US Federal Government Shutdown

[Papewaio]

That is a pretty crap hand to deal people.

That $15k is for an eighteen year old living at home with parents on a combined income of less then $150k. The kid can earn up to $10k before there rates are reduced.

[Strike For The South]

I have only held private sector jobs

Can I spit on vets too?

[Papewaio]

Is that $15k/year? Aussie dollars or US Dollars?

15k/year is more than my combined income from all sources, by a decent margin. Its only a little less than I made in the Army.

No it's is $223 a fortnight or $15k/3yrs. Plus upto $10k a year of earnings which on minimum casual wages would be about 500 hrs.

If you live away from home its is around $400/fortnight and if you are single with a child it might be $530/fortnight

[Fisherking]

The Shutdown is just another political game, and one the Republicans will lose, as usual.

The whole thing is disingenuous, of course.

Up until the one in the 1990s government offices or services had never been curtailed. The civil servants had just continued to work but their pay was often late in coming.

You see, whether civil service remains on the job or not is an executive decision. So, most properly any loss of services to the public is the fault of the POTUS.

Clinton took a page from what several state governors had done and shut down services for the first time, to make the Republicans look bad. He didn’t except continuing resolutions much like what is happening this time.

He was covered by the press, just like this time, only this one is even more dramatic than the last.

It is not going to end well for the Republicans and the best thing they can do is just give in. You might have thought they would have learned from the last time, but as usual they didn’t.

No one is going to blame the President for what they perceive as necessary under the circumstances.

[Sarmatian]

And POTUS is... ?

[Andres]

And POTUS is... ?

President Of The United States. Americans love acronyms.

[Sarmatian]

President Of The United States. Americans love acronyms.

President works just fine. If that's too long, Obama is acceptable, too, and if five letter word is too long to type, please refrain from posting and go back to your crayons.

[Pannonian]

President works just fine. If that's too long, Obama is acceptable, too, and if five letter word is too long to type, please refrain from posting and go back to your crayons.

POTUS was popularised by the West Wing as an easily pronounced acronym.

[Montmorency]

A terrorist takes hostages, and in exchange for their release demands free passage out of the country on the grounds that both he and the state want him out of there: to actually "compromise" on these grounds would of course be a total abdication of responsibility, and for the executive making such a decision cause for impeachment.

But in reality no terrorist would ever make such demands, in part because it makes no sense to go to the trouble of carrying out the terrorism only to use it to plead, 'Hey let's just forget about all of this business'.

And in reality no terrorist would be so obscenely trollish to commit terrorism and then say something along the lines of, 'So we want to destroy your country and society, and you want to neutralize the threat my organization presents to your country and society; let's do the "reasonable" thing and settle on what we both want for now.'

"What's the difference between Tea Partiers and terrorists? You can actually negotiate with terrorists some of the time."

Obviously, piece-meal funding is a terrible idea both practically and politically.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

The Shutdown is just another political game, and one the Republicans will lose, as usual.

The whole thing is disingenuous, of course.

Up until the one in the 1990s government offices or services had never been curtailed. The civil servants had just continued to work but their pay was often late in coming.

You see, whether civil service remains on the job or not is an executive decision. So, most properly any loss of services to the public is the fault of the POTUS.

Clinton took a page from what several state governors had done and shut down services for the first time, to make the Republicans look bad. He didn’t except continuing resolutions much like what is happening this time.

He was covered by the press, just like this time, only this one is even more dramatic than the last.

It is not going to end well for the Republicans and the best thing they can do is just give in. You might have thought they would have learned from the last time, but as usual they didn’t.

No one is going to blame the President for what they perceive as necessary under the circumstances.

Polls suggest that at least 30% of the USA blames Obama (though not necessarily exclusively) for the shutdown. They basic mis-calculation there is that GOP representatives have to stand for reelection. Obama does not. The GOP might pick up a little momentum in the next congressional elections, but the only potential shift is in the Senate...and so far that doesn't seem likely based on folks reaction.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Bunch of drama-craving prostitutes, the lot of them.

Separate funding bills? Fine. Omnibus package? Fine.

How about getting the damn budget finished by 1 September for a change.

Instead, we need the drama of a showdown in slow motion. Gack.