Federal Government Shutdown

[KichigaiNeko]

We really are feeling sorry for you 'Murica.

Do you now go to a vote as GOP has blocked supply? (please excuse my understanding of just how you parliamentary system "works")

[Tonus]

I think they'll posture for a bit and then reach agreements. In the last decade or two it has become the case that every important "negotiation" goes up to (or beyond, as in this case) its final deadline. Until the last moment everyone just postures and plays to the base. Sorry to be a cynic, but the upshot of this is that it'll be a great buying opportunity for those who can (particularly for the wealthy, who probably have been preparing for this) and a punch in the eye for pretty much everyone else. In other words, it will sting like a bitch for a while and then it fades away and people act as if they forgot all about it.

[KichigaiNeko]

Sounds like a third world country

[Tonus]

We may be experiencing a form of the third generation problem.

[KichigaiNeko]

More likely you are experiencing "Third World Problems"

[bennyboy]

Fucking GOP pisses me off. They start with blackmail, and they want Obama to meet them in the middle-- between an already-passed law with WAY too many fucking concessions to the Republicans, and a total and complete ass-raping. Obama refuses, and they accuse him of being unwilling to compromise. They are the reason why the word "faggot" shouldn't refer to actual gay people-- because I so want to slap the shit out of each and every one of them, give them fucking wedgies, and tell them "Stop fucking up the world, faggots! He's black, fucking get over it!"

[Airyaman]

GOP? It seems both sides have a stake, and one side is certainly not compromising.

GOP: How about this?
D: Nope.
GOP: OK, what about this?
D: Nope.

All of the fuckers are responsible, but guess what? Many of them are just doing what their constituents voted for. The tea party people were voted into office by those who wanted TP ideals. The Dems likewise. If you don't like the results you'll have to change government to get rid of checks & balances.

The GOP is mad about losing the last election, which was largely about Obamacare. The law has past both houses of Congress, been signed by the President, upheld by the Supreme Court and vindicated by a landslide election of the president who campaigned on it.

I believe what they told us in 2004 was "we won, you lost, get over it".

Seems they don't take their own advice when the tables are turned.

So rather than respect the democratic process and campaign on this issue again in 2014 and 2016, which would be the responsible, civic-minded thing to do, they take hostages and threaten to burn everything down unless we overturn the democratic process and run the country to their liking.

How are they not completely at fault for this needless, manufactured crisis? On what basis do they have the right to burn the country down unless their demands are met?

Do you have any idea what would have happened if the Democrats did this in 2007 to W Bush? I believe "traitors" would be the word the GOP would have bandied around. In fact, we know this because the DID use that term when the Democrats tinkered with the idea of not funding the Iraq War, a move which would have been completely in line with normal Congressional function.

If Obama hadn't personally made his own changes to the law, you would have more of an issue here. He decided to exempt employers from the mandate for one year, and this is one of the compromises the GOP wants but the Dems and Obama are saying no. The GOP simply wants the delay to extend to all, not just employers, so why is this not acceptable?

Hate to say it, but this is the height of hypocrisy imo, as progressives are often complaining about how businesses get special treatment by the government while the people get shafted. Here Obama once again gives special treatment to businesses while the general public still has to buy insurance or face a fine. Why do you all balk at the GOP trying to extend the delay to all?

[Isun]

The democrats have already compromised as they left the sequester in this funding bill.

[Tonus]

More likely you are experiencing "Third World Problems"

Shortsightedness can be considered a third-world problem, I suppose.

[_xenu_]

This lack of compromise is a direct result of gerrymandering by both sides, though the GOP has grown more extreme because of it. They know their position is safe so long as don't lose in the primaries, so they refuse to ever grant the left anything. Until such political manipulation of representational boundaries is outlawed, this extreme gridlock will continue.