I usually want to try to stay away from political issues here, but I just can’t today. I’ve been listening to NPR quite a bit the last few days, driving 30 hours, and I can’t believe that the guys in Washington DC, have let today come. Today, at midnight, the government won’t be funded and only essential workers will stay on the job.
This isn’t about political affiliation. It doesn’t matter if you are a republican or democratic. It’s about people we elect not doing the jobs that they promised to do when they were elected. When you get to the level of being elected to the House of Representatives or Senate in Washington, you are well aware of the compensation that you receive for being there. You are being compensated incredibly well to guide our country and keep it healthy.
These guys aren’t doing their jobs. When things like this happen, the people of our country, plus the rest of the world, have doubts in the government. Much of the reason that we enjoy the best living style in the world is because of the perception that the US government has its shit together better than other governments. When our elected officials let these deadlines come time and time again, it shows that we don’t have the ability to do just that. And that is what these people are elected for, governing us. They know the system, we don’t.
There are a million article and stories out there about the winners and the losers of this tact by the politicians to try to get “their” way. They talk about what political party will benefit the most from the shutdown. The biggest loser is us, the American people.
We should be ashamed that we don’t have the ability to govern ourselves. It is what is the difference between a civilized government and anarchy. There is no excuse. These guys should all be fired.
Steve, I totally agree with everything in this post.
However, you know. They are all millionaires and all of their family and friends are millionaires.
So, what the hell do they care?
Same goes for the UCI, although there is a glimmer of hope.
Here is about the best comments I have read about whats going on. It is obviously biased but unlike most of the media he is upfront about that. Also note it was written several days ago.
http://keithhennessey.com/2013/09/24/irrelevant-threat/
Too true Steve! (I generally just read, but I thought on this occasion a short affirmative comment was necessary). Have a good one!
This fight is about the Republican Right Wing Teabaggers wanting to blackmail the President on the ACA. This shutdown did not have to happen. The GOP could have passed the “clean continuing resolution” and continued discussions with the Democrats. The Congress is dysfunctional because of the tea baggers who refuse to compromise on any issue. I am old enough to remember when Democrat Tip O’Neil and Republican Ronald Reagan compromised to save Social Security in the 1980s.
Wait, what is it you are saying? It thought USA Cycling was in charge? I don’t understand all this, is there some here I don’t know about?
Proponents of small government are going to say they were right, Big, Bad Government shut down for a while and everything is okay.
That is disingenuous at best, and actually insidious because the effects of the shutdown are months away. What’s left of regulators are overwhelmed, what’s left of safety inspections never get done and then more massive fraud is uncovered and some structures collapse and few connect the causes to the lack of regulatory oversight. Meanwhile the dogma “See! Government doesn’t work! It failed to catch catastrophe XYZ and fraud ABC” is sold as somehow true. Thus the virtuous circle of the destruction of public life continues.
I was around during the Reagan era too. His era started the Right Wing ideology war with ridiculous concepts like “trickle down economics” and benign neglect of everything except the military budget and corporate overlords. Sure, the ideas had been around for a long time, but voters still believe much of the broken Right ideology from that era.
Love the irony here. Steve spreads the blame evenly only to have the trolls start name calling and pointing fingers — just like the people in DC Steve described as being the problem.
Rod, some of us don’t agree with Steve that the blame should be spread evenly. Just because we don’t agree with Steve doesn’t make us trolls. The problem lies with the tea bagger extremists, and their my way or the highway philosophy.
Sorry, Stevo, but it is about whether you are a Republican. Congress passed the Affordable Care Act. The president signed it into law. It has survived 50 Tea Party-endorsed and sponsored challenges in the House and in the Supreme Court. The 2012 general election served as a referendum on it, and it won. Again. Arch-conservatives are ready to piss their pants that a progressive piece of legislation approved by the majority of the electorate is about to go into effect. The fact that an additional 30% of the population not currently insured will have access to affordable health care freaks out the 1% because t smells to them of socialism. Well, guess what? They’re right. It’s the right kind of progressive social legislation. The problem is that they (the 1%, and their Tea Party dupes) have managed to frighten and confuse a huge segment of the population with waves of fear-mongering misinformation. You know why they hate the ACA so much? Because they know that once it goes into effect and becomes established, the American people will realize that it IS a good idea (not the BEST idea, just better than what we’ve had for 50 years) and will ask “What took us so long?”
I wonder how many young men and women are able to participate in cycling because the ACA allows parents to keep their children under 26 on their health insurance plans ? That is part of what this fight is about. Every American should have affordable health care, period. This is the norm in every other modern industrialized nation. This is a fight worth fighting.
Thank you, Dennis. A voice of calm reason . . .
its all a farce, you can’t have a debt ceiling when you don’t have a budget or have had one for 7 years.
I don’t have a strong opinion on the ACA yet because I still don’t know how it works or what’s in it. I do, however, know several amateur bike racers who choose to buy very expensive cycling equipment (that will not yield better results than more modest gear) instead of health insurance. Perhaps it will help them.
Too many low information commentators on this post. Find some primary source material, research it, and form your own opinion. If it contains “tea bagger,” “fascist,” or “communist,” you need to find new sources. Go and think for yourselves now, children.
I hate politicians and dirty diapers. Both for the same reason.
Seems to me that this may in fact hurt a lot of individuals. Also seems too bad the politicians VOTED TO MAKE SURE THEIR PAY AND BENEFIT PACKAGES WERE NOT INTERRUPTED DURING THIS although many other industries/people will be disrupted….!! If they can’t agree on hardly anything these days and are not even able to compromise, WHY ARE THEY EVEN BEING PAID…? IT IS REALLY Time to say ENOUGH………..!!!
Dennis: If you use disgusting terms like tea bagger, that makes you a troll to me. When anybody uses that term, I no longer pay any attention to what they have to say.
Hilarious. My dad quit calling me a “kid” at 18. It makes me laugh thinking about what would have happened if I had asked my parents when I was 25 if I could be on their insurance so I could race my bike. And judging by the equipment these 25 year old “kids” are riding at races, health insurance doesn’t seem much of a priority.
Steve
Thanks for the unbiased comments you provided here. I, unfortunately am one of those govt employees that is being affected by what is as you rightfully describe, people not getting their job done.
You are correct, both sides of the aisle need to all be sent home. Every last one of them. The American people are truly the losers today.
Yes, it will be difficult for me to pay my bills if this lasts long; remember, we were already furloughed earlier this year due to sequestration.
The only thing that keeps me going, is love of country, family and my bicycle.
Yes, I did a hard 65mi in the wind on lonely roads. Saved my soul for the day.
Mike, I am sorry that you are furloughed. I was a Federal Employee for 32 years, and have been retired for several years. I remember what it was like to be furloughed when I worked for the Federal Government.
As a Federal Worker, you have access to generously subsidized heath insurance for you and your family. This fight is about providing affordable health care insurance to 30 or more million Americans who currently do not have it. Sorry that you and many other Americans are inconvenienced. The GOP had the chance several times to vote on a clean continuing resolution to keep the government operating, but they chose not to do so.
It is my sincere hope that when the furloughs are over, the Congress votes to retroactively pay employees such as yourself. You are not working through no fault of your own, and should not lose any pay. I wish you great success in the rest of your career. I found working for the Federal Government very satisfying. In the meantime, keep riding !
Yep, it’s a great idea……for a bunch of low life losers, people on welfare, and otherwise incompetent morons. But if you got your education, work your ass off, and make a good living because you went to college, it’s a shitty idea. All it is, is another way to tax the American people. And the money taken in, is supposed to provide health care, for people that can’t afford it. We’re turning the U.S.A. into the U.S.S.R., but it’s going to be worse than that. Social Security, was supposed to be untouched, and given back to the people that paid it in. But what happened?, the government took the money, and spent it. It wasn’t theirs to spend, but they did it anyway. This will be no different. They view it as a tax, and as such, their money to do with as they please. Wise up, the Republicans are right this time, this is a very bad idea, and will hurt this country worse than you can imagine.
Roberto, you are a rather intolerant and mean spirited person. There are many people who work hard for a living and unfortunately their companies do not provide health insurance. These are often small businesses. Many self employed people currently do not have health insurance. There are people with pre-existing conditions who will benefit from the new law. I think that you need to learn a little tolerance. I feel sorry for you.
We no longer have a Representative Republic, we have a “ruling class” that plays the electorate to stay in power. Obama Care is no more than another tax that gives the Federal Government control 1/6 of the nations economy. When Congress allows special deals and exemptions from Obama Care to staff, certain business , Unions and not the common man, then I say it stinks.
I completely agree with you, Steve. Stalemate as a solution to resolution of issues de jour is nothing short of total failure. It is shameful. In 7th grade, history taught us all that our country’s greatest strength was “the great compromise”: the ability to reach consensus for the good of the whole and put individual ideologies aside. I continue to be disappointed at the lack of adherence to the concept of compromise. Compromise and consensus are not actions of the weak but the work of true leaders.
As an outsider , more interested in the Cycling News that Steve brings here , i have had my say on Twitter/skippydetour !
This news has pushed the Syrian & Egyptian crises off the Major News Networks for a period .
What i , an Aussie see , is the foolishness & futility of this , since ” OBAMA care ” goes on despite what the dysfunctional charmers in Congress have tried to achieve ! WHAT an OWN GOAL ?
The thing that really irks , is that Congress has sent SO MANY in Harms Way , but now they are causing Veterans to be shut out of the Memorials that they wish to visit , in the US , but more so Overseas ! Many of these Vets will have had to make sacrifices to save their monies , to take their families to visit the sites of their FALLEN COMRADES ! You only have to look at the film ” Saving of Private Ryan ” to see how MANY Vets will feel about these visits ? The film was shown on German TV last night !
Not having served in the Armed Forces , i am grateful to those who went in Harms Way to preserve the freedoms , that we take for granted ! WHY can’t Mc Cain remind Congress of this , he had aspired to be president , perhaps because of his Service ?
AS Policeman of the Free World , the USA are now in a difficult place , particularly with the 17th October ” Debt Ceiling Issue ” looming !
Rather than squabbling here , take it from an OUTSIDER , that the time spent Commenting here , would have been better spent in telling those in Congress , in 2 sylable words , HOW YOU WISH THEM TO ACT !
So far the matter is an amusing side story , but allowed to fester , will damage the wellbeing of ALL , including the 1% who seem to think they are INVULNERABLE to change !
So….how about those Red Sox?
Rod: that’s probably because you are a tea-bagger. Every tea-bagger in America right now is trying to spread the idea that Democrats and Republicans are equally to blame for this government shutdown, which is categorically false. Democrats haven’t tried (unsuccessfully) to rescind the ACA over 200 times and haven’t tied government funding to defunding the ACA. If anyone should be “fired” here, it’s the Republican leadership.
One day this country is going to have another revolutionary war. Too many government programs. Just my thoughts.
Steve, you can lead the rebellion riding your bike wearing spandex fatigues, LOL.
I agree 100% with Steve. Both party’s are wrong. We simply can’t have this kind of dysfunction in our leadership in Washington. Six trillion more debt in the last six years. Yea that is good for all of us.
I work for the Feds as a Hotshot and I have coworkers working risking their lives for no pay now. I have another friend working on a fatality investigation that happened last Saturday no pay for her either. We the people are all looses in this current political situation.
Don’t get me started about my health care cost are going to double now. I can’ afford that kind of increase.
Yea it sounds like a good idea to me! I found out last week my health insurance will double. Yet again the middle class funding America. I will have to drop my insurance now!
Just found out my bronze health care package (the cheap one) will cost over $800/ month, $12,700 deductible. So yeah, my family of five will start benefitting from this plan after spending a measly $21000. Someone explain to me what is “affordable” health care!
You have no clue about my politics but I know a lot about your low level of thinking when all you know how to do is call people vile names. As Steve points out, people like you on both sides of the aisle are causing the problems we are experiencing.
Both parties arent wrong however. You dont take the country hostage because you disagree on policy.
Gregg, they are holding us hostage with our without the shutdown. They are forcing an unfair tax on the American people.
It can’t be explained. I am in the same situation. More middle class tax.
No offense, but there’s a process if you don’t like a law. Shutting down the government is not part of that process. Just like Don’t ask don’t tell, work to repeal it.
No one is forcing you to take the insurance. Go on the private market.
You are lying.
I love that using “teabagger” provokes so much indignation, but accusing welfare recipients of being low life losers is completely legit with this crowd.
I know it sucks that they get paid but it’s a constitutional thing. Those dickheads get paid no matter what.
Roberto and some other posters do not know what they are talking about. The ACA does not apply to welfare recipients because they are covered by the Medicaid Program. The ACA will impact many people who have decent jobs. For example, you could work for a small business and make $45,000 a year and not be covered by an employer sponsored health care plan. These people are not “low lifes,”but in many instances hard working folks.