down (like Obama) and neither cured the depression. World War II finally pulled the US out of the Depression.

 

[30ashopper]

I'm starting to think the whole "we're on the verge of another great depression" meme was cooked up by the bankers and the FED as cover for one of the greatest taxpayer fleecings of all time.

 

[idlewind]

Our leader?

Obama Above the Fray, Hill Dems Under the Bus - FoxNews.com

If Obama wants to know who is to blame, he might try looking in the mirror.

 

[beachmouse]

There's always a silver lining - the I.R.S. would shut down. Now come on, isn't that worth the sacrafice? I say we shut the federal government down and leave it that way!

For most of the year, it's not a bad thing, but for the month of April, it's a horrible move because you really don't want to mess with the peasants with pitchforks when they learn that their income tax refund checks are being delayed because of the shutdown.

 

[BeachSiO2]

On the IRS front, I have never understood the desire for people to receive a refund. That means you have let the government spend your money all year. Although I never want to pay the IRS, I would rather have access to my money throughout the year. Then again, if I truly was king of the universe I would implement the approach SJoe has mentioned a number of times which is for everyone to get their full check every week and then have to send in a check to the Treasury. By withholding money, it's out of sight, out of mind. Kinda like the "pay yourself first approach" to saving, except it's "pay the guvm't first."