The US Government Shut-Down - Whom to Blame

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As of January 6, 2013, the Tea Party Caucus had 49 members, all Republicans.

• Bachmann, Michele (Minnesota)
• Barton, Joe (Texas)
• Bilirakis, Gus (Florida)
• Bishop, Rob (Utah)
• Black, Diane (Tennessee)
• Broun, Paul (Georgia)
• Burgess, Michael C. (Texas)
• Carter, John (Texas)
• Cassidy, Bill (Louisiana)
• Coble, Howard (North Carolina)
• Coffman, Mike (Colorado)
• Crenshaw, Ander (Florida)
• Cruz, Ted (Texas)
• Culberson, John (Texas)
• Duncan, Jeff (South Carolina)
• Farenthold, Blake (Texas)
• Fincher, Stephen (Tennessee)
• Fleming, John (Louisiana)
• Franks, Trent (Arizona)
• Gingrey, Phil (Georgia)
• Gohmert, Louie (Texas)
• Hartzler, Vicky (Missouri)
• Huelskamp, Tim (Kansas)
• Jenkins, Lynn (Kansas)
• King, Steve (Iowa)
• Lamborn, Doug (Colorado)
• Lee, Mike (Utah)
• Luetkemeyer, Blaine (Missouri)
• Marchant, Kenny (Texas)
• McClintock, Tom (California)
• McKinley, David (West Virginia)
• Miller, Gary (California)
• Moran, Jerry (Kansas)
• Mulvaney, Mick (South Carolina)
• Neugebauer, Randy (Texas)
• Nugent, Rich (Florida)
• Palazzo, Steven (Mississippi)
• Paul, Rand (Kentucky)
• Pearce, Steve (New Mexico)
• Poe, Ted (Texas)
• Price, Tom (Georgia)
• Roe, Phil (Tennessee)
• Ross, Dennis A. (Florida)
• Royce, Ed (California)
• Scalise, Steve (Louisiana)
• Scott, Tim (South Carolina)
• Sessions, Pete (Texas)
• Smith, Adrian (Nebraska)
• Smith, Lamar S. (Texas)
• Walberg, Tim (Michigan)
• Westmoreland, Lynn (Georgia)
• Wilson, Joe (South Carolina)

^THESE are the people to blame for shutting down the American government out of spite toward a black man for having won the 2012 presidential election.

THEY are the ones holding the government hostage in return for de-financing "Obamacare".

Remember their names; the 2016 election is coming up.

Vote the Bullies Out of Office.

That's 52 names ...

What about the elections in 2014?

I count 52 also (it's an aspie thing lol).

Oh noes! They are multiplying! The sad thing is these people WANT the government to fail, just so they can try to say it is Obama's fault even if they are the cause. They have done this before. Even some of their fellow Republicans can see the insanity of the Tea Party. What's sadder though is that these people were elected by and may be accurately representing their constituents' views. Gerrymandering may have a lot to do with it, but it also seems to indicate there are many ignorant, bigoted, selfish and uncompassionate people in our country.

Oh by the way it is not sad that they are representing their constituents' views (if that is the case). If that is the case, that is the way our government is supposed to work. What's sad is what those views are. The following quotation seems to apply here.

(This is often attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville with slightly different wording.)

the tea party knows best, that nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.

I believe that during the Reagan years a Democratic Congress "shut down the government" not once but many times. I suppose that was Reagan's fault (for vetoing their spending bills) while this time it's the House Republicans' fault (for proposing a spending bill the President cannot accept)?

The spending bill is one thing, but the tea party are tying their hatred of Obamacare to that bill even though that could be considered to be a separate issue. So it is the Tea Party who are being unreasonable here. Obamacare passed, was supported by the courts, and is happening. If they still want to fight it that is great. But it is very wrong to hold the American people hostage over it. The Tea Party are terrorists.

I also see a couple names on that list who I am familiar with for their very ignorant misinformed views about the fact of evolution which further shows how ignorant they are or how deceitful if they are just pretending to be that stupid about this subject. Michele Bachmann has made many ignorant statements about this, and Paul Broun of Georgia has even claimed that evolution is a lie that comes from the pit of Hell. I would say that since evolution is based on the evidence of the real world, then the Creator of that world (being the source of that evidence) would be the one that evolution comes from. So IF evolution is a lie, then it does not come from the pit of Hell but from the throne of Heaven.

Because Bachmann and Broun are so out of touch with demonstrable reality and show such a lack of ability to make clear judgments reasoning logically from evidence, perhaps they should not be allowed to serve in public office? There isn't an insanity test for public office so far as I know, but even if there were if the majority of their constituents are insane then perhaps it is only right that the elected officials also be insane. Of course sanity is determined in every culture by majority rule. So if they are out of touch with demonstrable reality but most of their society are also, perhaps it is more correct to say not that they are insane, but that they are in denial of demonstrable reality.

It keeps going back to that quote about a people getting the government they deserve.

Last edited by TheBicyclingGuitarist on 30 Sep 2013, 10:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Why blame anyone? Blaming people for it is rather juvenile, don't you think?

If you know anything about past history at all, such "shutdowns" have been pretty much meaningless. This is far from the first and it is surely not the last. There will be a few speeches and some agreements reached and then they will come back and spend money like drunken sailors in a bawdy house just as if nothing ever happened.

If anything is different this time, it will be because the Democrats just want to use it to further their own political agenda and try to make it as painful as possible.

I blame the voters who voted for the rethugs who shut the gov't down.

the government cant only agree on things that screw over the masses, if it was a censorship bill or a power expansion it would have been done in one day

There's enough blame to go around for everybody on the Hill as well as the White House. Maybe it's time we, the people, wake up and demand massive reform in Congress, since there is little or no Progress going on in that institution.

First, it's high time that an amendment to the constitution be passed enforcing term limits on Congress, specifically, 1 six year term for the Senate and 3 2 year terms for the House. Before anyone says that there would not be any institutional memory if this happens, I say bullsh*t. Why do you think the congressional record is published? Also, there is the National Archives and Records Administration. Almost every scape of paper, almost every type of recording (audio, as well as video), and almost every type of computer media that exists that contains data is maintained both in Washington, as well as College Park, MD, and several NARA storage facilities located across the United States.

Second, it's high time that a balanced budget amendment be added to the constitution, giving the president line item veto power over discretionary spending in the budget. Clinton had this power during his presidency, and a surplus of funds ensued when he had it. It was only the infinite(?) wisdom of the Supreme Court that took away that power.

Third, it's high time the US do away with the Electoral College. The only reason the Founding Fathers implemented this system was that they did not trust the public to make the right decision. It was more of a "hedge your bet" and a rigged system of electioneering.

Fourth, it's time to go to a coalition form of government like the have through most of the free world.

Fifth, get rid of the public funding the Federal government gives to the candidates for federal office.

Sixth, there should be an independent watchdog group (preferably from the United Nations) that should watch the US elections as closely as the watch elections in newly free countries.

Seventh, they say that those of us on the spectrum are concrete thinkers and know nothing of compromise? Maybe our elected officials should be subjected to ABA so they can learn the fine art of compromise!

Finally, we should stay out of other countries business, since we sure as hell can't manage our own!

Are you a mind reader now, Fnord?



You mean that law that was hurriedly rammed through by one party with no opposition support whatsoever, the same one that a plurality of the voters don't like and want repealed? That's starting to sound less like holding the government hostage and more like enforcing the will of the people on an intransigent political elite.

This is a very volatile subject. It is exceptionally easy to let your emotions be swayed by pathos-fueled arguments, and to forget to use your head when the argument must be met objectively, and not subjectively. This is my two cents on the matter, so take what you will.

Economics state that there is always a cost involved. 'Free' is a subjective term; just because it costs you nothing doesn't mean it lacks a cost, or that the cost is purely physical. And because matter is finite, all resources are considered scarce (basically, there is not enough of the resource to satiate everyone's needs; note that scarce and shortage are two separate terms in economics). So when someone comes along and says, "I am going to get everyone free health care, and it is not going to cost anyone anything," I find it both physically improbable and very terrifying. Someone, somewhere (or somewhen, if you consider that this issue can pass on to those who aren't even born yet) will pay the price for this, and considering the information on how much this program would cost to implement, it's kinda a good thing we've stopped. Especially considering that we don't even have the money needed to implement it.

A lot of the problems our government has comes from how it is being run (outside a general lack of separation between Business, Media, and the State- that's a bit of a doosie). The Constitution of 1786 is a document drafting a Federal form of government (where-in a balance of power is maintained between two levels of government: The Federal Level, which represents the govt. abroad; and the State Level, which takes care of the business at home, and which is composed of multiple Local-Level governments). However, our government (since about the end of the American Civil War) has been run as a Unitary form of government (where the Federal Level of government clearly has power and influence over State Government, and runs things on both fronts). This is why everyone calls us a democracy when on paper we are a republic, and why we are called "the United States," over the grammatically and theoretically correct, "these United States."

What does this mean? Basically, a lack of direct representation. The states are not allowed to act in the best interest of the people they consist of, but rather they must act for the best interests of the Federal Government, which claims it acts in the interests of the people. This is exemplified is the massive bureaucracy that has formed in our government, a physical representation of the manpower needed to command the power it has consolidated from our States. As our system of checks and balances is not designed for such a bureaucracy, it falls apart. Not to mention that the bureaucracy doesn't answer to the people- state officials are appointed, not voted upon. And this massive shift in power is coupled with the fact that our legislative branch is subjected to and piloted by the whims of about 10% of our population (or more simply, the members of the House and Senate that 'represent' that 10%).

It worries me how everyone spouts solutions without a basic understanding of the system on which our way of life has been possible. It terrifies me how people can so blindly devote themselves to the best of intentions, without understanding how the road to Hell is lined with them. And the fact that everyone seems so desperate for a scapegoat right now gives me pause. History suggests to me that everyone in Germany was looking for a scapegoat about the time Hitler came into power, and that he didn't have a tenth of the tech we have assimilated into our lifestyles.

We the People must remain vigilant, informed, and grounded. Acting out of rash anger or blind hate is only going to fuel the fire. Step lightly, and with well-rounded judgement. Godspeed, and thanks for your time.

We should have let the South secede. Most of this Tea-Party bs is coming from them.

^^^ No, we just need to kick Texas out of the union and deport all those Tea Party folks.

Deport all those Tea-Party folks and we won't have to kick Texas out of the Union.