I have been following the political puppet show closely, because my brother is truly concerned the government will shut down, he won’t get his disability check, his healthcare will be cut off, he will be homeless and take to the drink again.
The sorry thing is that we both remember when this happened before in 1995. (I think the checks did still go out then. Then again, it wasn’t my check. Then again, he was competing with Lance Armstrong. Rapid Cycling! Classic bi-polar joke.)
I went to Wikipedia for a refresher on the past, should we be doomed to repeat it.
The players: Pres Clinton, favoring Medicare, versus “a majority of Congress members and the House Speaker, Newt Gingrich, [who] had promised to slow the rate of government spending.” I forgot Newt Gingrich had the John Boehner role. You would think he would have a lot to say about the current situation. He might be saying it; I haven’t been listening to him. He is full of biological debris.
The plot: Cinton wouldn’t make the budget cuts, Newt and Congress threatened to refuse to raise the debt limit. They had a deadline of — not August — but October.
The ticking clock: Somehow, they voted in a stay of execution and got the October deadline pushed to November 13 at midnight. Interestingly, Congress pushed for another extension and Clinton called bullshit. (I don’t know if I can see Obama doing that.)
So that was the first shutdown, then they got another stay, continued to disagree, and it all shut down again in December. Sometime in January they got a balanced budget.
I don’t remember the two shutdowns. What I remember best is the Arch shut down, plus there was some type of all-night pizza party while the political parties battled it out.
It cost a lot of money, everyone was thoroughly disgusted with Washington, the President’s approval rating went up, but then the Republicans won a lot of seats because they were so committed to fiscal responsibility.
Is it possible, is it possible they think we don’t remember it at all?
If they have an all-night pizza party because they are working so hard then we’ll know.
2 responses to “If They Do It Again I Will Secede”
Paul Ryan doesn’t remember it; he was still just a kid and still is in many respects. Same for many of his freshman coherts.
No they don’t remember it because they were not there. They were in junior high…..
Benchmark – Scary! That’s a good point!