Low-income Americans on federal nutrition aid
Women, Infant, and Children feeding program
AmericansTemporary Assistance for Needy Families
School lunches for needy American children
Food stamps for poor and low-income Americans
This TeaPublican shut down will affect other government services as well:
"...the federal government is going to start picking and choosing which bills to pay. Depending on the vagaries of cash flow, maybe today the military doesn't get paid, maybe tomorrow Social Security checks don't go out, or maybe Medicare can't cover its bills. It's not a good sign of creditworthiness when a house hold starts deciding to pay the electric bill a few days late to avoid missing a mortgage payment. It's much worse when the government whose bonds form the basis of the entire global financial system starts doing that."
All of this hardship on American families, veterans, military due to the TeaPublicans' hatred of President Obama and his Affordable Care Act.
In addition, the fiscally irresponsible TeaPublican/Libertarians are costing America milllions and millions of dollars for their temper tantrum:
Shutdown Will Cost U.S. Economy $300 Million a Day, IHS Says
Jay Bookman, Atlantic Journal Constitution:
"[Y]ou can't keep the government shut down for another six weeks. It's just stupid and accomplishes nothing. It certainly isn't saving any money: It has already been decided that federal employees are going to get back pay for all the days they've missed -- the House voted 407-0 in favor of that approach earlier this week.
And 10 days into the shutdown, it has already proved ineffective as a hostage to force concessions. So why continue? Forcing federal employees -- including a lot of folks who make $40,000 or less a year -- to sit at home and try to live off their savings for another week, month or six weeks makes no sense. It accomplishes nothing and does a lot of harm to government services and to those businesses and citizens who rely on them. If we're going to pay these workers -- and we are -- let them go back to work to earn that pay."
But the TeaPublicans/Libertarians believe small government is the answer to everything and will force millions of Americans to suffer while they play with other people's lives to prove it.
37 comments:
No doubt, this debacle is the GOP's fault, but if you think the democrats or President Obama come out unscathed, you harbor illusions.
Which is the party of government? Which party do ordinary Americans think of when they think of government? The democrats, of course.
Overall confidence in government is down, and that is a good thing. A government that tries to do everything for everyone ultimately does nothing well, ends up wasting vast sums of money, and steps on the ability of free people to form their own societies and solve their own problems.
If you expand your view beyond msnbc, Daily Kos and HuffPo, you will see a more complete picture.
http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/10/10/20903531-nbcwsj-poll-60-percent-say-fire-every-member-of-congress?lite
http://charlotte.cbslocal.com/2013/10/10/americans-speaking-out-on-govt-shutdown-i-think-obama-is-being-kind-of-crappy/
http://www.gallup.com/poll/165371/americans-satisfaction-gov-drops-new-low.aspx
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20131011/DA9BQJ1G0.html
As I previously stated, the GOP is to blame, but everyone takes a hit as Americans become frustrated with a dysfunctional federal government that has promised them the sky, and then brought it crashing down upon their heads.
Sincerely,
Frank Sprake
When do Janet Yellen's helicopters full of money arrive?
"As I previously stated, the GOP is to blame, but everyone takes a hit as Americans become frustrated with a dysfunctional federal government..."
When one political party deliberately works to make government "dysfunctional" via shut downs and lurching from crisis to crisis, it's not surprising when people see it as "dysfunctional." In fact, for a country that is the third most populous on the planet and with the most diversity in its population, we've done damn well.
Governments run by people are never perfect or perfectly functional.
"...that has promised them the sky, and then brought it crashing down upon their heads."
Correction: The Republican Party and their rabid hatred of President Obama and his health care reform is what brought us to this "crashing down."
The fact is that had the GOP worked with him on a myriad of our problems, none of this would be happening.
All they wanted to do, remember, is to make him a one-term president. Have you forgotten. When destruction is your only goal; destruction will be your outcome.
That's where the TeaPublicans are now, and that's why they are sinking in national polls.
They've hated Mr. Obama and everything he stands for.
Hating someone is like drinking poison and hoping the other person will die.
Enjoy you poison cocktail, TeaPubs.
Mr. Obama is doing just fine.
President Obama has lost the sensible middle. All he has left are true believers:
-------------
A bad sign for Democrats is that Obama has bled support among independents - 60 percent disapprove of the way Obama is handling his job, while only 16 percent approve.
As he began his second term in January, independents tilted positive, 48 percent approved and 39 percent disapproved.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20131011/DA9BQJ1G0.html
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I long for the say when we had great men in the White House like Bush the Elder, Reagan and Clinton.
Those men knew how to lead and how to guide a fractious government, negotiate, and get things done.
-- Frank Sprake
Mr Obama only survives because the helicopters from the Federal Reserve haven't crashed yet.
Once all the long-term debt has been replaced with short-term zero interest Treasuries, the helicopters ALL run out of gas...
....and then the great American "sell-off" begins!
Sometime in the next few years the bank will need to stop stimulating growth and start selling the assets it has accumulated along the way. No central bank has ever before unwound such a massive amount of stimulus.
Who wants to buy all those bad housing loans that FANNIE and FREDDIE have been sucking up... anybody offering $0.10 on the dollar? $0.05??? $0.01??????
Joe Conservative:
Fed Profit of $88.9 Billion Sent to Treasury in 2012 (New York Times):
WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve said on Thursday that it sent $88.9 billion in profit to the Treasury Department in 2012, a record that reflected the vast expansion of the central bank’s investment portfolio.
The Fed is required by law to hand over a large majority of its profits, a long-standing provision that has become a lot more lucrative in recent years …
As part of its campaign to stimulate the economy, the Fed over the last five years has amassed $2.7 trillion in Treasury securities and mortgage-backed securities. And the central bank is still expanding its holdings by $85 billion a month.
The interest payments on those securities are the primary source of the Fed’s profits. The Fed has transferred a total of $335 billion to the Treasury since 2009, compared with $147 billion in the previous five years, adjusted for inflation. The Fed has transferred at least some profit to the Treasury every year since 1934.
Because the Fed mostly holds debt issued by the federal government, its profits — which totaled $91 billion in 2012 — are largely payments from the government. By returning that money to the government, the central bank in effect is letting the government borrow at no cost [my bold].
Some conservative politicians say this back-and-forth — and the Fed’s broader efforts to reduce interest rates — are worsening the government’s fiscal problems by making debt seem less onerous and spending cuts seem less necessary.
The Fed’s chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, has acknowledged the benefit, jokingly describing the savings as “interest that the Treasury doesn’t have to pay to the Chinese” [my bold]. ” But Mr. Bernanke and other Fed officials note that the purchases have their own purpose, to stimulate the economy, and will not continue indefinitely. They also note that Congress is responsible for its own behavior.
---------------------
Yo Joe, is this more knowledge than your helicopter-addled brain can handle?
Anybody want to buy Treasuries yielding 0.005% interest????
The Federal Reserve said on Thursday that it sent $88.9 billion in profit to the Treasury Department in 2012, a record that reflected the vast expansion of the central bank’s investment portfolio.
I'm sure there are a few ripe bananas among the millions of rotten fruits that the Fed bought that could be sold for a profit.
Even FANNIE/FREDDIE are pretending profits.
...but it's holding on to all those non-performing loans.
btw - When are the taxpayers going to see a profit on our GM stock?
Joe,
It seems your helicopter-addled brain can't grasp the benefits of monetary easing:
1 - The nation is servicing debt at near zero interest rates.
2 - China is making NO PROFIT from Treasury bills.
Why? Because a surplus in global saving rates has in effect produced a negative interest rate, which the Fed is leveraging to the benefit of the American economy. This concept is way too advanced for you.
Joe,
Regarding the current status of the GM loan:
Of the original $51 billion loan lent by the government, GM owes a balance of $16.7 billion. Thus, GM has paid back $34.3 billion, or roughly two-thirds of the original amount. Currently, the company has $19.7 billion in cash and other assets, which more than covers the remaining balance.
If GM has $19.7 billion in cash and assets against $16.7 billion owed, why hasn’t GM paid the remaining balance? Answer: Like any other massive corporation, GM needs a healthy balance sheet for continued operations. Last month, GM reported a 22% rise in retail sales.
If you had any grasp of the facts, and your helicopter-addled brain were able to better grasp these numbers, you would be more immune to alien abduction and wingnut conspiracy theories.
On the Fed's "profits" from Time Magazine:
The Fed’s recent profits may be huge, but they don’t represent any kind of brilliant management. Rather, they are simply the byproduct of central banking policies that the Fed is pursuing for other reasons – chiefly efforts to keep interest rates low. Those stimulus policies have encouraged economic growth, but they have also created two big risks.
(MORE: Why the Fed’s Latest Interest-Rate Strategy Won’t Have Much Effect)
The first danger is that the Fed has greatly increased its vulnerability to capital losses. Short-term Treasury debt is close to risk-free, but long-term debt can decline in value when interest rates rise (bond prices automatically fall when interest rates go up). If the economic recovery continues, it may become necessary to allow long-term interest rates to rise, which could cause big losses on the Fed’s holdings of long-term debt. Indeed, the Fed has created a conflict of interest for itself that normally doesn’t exist.
The other problem is that the Fed’s massive money creation over the past two years could eventually fuel a sustained upsurge of inflation if economic activity continues to pick up. Both those potential risks could become real dangers within the next couple of years, but fortunately they haven’t materialized yet.
Yep... FUTURE inflation. Thanks, Barack!
GM has been using MY money for four years and STILL hasn't paid it back? (forgetting the interest)
They're almost as bad a FANNIE/ FREDDIE... only GM isn't holding a bag full of bad/ non-performing loans for collateral.
Oh, Joe, Joe, Joe ...
How you suffer from SELECTIVE READING:
" ... but fortunately they haven’t materialized yet."
Plus this assertion at the end of your comment:
"FUTURE inflation. Thanks, Barack!
Your last comment has two BIG ERRORS:
1 - The Fed is an independent body. Neither the President NOR Congress sets Fed policy.
2 - The base inflationary rate is currently 1.6% - well below the Fed benchmark (you did read my earlier comment, didn't you).
Joe,
Now you are turning into a bore. Goodbye!
GM paid most of its debt in stock.
Uncle Sam bought high and sold low, so the GM payback, while official, is another phony balony Government-Corporate screw job on the American Taxpayer
"As I write this, GM stock is trading for a little over $28. If it sold all of its remaining stock at that price, the Treasury would still be about $12 billion short."
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/03/23/why-government-motors-still-owes-you.aspx
Bewarer, Joe, you are arguing with a Progressive Statist whose duty is to apologize for Big Government.
But she is correct, in her own way when Octo talks about the fed.
US treasuries are the least dirty shirt, and "negative interest" is only one of the intellectual fictions that must be created when corporatist-government entities are busy destroying wealth while still enriching the plutocrats.
What the fed is really doing (what all central banks must do to keep the bunko game alive) is the equivalent of shrinking the inch and handing out new measuring tapes so everyone else can feel taller.
It works on the rubes who don't know any better and also on those naifs who worship at the false idol of the Progressive State.
- Hermann Wahrheit
Gee... even with the federal government shutdown... we're STILL spending more money than the government takes in...
...and Barack claims that we have no spending problems.
...well, at least none that helicopter's full of money from the Fed can't cure.
Skuddy: Looks like the democratic party is now the party of big business and the gop supports the middle class and small business.
LOL. Seriously, I laughed out loud when I read Skuddy's comment. Funny stuff, Skud. Funnier than the claim of "equal responsibility" for the shutdown that others who comment on this blog have made.
skudrunner said...
The republicans are to blame for a shutdown that is because Reid/Obama didn't get their way.
boy... is that a crock of shit statement or what? Skud is basically a troll who spits out the same talking points as Fox....is very low on new,introspective anyalysis, imagination... and taste.
I did a poll this morning...while shaving...and 100% of me is sick to death of trollish commentators on blogs. If I truly wish to engage idiots in conversation, why I merely need to talk with my ex-brother-in-law. sheesh.
Shaw, Joe Conservative has hijacked your thread which was about how the TeaPublicans are sticking it to the poor and vulnerable in this country.
They don't want to talk about their responsibility in this mess, so Joe Con changed the subject.
Shaw,
A 37% job approval is doing just fine?
Let's just say the President has room to grow.
Sheesh, it appears the Troll-Eumenides have returned with their Koch-scripted talking points and defamations, all dumb and numb-sculled as usual. Nevertheless, their comments should stand as monuments to arrogant stupidity.
Attn All Readers,
As a public service, Enigma Technologies of NYC has just opened a real-time, data-driven website that shows impacts of the government shutdown across all departments and agencies. If any readers are interested, go to their website here. Highlights as follows:
Total furloughed: 883,392 employees
Duration: 10D : 13H : 9M : 25S
Total wages lost: $2,007,165,306
Total WIC food vouchers unpaid: $138,877,932
Department of Defense: 56% furloughed
Department of Homeland Security: 14% furloughed
Social Security: 29% furloughed
Department of Health and Human Services: 52% furloughed
Department of Treasury: 89% furloughed
Department of Agriculture: 68% furloughed
Government functions halted: WIC Food Program, Small Business Loans, Home Loan Guarantees, Occupational Safety, NIH Research, Parks and Monuments, Museums.
Government functions at risk: Open Public Data, Food Inspections, Courts, Disease Control, Travel and Work Vias, Space Program (97% furloughed).
I posted the same information at the Swash Zone.
More evidence that this is a selective shutdown:
"...the Obama administration said Thursday it will allow states to use their own money to reopen national parks that have been shuttered during the impasse."
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/10/10/canyon-rushmore-shutdown-national-parks-interior/2962499/
See that? No vote in congress, no bill signing, just a presidential decree. He could have done this at the beginning, before causing so much financial hardship and human suffering.
Law by imperial decree. To be fair to President Obama, this did not start with him.
RN,
If you go the very bottom of this page, you will find Obama's approval rating at 45% compared with a disapproval of 47%, which is well within the margin of error. By the way, this is a Fox News poll ... very bad news indeed for a network that habitually bashes Obama. How low can the GOP go!
"The difference between the old-style (Your Father’s) Liberal or Democrats and the Modern liberal’s(sic) is simply explained with one word. Progressivism.
It's a philosophy, if you can call it that, which appeals to the stupid and the lazy, which the country has unfortunately become filled with, because of the entitlements and the give always(sic) of the Liberal party. Obamacare is blatantly unconstitutional,(sic) and must be stopped."
"I personally dislike Obama mainly because he is deliberately turning a great nation into a third-rate welfare state, and because of his contempt for the constitution, and particularly the 4th Amendment. Also, most of the time I don't know what I'm writing.
Is this thing on?
We can only hope!
The Last Days of the GOP
We could be witnessing the death throes of the Republican Party
As I pointed out at the Swash Zone the numbers I used came from an
Oct. 9 th.AP poll showing 53% disapproval and 37% approval, with apparently 10% undecided. Also posted at my site was the Gallop Poll.
I have recently stayed away FOX polls. Perhaps I should return to them for better accuracy? :-)
Here's Gallup's most recent, where it has President Obama at 43%, a move up from the 37%.
Heads Up GOP: Rasmussen Has President Obama’s Approval Ratings Rising to 51%
This time you nailed it. I guess that I expected two much, but a leopard can't change its spits, and a liberal can never have a civet discussion, it’s in their charter.
The Progressive squid jobs have shown that they're willing to destroy the corn muffin before they would let a policy that is UN-wonton and has shewn to be wring for America be raspberry turnover, because it has Obama’s name on it.
Just like they'd never let a effusive and succulent Republican become the President of the United States.
They would rather support a shit down and have Americans shit out of their own Countries trapeezes.
This is what is in the the heat of every one of these Buffalo chicken-wing, racination, metal flosses.
Thanks Shaw for the update.
Marge,
Leading a Wonton Life is more fun than being Lo Mein on the Totem Pole!
"Leading a Wonton Life is more fun than being Lo Mein on the Totem Pole!"
ROTFLMAO!
The fact is that liberals ARE wittier than the trolliest cons.
Brilliant, (O)CT(O)PUS!
Do any of these pretentious shit-bags ever present an argument that isn't directed at a category artificially fabricated for the purpose? Remember the old joke about shooting the barn door and painting a target around it.
The Rea Party and the blog comment sections they haunt exist for one common purpose -- to be a fantasy land where the dull witted and inconsequential brat with the 90 IQ can pretend the PHD with the 190 IQ is the dumb one.
Your "conservative principles" are nothing but a duck blind for the ignorant and keep laughing you giggling chuckleheads, the future you're destroying is your own.
//Leading a Wonton Life is more fun than being Lo Mein on the Totem Pole!"//
duh, I don't get it, is the totem poll on Fox...or maybe can I get some sweet sour sauce before my egg rolls away:
okjimm,
I recommend our scrumptious 'cogito ergo dim sum' instead.
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