Madison County Democratic Committee

Category: Sequester (Page 3 of 7)

Day 10

October 10, 2013 /

This article will appear in the October 28, 2013 edition of The Nation.

The shutdown of the government is a crisis for Americans, who rely not just on the services provided by the affected agencies but on the efficiency of their delivery. When 800,000 federal employees are furloughed, it is not just the immediate damage that is of consequence; over time, the whole system begins to fray and weaken. While those furloughed employees will eventually be paid, the abrupt cutoff in pay has a ripple effect in the broader community. At a time when America’s economic recovery is at best uneven, the financial uncertainties brought about by the shutdown have idled not just large federal contractors but small businesses on Main Street.

Another crisis is playing out as well, one that must be understood and addressed if this country is to avoid the kind of blackmail that might satisfy Ted Cruz and the Tea Party firebrands in the House, but that most Americans will understand as a threat to democracy.

The shutdown (and the threat to allow a debt default) seeks to undo the results of the 2012 election by giving a minority within the losing party the power to decide whether government will operate or not. The founders of the American experiment established a separation of powers, but that is not the cause of today’s crisis. In 2012, Barack Obama won the presidency by 5 million votes. He won 51 percent of the overall vote, and he won the Electoral College 332 to 206. But the Democratic victory did not end there. The Democrats were expected to lose Senate seats, but they actually gained, and the overall turnout in those races gave them a 10 million–vote advantage. In House races, Democrats secured an overall margin of 1.7 million votes; the chamber is under Republican control not because of the desires of American voters, but because of a combination of gerrymandering, big money and winner-take-all voting structures…

[DKB url=”http://endtheirresponsibleshutdown.com/” text=”Tea Party extremists have successfully shut down the federal government and if they’re not stopped, they’ll succeed in shutting down our economy, too. This is no way to govern, and we deserve better. Add your voice today and call for ending this irresponsible shutdown immediately. It’s time to reopen our government and restart our economy.” title=”Add your voice” type=”large” style=”normal” color=”blue” textcolor=”#ffffff” opennewwindow=”yes” nofollow=”yes”]

© 2013 | Paid for by Chris Coons for Delaware, Heidi for Senate, Kaine for Virginia, Menendez for Senate, and Friends of Jeanne Shaheen.

False Equivalence

October 9, 2013 /

TO: ABC, NBC, CBS AND CNN
from CREDO Mobilize

The government shutdown is not the result of a legislative breakdown or both parties refusing to compromise. It is a direct result of the right-wing House Republicans’ legislative strategy of taking hostages and making extremist demands that are out of touch with the American people. Report the truth: House Republicans are solely responsible for the government shutdown.

Speaker Boehner

This week, the White House started pushing back on the media’s coverage of the government shutdown, with White House adviser Dan Pfeiffer calling an ABC reporter’s comments about the shutdown “some of the worst false equivalence I have seen in a long time.”

The major television networks have largely ignored the Republicans’ own words and tried to imply that both sides are equally to blame for the shutdown.[1] They seem determined to make the story of the shutdown one of a partisan standoff where both sides are equally to blame. This is dishonest.

News reports are largely blaming the government shutdown on the inability of both political parties to come to terms. It is supposedly the result of a “bitterly divided” Congress that “failed to reach agreement” (Washington Post) or “a bitter budget standoff” left unresolved by “rapid-fire back and forth legislative maneuvers” (New York Times). This sort of false equivalence is not just a failure of journalism. It is also a failure of democracy.

The facts are as clear as day. The Republicans have opted to use a shutdown as a way of pressuring President Obama to give up healthcare and other progressive priorities. Media coverage of the government shutdown and who is to blame should reflect these facts and inform the American people, but so far it has largely failed to do so.

The false equivalence and “he-said, she-said” coverage from major television networks and the dysfunctional DC press corps has dangerous implications for the proper functioning of our democracy. If Americans who watch television news don’t understand the fact that Republicans intentionally created the government shutdown and debt ceiling crises in an unprecedented attempt to extract extreme legislative concessions from Democrats, they won’t be able to hold those responsible accountable at the ballot box.

It is not the media’s job to cover up for the Republicans. It’s time for the media to come clean and report the truth: Republicans are solely responsible for shutting down the government.

REFERENCES:

[1] http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/10/01/how-the-press-helped-cause-the-gop-shutdown/196187

Day 1

October 2, 2013 /

Clowns

On October 1, 2013, the United States federal government entered a shutdown suspending discretionary services deemed “non-essential” by the Antideficiency Act. As a result of the government’s failure to enact regular appropriations or a continuing resolution for the 2014 fiscal year, appropriations have lapsed and approximately 800,000 federal employees have been indefinitely furloughed without pay, while a further 1.3 million “essential” employees are required to report to work indefinitely but will not be paid until a budget is passed.

During the shutdown, 8 million+ low-income pregnant women, breastfeeding women, and infants and children under the age of five (53% of all American infants) will no longer receive healthcare and nutrition assistance under WIC, but John Boehner will continue to collect his $223,500 salary, his $1,000,000+ MRA and enjoy free, tax payer-funded health care.

Speaker John Boehner
H-232 The Capitol
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-0600
Fax: (202) 225-5117
@SpeakerBoehner

Speaker John Boehner

Speaker John Boehner. 103,445 likes · 42 talking about this. Official Facebook page for former U.S. House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH).

The Height Of Irresponsibility

October 1, 2013 /

“Today we saw the Tea Party Republicans in Congress hit rock bottom. Voting to shut down the federal government will damage our nation’s economy and hit Virginia the hardest, but Ted Cruz and the Tea Party declared by their actions today that none of that matters to them as much as their dangerous and unrealistic ideological agenda.” Charniele Herring, DPVA Chair

Here’s the official shutdown memo from the O.M.B.

This is a partial guide to who and what the Republican-forced shutdown will most affect:

  • Anyone who might get sick: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) would lack funding to support its annual flu vaccination program.
  • Military personnel: Barring last-minute congressional action, members of the armed forces would have their paychecks put on hold while they continue to work.
  • People who use boats: The Coast Guard will cut back on routine patrols and navigation assistance.
  • Civilian defense employees: 400,000 Department of Defense employees will be given unpaid vacations.
  • Family members of fallen soldiers: Death benefits for military families will be delayed.
  • Gun owners: During the 1990s shutdown, applications for gun permits were delayed due to furloughs at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
  • Trees: Hundreds of US Forest Service workers face furloughs in California during peak forest fire season.
  • Visa applicants: Furloughs at the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs mean tens of thousands of visa applications are put on hold.
  • People traveling abroad: A shutdown would cause delays in the processing of passport applications.
  • Sick people: The National Institutes of Health will not admit new patients unless ordered by the director.
  • Factory workers: The Occupational Safety and Health Administration will halt regular inspections.
  • Hikers: All 401 National Park Service sites will be closed.
  • People who make money off tourists: Shuttered national parks are bad news for the hotels, restaurants, and other attractions that feed off them.
  • Small business loan applicants: The Small Business Administration will furlough 62 percent of its workforce.
  • Employers: The Department of Homeland Security’s e-Verify program will be offline for the duration of the shutdown.
  • Fountains: 45 of them will lose water.
  • People applying for mortgages: The Federal Housing Administration and the USDA won’t guarantee new loans.
  • Oil and gas exploration: The Bureau of Land Management will stop processing permits for oil and gas drilling on federal lands.
  • Chemical site facility security: Funding for Department of Homeland Security regulatory program ends October 4.
  • FOIA requests: The Social Security Administration says it won’t respond to Freedom of Information Act Requests during the shutdown.
  • Docents: All Smithsonian Institution museums in Washington, DC, will be closed.
  • @CuriosityRover: 98 percent of NASA’s staff will be furloughed, and the agency’s website and live-streams will go dark.
  • Renewable energy permits: The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will stop all new offshore renewable-energy projects.
  • Campers: People living (or vacationing) in national parks and forests will have 48 hours to relocate.
  • Animal voyeurs: Watch the National Zoo’s Panda-cam while you still can.
  • Native Americans: The Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement will suspend oversight of active and abandoned coal mines “primarily in Tennessee and on Indian lands.”
  • Pesticide regulators: The Environmental Protection Agency will all but shut down at midnight.
  • Veterans pensions: The Department of Veterans Affairs says it will run out of funding for regular payment checks after a few weeks.
  • US Geological Survey researchers: The agency would stop most new scientific research and water analysis.
  • Disability payments: Although the VA will continue to provide medical care, disability payments may also be disrupted after a few weeks.
  • Winery permits: Couldn’t they take the wine coolers instead?
  • Ponies: The Bureau of Land Management’s wild horse and burro adoption programs would cease.
  • Infectious disease surveillance: The CDC will be unable to track outbreaks and monitor infectious diseases at a local level.
  • People on food assistance: The USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) will stop making payments on October 1.
  • Food inspections: The Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration warned of “inability to investigate alleged violations” due to a lack of funding; food imports will also go unexpected.
  • Automobile recall inspectors: “Routine defects and recall information from manufacturers and consumers would not be reviewed,” according to the Department of Transportation.
  • Food and drug safety research: The Department of Health and Human Services, which includes the FDA, will furlough 52 percent of its staff.
  • ARPA-E: The Department of Energy’s cutting-edge research arm—and one of the crowning legacies of the stimulus—will shut down, putting projects such as “squirtable batteries” on hold.
  • Nuclear Regulatory Commission: The agency could furlough more than 92 percent of its employees next week, with much of the remaining staff handling inspections.
  • People without heat: If the shutdown persists, it could affect the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which funds heating assistance programs.
  • Consumers: The Commodity Futures Trading Commission will furlough 652 of its 680 employees and maintain only a “bare minimum level of oversight and surveillance” to stop fraudulent practices.
  • People trying to pay taxes: The Internal Revenue Service will shutter its tax hotline, and stop processing tax payments.
  • College students: Cutbacks at the Department of Education could slow Pell grant and student-loan payments.
  • Economists: The Bureau of Economic Analysis will cut back on its data collection.
  • Welfare recipients: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families—welfare—runs out of funding on October 1, although individual states may pick up the tab.
  • Head Start: The child development program, already hammered by the effects of sequestration, will stop doling out new grants on October 1.
  • Air monitoring: A 94 percent reduction in staff won’t leave the EPA much room to enforce its new carbon regulations.
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