Shutdown Follies And The Real Battle Over The Debt Ceiling

I don't know what to say about the federal government "shutdown" that has not been said already.
What is amazing though is the totally arbitrary nature of what does and does not fit in the "shutdown" category.
OK, it appears that war memorials, most outdoors and not in great need of having a great deal of on site staffing, are cool for "shutting" down.
But Camp David, the presidential retreat, not so much.
In fact, the National Park Service is making damn sure to make in painful for visitors to access our national parks.
According to this in the Washington Times, a park ranger openly expressed his disgust at making things hard for American and international tourists

"It's a cheap way to deal with the situation," an angry Park Service ranger in Washington says of the harassment. "We've been told to make life as difficult for people as we can. Its disgusting."

I know, hard to believe, isn't it?
But nothing says that this whole "shutdown" is nothing but theatre is forcing veterans out of open-air memorials to the wars that they served in.
We know about the World War II memorial and a bunch of late 80 and early 90 year olds basically telling the NPS to take a flying leap. But hey, why not pick on the Vietnam vets?
Yeah, this should be a public relations disaster for the Dear Leader, President Obama.
But he gets a huge assist from the senate majority leader, Sen. Dingy Harry Reid (D-Nev-one thing that you can't blame on California!) and this choice comment he made in a exchange with CNN's reporter Dana Bash:

         BASH: “You all talked about children with cancer unable to go to clinical trials, the House is          presumably going to pass a bill that funds at least the NIH. Given what you’ve said, will you  at        least pass that? And if not, aren’t you playing the same political games that Republicans are?”
          REID: Listen, Senator Durbin explained that very well, and he did it on the floor earlier. As did Senator Schumer. What right did they have to pick and choose what part of government is going to be funded? It’s obvious what’s going on here. You talk about reckless and irresponsible. Wow. What this is all about is Obamacare. They are obsessed. I don’t know what other word I can use. They’re obsessed with this Obamacare. It’s working now and it will continue to work and people will love it more than they do now by far. So they have no right to pick and choose.
          BASH: But if you can help one child who has cancer, why wouldn’t you do it?
          SCHUMER: Why pit one against the other?
          REID: Why would we want to do that? I have 1,100 people at Nellis Air Force base that are sitting home. They have a few problems of their own. This is — to have someone of your intelligence to suggest such a thing maybe means you’re irresponsible and reckless.
          BASH: I’m just asking a question.

Ahh, before we discuss Sen. Dingy Harry's compassion, I suppose that Sen. Chuckie Schumer (D-New York) does make a better attempt at answering the question at first than does Sen. Dingy Harry.
But yes, why care about one child with cancer? How about the multiple people, children and adults, that can benefit from the National Institutes of Health being funded and open to continue clinical trials? The fact is that Sen. Dingy Harry does not really care about the children with cancer any more than the 1,100 people that he cited at Nellis Air Force base that are not working due to the "shutdown".
It's all about who is going to "win" the "shutdown" battle.
Really, no side will "win".
Seriously, at this point some adults are going to have to come out of this and state the obvious.
Hey, knock it off! This has gone on too long and no one wins. So unless each side gives up on something, both sides will lose.
It is painful to write that. Because I do believe that O-Care is truly an abomination. That the vast increase in the size and depth of the federal government goes against all that is American. But we have a real battle coming up in the debt-ceiling negotiation. And that is a way to exact concessions from Team Obama. For no matter how Team Obama spins it, the fact is that if it comes to pass, it will be that under his watch, the Dear Leader, President Obama, the United States will default on loans. If the economy totally tanks, it will be really hard for Team Obama to blame the House Republicans as the culprits.
The "shutdown" is making its point. Yes, the president can just make life miserable for the American people in many needling ways. But a default on our loan obligations will affect every single American, born and unborn. Thus time to end the "Shutdown Follies" and fight an winnable battle for the American people

Craptastic! It Looks Like A Debt Deal Is On

Yes, it is craptastic. But it is a deal and the dreaded "default" hanging on the United States like a sword of Damocles is lifted.
The highlights of the deal, such as they are, as follows:

An immediate cut of $1 trillion in government spending over a 10-year period.

A $900 billion increase in the debt ceiling.

And my personal favorite,

The creation of a committee to come up with additional cuts worth at least $1.5 trillion to be voted on by the end of the year

Lets take the last component of the deal. Just who will each party nominate to be on this super committee of congress? I expect the Democrats to pick the ones that will most object to serious cuts. But the Republicans, will they put any Tea Party congress members on this committee? Or are they going to put Porkster types? That is going to make a difference as to what happens down the road. And what kind of process of future cuts will be had? Will defense be cut to shreds, a Democrat dream? Or will cuts be equitable and across the board? It is what is the great unknown about this legislation. The Republicans need to put hard-liners in this committee to insure equitable across the board cuts will be done.
The debt ceiling gets hiked. Once again the limit on the United States credit card increases. And once again, something is wrong about this whole process. Because all public debt is included in what we owe rather than each individual debt, we are having this debate every time we pass a budget.
And the $900,000,000,000 in cuts take place over a period of 10 years. Again, one of the arguments the Tea Party folks were making is that cuts needed to be front loaded. It is not real clear if that is what is happening.
And no matter what, this is a huge win for the Tea Party. No bribes occurred to switch votes. They insisted on transparency and, while not perfect, much more than in previous years on major pieces of legislation. Think the so-called health care "reform" plan. And it will not pass unless there are no new taxes. And that appears to be the case.
Amazing how our legislative and executive branches work in such situations. Wait til the bitter end and we get stuck with a crap sandwich. It is not a way to run a nation. We will see if this was all worth it in the next several days.