I Was Just Reviewing The Minutes Of Our Last Meeting

Early in the day on Wednesday the US House of Representatives voted on a nearly $8 billion aid package to victims of Hurricane Harvey.  Senate Republican leaders had been planning to tie that aid to a bill to raise the debt ceiling after the 2018 midterm elections.

Democrats were amenable to helping move the aid/debt ceiling bill but would only agree to do so for three months.  This prompted Speaker of the House Paul Ryan to go on the record despising the plan calling it “dumb” at a news conference.

“Let’s just think about this: We’ve got all this devastation in Texas. We’ve got another unprecedented hurricane about to hit Florida, and they want to play politics with the debt ceiling? I think that’s ridiculous and disgraceful that they want to play politics with the debt ceiling at this moment when we have fellow citizens in need, to respond to these hurricanes so we do not strand them,” Ryan said angrily.

Shortly thereafter, Ryan and other congressional leaders went to the White House for a strategy meeting with the president.

It was at that meeting that President Trump agreed to endorse a plan proposed by Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Nancy Pelosi to attach hurricane relief money to a shorter-term bump in the debt ceiling as well as keeping the government open.

Schumer, during the meeting, reminded the president that Ryan had supported short-term increases in the past intended to help create bipartisan deals in 2013.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said later that he would support the deal agreed to by the president but he made very clear following the Republican policy lunch that this was an agreement between President Trump and Democratic leaders. He wouldn't say if he was surprised by the deal, but said Trump's "rationale" was the "feeling that we need to come together."

.@SenateMajLdr says "the president and the Senate and House democratic leadership agreed to a 3-month CR and a #debtceiling into December." pic.twitter.com/6YEGt2HNvQ

— CSPAN (@cspan) September 6, 2017

Countless Americans have become increasingly disgruntled with Congress’s failure to get anything done and see McConnell and Ryan as the obstacles to enacting the president’s agenda.  If things don’t change voters will not only demand new leadership they will throw the bums out come election day.

Ben Domenech, writing at The Federalist surmised, “This is the first sign Trump is waking up to the inaccuracy of the conventional wisdom about needing McConnell and Ryan which has animated so much of the early failures of the Republican legislative agenda.  So, he’s being more honest:  he doesn’t like McConnell and Ryan, never did.  He likes Chuck Schumer, and knows him, and thinks he can work with him.”

Voters began electing men and women to serve in Congress who would repeal and replace Obamacare and legislate tax reform beginning in 2010.  They’ve had years of preparation and yet have been unable to advance their agenda.  Republicans have failed to deliver on their promises to President Trump and to the voters who sent them to Washington to fight for them.

They’ve been blowing smoke like a ’56 Rambler.  I don’t blame the president for taking sides against the feckless GOP elite. 

Mitch McConnell had refused to meet with Trump for weeks, now GOP cries because Trump retaliated on debt ceiling. Welcome to hard ball.

— Mike Cernovich 🇺🇸 (@Cernovich) September 6, 2017

By showing Republicans he can work with Democrats, Trump forces Republicans to unite or become irrelevant. He just changed the game.

— Bill Mitchell (@mitchellvii) September 7, 2017

The Fierce Urgency Of Now

I foolishly believed that a government shutdown would never materialize.  Yes, I was naive.

I know many believe that the partial government shutdown proved that federal workers can disappear without being missed.  I would have to agree with you.  None of the furloughed workers in my agency were missed.  They were genuinely non-essential.

Now, we are learning that some federal workers applied for, and received, jobless benefits while they were furloughed.  Some of them will likely get paid twice for not working.  According to the Labor Department, several states are expected to allow these workers to keep both their jobless benefits and the back pay.  Must be nice.

Unlike those furloughed federal workers, I am considered “key and essential personnel and a first responder” and I was ordered to report for duty each and every day of the shutdown without being paid.

I am furious that the furloughed workers will receive back pay for what amounts to a paid vacation.  They didn’t work one day, one hour, one minute, one second during the shutdown.  I think it is an outrage.

For sixteen days, my bills continued to come in my mailbox with the expectation that they be paid in full and on time.

I have spent the last few years of my life working feverishly to become debt-free in preparation for my “golden years”.  With only nine months left before I can retire, my home is paid off and my car is eleven years old.

I pay for everything with cash, check or debit card. 

On October 9^th, a memorandum for distribution from the Chief Human Capital Officer was issued.

“On October 1, 2013, many federal agencies were partially shut down due to a lapse of appropriations.  As a result, many Department of _________________ employees were subject to furlough, which places them in a non-pay status until Congress passes an appropriation.  In addition, even these employees who are reporting to work to perform excepted functions will not receive pay until an appropriation is passed by Congress.” 

“Because these employees will not receive pay during the lapse in appropriations, some of our employees may have difficulty in timely meeting their financial obligations.  This lapse in appropriation is expected to be a temporary situation and one that is beyond our employees’ control.  We appreciate your organization’s understanding toward _________________ employees until this situation is resolved.” 

“Our employees will be returned to pay status as soon as possible,  We hope this letter helps explain the furlough process for our _________________ employees, and we extend our thanks for your patience and compassion towards our employees during this time when they may be negatively impacted by the lapse in appropriation.”

Seriously?  How many creditors do you think would respond compassionately to a bullshit letter like this? 

I didn’t apply for jobless benefits, I didn’t ask my friends to lend me money and I didn’t apply for a loan to sustain me during the shutdown.

Last Monday, on my day off, I decided to sell some of my silver coins and old gold jewelry in order to pay for the replacement of the evaporation leak detection pump that was causing an idiot light to remain illuminated on the dashboard.  That light would prevent my car from passing its safety inspection which is required in my state.

This year, my state requires that your vehicle property tax be paid simultaneously with your vehicle registration renewal—none of which can happen without passing the safety inspection first.

The week before, I was driving home from work when my power steering gave out.  Over the course of the last two weeks I’ve spent a little more that $600 to keep my car running so I can get back and forth to work.

I was planning on selling some of my cherished baseball memorabilia today had the shutdown continued.  I’ll hold those things in reserve if, on January 15, 2014, the spittle-laced barbs of the children of The Beltway return to their sickening antics.

Randy-g recently posted a comment saying he hoped “all is well…You are missed.”  I guess Randy noticed that it’s been two weeks since I last posted something and wanted me to know that he was a teeny bit concerned.

I’ve eaten more than my fill of bologna sammiches and PB&Js.  I’m sick of drinking just plain water.  I’ve cut corners in every way I know how.  I’m going to make it, but honestly, this has taken a toll on me.

I haven’t slept well because of the worry.  When I have slept, I’ve had nightmares.  All in all, I’m pretty lucky because the Good Lord provided a way for me to make it through all this.  I am thankful and humbled by His blessings.

One final thought…I despise this Congress whose indifference to how I and others may have suffered through their stupidity and whose only thought is to orate in sound bites suitable for consumption on television and I despise the mainstream media which ignores the decay of a free society.

I am reminded of the sagacious words of Cicero, one of Rome’s greatest orators:

“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself.” 

“For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men.” 

“He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. A traitor is the plague.”

One Love

The World’s Most Dangerous Community Organizer belonged to a “Choom Gang” and was a truly committed pothead.

So here’s my suggestion for solving the current government shutdown and the looming debt ceiling debate:  Let’s get Ray the Dealer to bring some quality buds to the West Wing.  Let TWMDCO fire up a doobie and I’ll bet he negotiates with the GOP.

Can’t you just picture it—Bob Marley playing on the Preezy of the United Steezy’s iPod, smoke rolling around his face, glazed-over eyes—good times. 

Cue the music—

The Statue Of Liberty Is Shaking Her Fist

Ross Kaminsky opined at American Spectator:

“While the most anti-American president in American history might not be too unhappy at the downward spiral of his nation’s international standing and economic strength, it is not by his design but rather a result of the sad accident of having (twice) elected a naïve, petulant, self-obsessed non-leader.” 

[One potential caveat: While Obama is not clever enough for his apparent incompetence to be anything but real, some of his advisers/puppet-masters, like David Axelrod and Valerie Jarrett, are. For those enemies of America, Obama is just their front man, their very own Billy Mays, hawking a radical leftist vision in a pleasant container. The question then is what percentage puppet is our president.]

The day of reckoning is coming.

The Senate Chaplain, Barry Black, had to use the morning invocation to publicly dress down the members of the Senate:

“We acknowledge our transgressions, our shortcomings, our smugness, our selfishness and our pride.  Deliver us from the hypocrisy of attempting to sound reasonable while being unreasonable.  Remove from them that stubborn pride, which imagines itself to be above and beyond criticism.  Forgive them the blunders they have committed.” 

Putting personal politics ahead of what is best for this nation is egregious. These stupid bastards must grow up.

Innocent people are paying the price for their dithering.

Does This Obama Lapdog Have Alzheimers?

Washington (CNN) —Less than two weeks after one of the nation's deadliest school shootings, the No.2 Democrat in the U.S. House, Steny Hoyer, compared Republican tactics for dealing with the nation's debt limit to someone threatening to shoot a child hostage. 

"It's somewhat like taking your child hostage and saying to somebody else, 'I'm going to shoot my child if you don't do what I want done.' You don't want to shoot your child. There's no Republican leader that wants to default on our debt that I’ve talked to" Hoyer said at a Capitol Hill press conference.

Obviously, the image associated with this post is a Photoshop™ of the profoundly foolish 73-year-old addlebrain bonehead dimwit pinhead cretin who’s been representing the Great State of Maryland for 31 years.  Hoyer provides the perfect argument for term limits and regular tests for signs of the onset of Alzheimers and, perhaps, an IQ test. Never take your eyes off the mumbling, bumbling bum.

I’m certain the parents in Newtown find Hoyer’s comments revolting.  I know I do.

Here’s A Pen, Sign Your Surrender

I loved that line so much; I pinched it from John Gordon Steele’s piece at Commentary Magazine for the title of this post.

Steele concludes his post with this pearl of wisdom: 

“Obama’s utter disdain for any ideas but his own is going to be the ruin of this president and that ruin might not be that long in coming. Too bad it is the country, along with his place in history, that has to suffer for his hubris.”

Obama’s budget plan is “mainly tax hikes,” House Speaker John Boehner told reporters today in Washington. “We’ve got some serious differences,” he said. During a phone call yesterday, Boehner said, he and the president were “frank” about “how far apart we are.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), said Obama’s focus on higher tax rates for top earners has made a deal tough to reach.  “The president and his allies have taken so many things off the table the only thing left is varnish,” McConnell said.

When I conceived this Photoshop™, I considered Ebenezer Scrooge from Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol because he loved money more than life itself.  Obama loves money; your money—my money—our children’s’ and our grandchildren’s money.

The second character in the ‘shop is of the bitter, grouchy, cave-dwelling Grinch who had a heart two sizes too small.  He’s there because Obama “seems to think that if all he talks about are taxes, and that’s all reporters write about, somehow the rest of us will magically forget that government spending is completely out of control.”

The third character, Uncle Sam wearing handcuffs, represents a helpless country unable to fend off the significant negative economic, employment, and social consequences of going over the fiscal cliff—the effects of which, in many cases, would mean long-lasting if not permanent damage.

And finally, the errand boy sent by grocery clerks himself, laughing his ass off as he warns Republicans against using the debt ceiling as a bludgeon in this debt battle.  In the spring, when the Chicago Messiah seeks to raise the debt ceiling, we can only hope they refuse to pay him any attention.