Schumer Shutdown: The State Of Play

After a continuing resolution to keep the government open was passed in December of 2017, Democrats signaled they would not support future spending bills, even clean ones, until the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) were addressed. FISA is a done deal. CHIP was funded for six years with the House spending bill that passed on January 18th and DACA permits won’t expire until March 5th. 

President Trump issued a six-month enforcement delay on DACA when he decided to wind down the program gradually last September, citing the Obama-era program as constitutionally questionable. The delay was meant for Congress to get the DACA legislation right. 

The mantra from the Left when the government shutdown became effective was Republicans control the White House, the House and the Senate.  The Senate make-up is comprised of 51 Republicans, 47 Democrats and 2 Independents who caucus with the Democrats.  The Democrats do not control the Senate, but they can obstruct any and all bills due to the 60-vote threshold required to pass legislation.  Majority Leader McConnell asked to take up the Continuing Resolution that would have prevented the shutdown, but Sen. Schumer objected.

During the 2013 debt ceiling negotiations, Sen. Schumer noted tying immigration to budgetary matters was an exercise in chaos. “You know, we could do the same thing on immigration. We believe strongly in immigration reform. We could say, ‘We’re shutting down the government, we’re not gonna raise the debt ceiling, until you pass immigration reform.’ It would be governmental chaos.”

As Congressional leaders and White House officials ran around Capitol Hill like chickens with their heads cut off during a rare Saturday session, Chuck Schumer spoke with a poster strategically placed in the background as he spoke from the floor.  The poster read:  Trump Shutdown.

Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-AL) spoke from the well of the House with a poster behind him as well which had a photo of Schumer and his 2013 quote:  “A government shutdown is the politics of idiocy, of confrontation, of paralysis.”  This rankled the Democrats who objected to the poster’s presence on the floor.  There was a vote and The Great Poster War of 2018 was settled allowing Byrne to continue his speech.

On Saturday evening, McConnell said he would force another vote on a short-term funding bill at 1 a.m. Monday, unless there's an agreement before then. That will ramp up the pressure on both sides to come up with a deal over the next 24 hours.

Meanwhile, the Twitterverse rightly mocked the Schumer Shutdown.  The graphic above uses an image from the 2009 film The Road.  Within the graphic I took a tweet from Jonah Goldberg I found most amusing.  His tweet was a perfect smackdown of a tweet from CNN’s Jim Acosta lamenting a “completely empty” snack machine in the White House.

5:55 in DC. Dusk falls. GAO and CBO have devastated the Botanical Garden with their pitiless battle for control over the Rayburn Office Building. Corpses lie amidst shattered glass, illuminated by the burning piles of draft legislation. Look away, someone says, but you cannot.

— (((Megan McArdle))) (@asymmetricinfo) January 20, 2018

Ignorant Fool Of The Day

Today John Dickerson, host of Face The Nation, conducted an interview with Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO).  Dickerson wanted to discuss with Gardner potential solutions and hurdles Congress faces over spending to prevent a government shutdown and immigration reform.  Dickerson distinctly led into the interview with: “We now turn to Republican Senator Cory Gardner, who joins us from his family’s tractor dealership in Yuma, Colorado.”

The mainstream media’s unquenchable thirst for stupid was on full display when a young woman who describes herself in her Twitter profile as a digital journalist at ABC News covering Capitol Hill, amateur accordionist and pug enthusiast chimed in.  Accordionist?  Really?  Isn’t Lawrence Welk dead?  When’s the last time you saw a liberal dancing the polka?

In any event, our quisling was flummoxed by what was in the background as Sen. Gardner spoke on-air.

Ok I think @CoryGardner’s backdrop on @FaceTheNation warrants explanation. Is it a... tire graveyard? (I am obviously not a car person) pic.twitter.com/gxhmvJ91iB

— Ali Rogin (@AliABCNews) January 14, 2018

Gardner graciously tried to enlighten our amateur accordionist.

This is a piece of farm equipment known as a disk, and we use it to get the fields ready for planting! https://t.co/ZXsC7G13lu

— Cory Gardner (@CoryGardner) January 14, 2018

Ms. Rogan, seemingly embarrassed by her unfamiliarity with farm implements, quickly fired off a tweet in response.

On @FaceTheNation, @SenTomCotton says he "didn't hear" Trump using reported slur. He said previously that he did not recall. I am learning so much about the human brain and ears this morning!

— Ali Rogin (@AliABCNews) January 14, 2018

Our genius apparently has never given any thought to how food finds its way to the grocery store or to the table of her hoity-toity restaurants.  Ali honey, shut up and eat your arugula.

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.

Mr. President Tear Down This Wall

The second day of the Democrats’ government shutdown brought with it another day of World War II veterans “storming” the barricades and fences set up to keep them out of the World War II Memorial.

There will be 23 more Honor Flights during the month of October and the possibility of 23 more confrontations with Park Police and fake protesters.

It’s no coincidence that the National Parks Service released this statement yesterday:

"The Honor Flights are being granted access to the WWII memorial to conduct First Amendment activities in accordance with National Park Service regulations applicable to the National Mall and Memorial Parks."

What brought about this reversal of abuse of our treasured veterans who waited 65 years for their own memorial on the National Mall?

A team of legal experts at The American Center for Law and Justice led by Jay Sekulow and Robert W. Ash warned the president, “Should the closure of the memorial continue, we will be obligated to file a federal lawsuit seeking an injunction against the government.”

Their letter, delivered to the White House via oversight service, said the “Greatest Generation” as represented by the veterans who were scheduled to visit the memorial, and who actually moved the barricades and tore down barriers erected by workers on the orders of the administration, “stepped forward during some of the darkest days of our history and placed themselves in harm’s way to protect the country they loved and our way of life.”

“Veterans of the Second World War are dying at the rate of approximately 640 per day. In order to allow veterans to see the memorial that was erected in their honor, Honor Flights have been organized to bring interested veterans to Washington to see the memorial that was erected to honor them,” the attorneys explained.

“Whoever in your administration made that decision exercised extremely poor judgment and should be admonished.”

“What we are witnessing is a disturbing violation of the First Amendment rights of our nation’s heroes,” said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the ACLJ. “By spending money to bring in barricades to attempt to shut-down an open-air memorial is abhorrent and deeply insulting to WWII vets who defended the very freedoms that are now threatened by the Obama administration’s actions.”

The issue of the closure of the World War II memorial took over headlines nationwide on Wednesday, just a day after the first confrontation developed.

Additionally, Rep. Steven Palazzo (R-MS) issued this terse warning:

“With due respect, Mr. President, we demand: First, that the World War II memorial be reopened immediately for all veterans, their families, and the public to honor and recognize the courage and achievement of those who fought to keep us free; Second, that the memorial be opened once again for First Amendment expressive activity by all members of the public; Third, that the barricades be taken down and removed forthwith; and Fourth, that you issue a personal apology on behalf of your administration to the veterans and their families who have been affected by the current closure.”

As was reported yesterday, the closure of the memorial was deliberately ordered by this administration.  A despicable act to say the least and was clearly politically motivated. 

At the WWII Memorial, Carol Johnson w/the Park Service says they were told to close the site by White House's Office of Management & Budget.

— Stephen Hayes (@stephenfhayes) October 2, 2013

Shame on The World’s Most Dangerous Community Organizer who daily spits in the faces of active duty military service members and veterans.

Velvet Ropes, Barricades And The Democrat’s Government Shutdown

Photo Credit:  Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

At the World War II Memorial there is a Freedom Wall.  The Monument is known as the Field of Gold Stars.  The inscription there reads: 

Here We Mark The Price Of Freedom

At the entrance to the memorial is the Announcement Stone.  The inscription on that stone reads:

Here In The Presence Of Washington And Lincoln,

One The Eighteenth Century Father And The Other The

Nineteenth Century Preserver Of Our Nation,

We Honor Those Twentieth Century Americans

Who Took Up The Struggle During The Second World War

And Made Sacrifices To Perpetuate The Gift Our Forefathers

Entrusted To Us:

A Nation Conceived In Liberty And Justice

The memorial weaves the watershed event of the 20th century into the National Mall's historical narrative as it humbly pays tribute to America’s greatest generation. 

More than 125 Honor Flight veterans from Mississippi and Iowa arrived for a previously scheduled visit to the World War II Memorial Tuesday morning, the first day of the government shutdown, to find it barricaded by the National Park Service. Several members of Congress escorted them inside after cutting police tape and moving barriers that blocked the memorial.

The trip had been planned for months for a group of 91 veterans as well as family members and escorts.

The Daily Caller and Ace of Spades reported that The World’s Most Dangerous Community Organizer specifically denied a permit to allow these veterans to visit the memorial.

Former Senator Bob Dole said of the memorial:

“When World War II ended, the generation of Americans that defeated the forces of tyranny neither asked for nor expected a memorial. They came home. They went to work. And they built a nation that remains the world's most powerful example of democracy and freedom in action.” 

“Many heroes from that great conflict did not return home. They didn't live to see the fruits of their sacrifice.  More than 12 million of the 16 million who served in uniform will not live to see the memorial completed. We build this memorial in their memory. We build it so future generations of Americans never forget what the World War II generation was called to do. We build it so they never forget the cost of freedom.” 

“There will come a day when many of our youth will be called veterans. Although our prayers ask for peace, the lessons of history teach us that freedom is not free. It must be earned and it must be protected from those who would conquer and oppress.” 

“The World War II Memorial will reinforce the message of our National Mall—the message of freedom—for generations to come.”

We owe our World War II veterans—in fact, all our veterans—a debt we can never fully repay.

The kabuki theater over national park closings is a disgusting, vindictive and trivial antic by this president and his minions in the Democratic Party.  It is meant to give the American people the sense that the function of federal workers is to open velvet ropes and point to where Washington once slept.

For the troops, many of whom are wheelchair-bound and now in their 80’s and 90’s, who fought at Pearl Harbor, Wake Island, Bataan Corregidor, The Coral Sea, Midway, Guadalcanal, New Guinea, Buna, Tarawa, Iwo Jima, Murmansk Run, Anzio, St. Lo, Alsace, The Battle of the Bulge and Remagen Bridge, storming the Memorial against National Park Police was an easy victory.

Erecting barricades to keep these honorable men and women from the memorial that was built in their honor became something vile.   All these elderly vets wanted to do was lay flowers and pay their respects to their fallen brothers— a generation that changed the world.

And the president remained silent.

Poor Baby, Government Shutdown Will Strip The World’s Most Dangerous Community Organizer Down To A Skeleton Staff

Bloomberg is reporting that a government shutdown means that fewer people, about three-fourths of The World’s Most Dangerous Community Organizer’s 1,701-person staff, would be sent home.  That means fewer people to cook meals, do the laundry, clean the floors and change the light bulbs.

Of the 90 people who maintain the president’s family living quarters, only 15 would remain to provide minimum maintenance and support and Joey Plugs, who has a staff of 24, would have to eek by with 12.

There will be fewer economists tracking the economy and fewer budget officials to track spending.  Policy decisions on the environment and drug policy might get postponed.

No word yet if his golf caddies will be furloughed.  Meh.