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Why a Government Shutdown is Not a Bad Thing

It\'s time for Obama and his Democratic Minions to Man Up. Naturally, they won\'t.

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  April 7th, 2011 at 10:00 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

The same media and Democrat communications apparati (but I repeat myself) that have been claiming that the Republican-proposed budget would kill 700,000 children are now wringing their hands about a looming “government shutdown,” which we may assume would be fictively responsible for an astronomically higher number of deaths than a federal budget that spends 98.4% of what was spent the previous year.

If passing a budget alone really is the difference between life and death for hundreds of thousands of young Americans, the Democrats sure do have a lot of blood on their hands for the last year-plus they spent not passing a budget so that they wouldn’t have to have difficult votes on their records heading into last November’s electoral referendum on unsustainable fiscal practices.

However, as usual, this Democrat-and-media handwringing and fearmongering does not reflect anything even remotely approaching reality.  The fact that a “government shutdown” simply requires that “non-essential” personnel be furloughed (historically, they’ve even received back pay for time missed) makes the Chicken Little cries that the Sky Is Falling just so much more sensationalism. In fact, the very fact that government agencies and organizations have non-essential personnel present in the first place could be viewed as a testament to our bloated, overfunded (with borrowed money), unsustainable government, which is badly in need of trimming and streamlining.

The only real issue with a so-called shutdown, military pay, is only an issue because the Democrats have fought to make it one. Historically (see, for example, 1995), those serving in the military have continued to be paid during a shutdown. However, in their desperation to keep America on an unsustainable fiscal course, President Obama and his congressional Democrats are determined to ensure that our wartime military is both a pawn and their best leverage in this budget fight. This effort, which is almost as despicable as the late Rep. Jack Murtha’s “slow bleed strategy” to force troop withdrawal from Iraq, has no place in civilized debate, discourse, or legislative activity.

Unfortunately, Republican efforts to take military pay off the table by guaranteeing its funding regardless of a “shutdown” have been met by absolute refusals by a president and congressional caucus who are unwilling to allow our men and women in uniform to be anything other than pawns in a political game of chicken.

A “government shutdown” would do all Americans a favor by removing “non-essential” workers from the taxpayers’ payroll, at least for a period of time. Regardless of whether or not such a so-called shutdown takes place, though President Obama and the Democrats in Congress – who could have avoided every bit of this had they passed a budget last year, when they could have done so without a single Republican vote – should man up and take military pay off the table as a negotiating tool. Unfortunately, they’re unlikely to do so – a fact which speaks volumes about them as individuals, and about their priorities as an executive and as legislators.

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COMMENTS

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  • averagevoterdotcom

    win the media game in this, but we have to do this. Play hardball. It will be hard to newtinize ryan. I think people see obama now for what he is also.

  • banzaibob

    When seniors are still getting their Social Security Checks and folks who will not be visiting National Parks and momuments will not notice the government is shutdown. The VA hospitals will still be open and so will all military installations.

    Active duty personnel may not receive on time paychecks but in many communities the banks and credit unions will “float” their accounts until their pay starts up again.

    Go ahead, make my day
    Inspector Callahan
    Sudden Impact

    • The_Gadfly

      Government does bring order where anarchy would otherwise reign. The full cost of shutting down must be counted.

      That doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be shut down. And it doesn’t mean your impatience with the ongoing Kabuki theater is misplaced. Just don’t make light of the price people will pay to correct a great wrong in our government.

      • clowngirl

        I admire you and the others on this thread who may take a significant personal hit but are still supporting a shutdown.

        (though I personally am rooting for a palatable deal to avert that extremity.)

  • alarm1201

    If govt closes down I will loose my 3 weeks of vacation that I have been saving 2 years to accrue. After that I will eat my savings to survive. Fortunatily we are frugal and have enough to survive about a year. We will have to cancel our trip to the NE to visit my parents this fall.

    I say, “SHUT IT DOWN!!!!!”

    • http://jeffemanuel.net Jeff Emanuel

      That’s simply not true.

      • alarm1201

        I am contractor for the govt. We will loose our vacation and we will not get paid when we return. That is only for govt employees not contractors.

        • blogan2

          Are you losing it or being forced to take it?

          And it’s one “o”. Not two.

          • alarm1201

            I will not be forced, I will be paid for the vacation while I am off work. Once the vacation runs out I will not get paid. I can forgo using the vacation, but I will not get paid. The company I work for will let us borrow a week of vacation which I will come back with -40 hrs.

            My point was not to get in a discussion about what the policy is for govt. contractors but to say, shut it down. The principles that are causing the shut down are more important than any personal loss.

          • ultraconservative

            As one of the non-essential government employees facing furlough, I too hope it shuts down. Furthermore, I hope that I/we are not back-paid for the time off. Sure, it will hurt in some ways, but I can do odd jobs and/or whatever is necessary to pay my bills and feed my family. To me, it is like you said, “the principles that are causing the shut down are more important than any personal loss.”

          • http://travismonitor.blogspot.com Freedoms Truth

            you should have said ‘I will be forced to use my vacation’ instead.

            Quite frankly, that should be how it is for the Govt workers as well… But then this Democrat-engineered crisis is really a fake and forced crisis. NONE of this is necessary, they could pay the military, pay the salaries of everyone who is not subject to the disagreement, keep the statue of liberty open, etc., even during a shutdown – THE SHUTDOWN IS A PRESIDENTIAL DECISION.

    • banzaibob

      At the VA and he told me non-essential personnel will be sent on “paid” vacation. You will not lose your accrued vacation and more than likely you will get back pay.

      • alarm1201

        See above post.

      • The_Gadfly

        about not getting a “paid vacation” this time around. Even if their ideology won’t permit even the glimmer of the thought, they understand in their guts that the path we are on is unsustainable, that the size of government must be cut, and that given those realities, paying people for not working during the shutdown makes no sense. yes, its partly a scare tactic, but mostly because they are scared themselves.

        I am also a contractor, and face the same situation. I have a month of savings to use after my 3 or 4 days of leave are used. I won’t get the time back, and I won’t get paid for days missed after that. I know, because during the DC blizzards of 09, that’s exactly what happened when the government shut down for snow days.

        Shutting down the government is going to have a huge adverse impact on the DC metropolitan area. Even if you are in a nominally private business, chances are your work depends on government workers. Whether your a hot dog vendor on the street, or firm providing accounting services, chances are your clients are government employees, the government, or the bandits who make their living from those two. During the recession government work protected them from the pain of the rest of the country.When the government shuts down we’ll get our paybacks with fines and accumulated interest.

        Alarm’s point and mine isn’t how much pain we will personally feel. Our point is that we’ve counted the expected personal cost and we still arrive at the same conclusion as many who live outside the fever swamp: If the Dems won’t act like adults, Shut it down!

        • The_Gadfly

          and do an imitation of the androids at the end of the Star Trek “I, Mudd” episode.

          The first furlough notices have been released in my office. It turns out that for some reason that I completely don’t fathom, feds are being furloughed, but contractors are being told to report on Monday as usual. So I won’t lose work days because I will be working.

  • Cheetah772

    I have some friends who work at a cleaning company that’s contracted with a federal agency (USDA, I think). So, if the government closes down, then my friends won’t be able to work there and will not receive backpay. At least that’s what my friends tell me.

    Ironically, some of them actually agree with you that government needs to shut down and get serious on trimming the federal budget as we cannot sustain high spending sprees without substantial cuts. Some of my friends have seen a lot of waste going on at USDA, even though they’re lowly custodians. They are not that stupid.

    In addition, some of my other friends work as federal empolyees, they also agree that the government needs to shut down, but they are also concerned about how they will survive the shutdown financially. It’s always easy to talk about shutting down government when it doesn’t really affect you. But in this case, they agree that there is a lot of waste at some federal agencies and want to see some substantial changes be made. So, if it takes a shutdown to achieve that, then so be it.

    On one hand, I’m all for it, let’s shut down the government! On the other hand, I am concerned about how it will affect some of whom I know financially. It can’t be easy to ask somebody to sacrifice a lot when one must stand firm on conservative principles even if it hurts their finances in some ways. Don’t get me wrong, shutting down government is not only needful, but necessary if that’s the way to achieve some substantial cuts. Otherwise, if we don’t do that, America will face a greater crisis than a mere government shutdown. So, better to do it now, than to do it later and with more serious consequences for everybody involved.

    I pray that God will somehow find a way to provide and meet everybody’s needs during the shutdown if that’s come down to it.

    • cjca

      is for those who can do so, help those who will do without food and utilities. Toss a few extras in your grocery cart to share with friends and neighbors who will be without pay. Especially when those neighbors are military families.

      Thank God my sister and her ex can afford to get their two Armn Officer sons (one with a first child on the way) thru’ this mess.

      Cell phones, cable, newspapers can be discontinued for a short period to save money for the essentials to get thru’ it.

      This is one crisis Holder can’t take advantage. For once it will bite them on the backside when they consider our active duty military as non-essential. The MSM can’t protect the liberal left on this lousy decision.

      If the military is non-essential then they should ALL be brought home for an unpaid vacation – and keep them here where essential issues need their attention – on the borders, tracking down illegals, terrorists and all who have stayed after their visas have expired.

      It’s time to clean up America, starting in DC and work our way from this point. Dump non-essential committees and departments, starting with the IRS, Depts. of Education, Interior, most of the State Department and the rest of the useless money sucking areas we have never needed – as the Dept. of Energy. Cut the staff or all, starting with the White House and Congress. End funding to the 150+ countries we help support (except Israel). No more UN, NATO, ACLU, ACORN, Arts, Planned Parenthood on our $$$.

      Lock and Load, it’s going to get UGLY. Revolution is on it’s way and hopefully our military will join We the People without hesitation.

      • cjca

        Sorry about that!

  • mikefrey

    …most of them will gladly take this temporary bullet if it can help the country right our course. They resent being used as a pawn to continue our unsustainable tax and spend policies.

    While we’re thinking about them, remember to thank any servicemen and women for the sacrifice that they make for all of us.

    • http://jeffemanuel.net Jeff Emanuel

      It’s those at home, and their families, who have the same bills to pay the rest of us do.

  • Common_Cents

    They should just go ahead and play some evil scary music every time they say “SHUT DOWN!” Don’t bother explaining what it means. Nah.

    Why is Boehner even talking to Reid and engaging in a public battle? Just pass the dang thing and let the SEN choke.

    • The_Gadfly

      Battered Wife Syndrome, and others. Essentially it is when one party in an abusive relationship continues to ask what they are doing wrong when the only thing they are doing wrong is asking what they are doing wrong.

      I think this was amply demonstrated by his response to The Big 0′s demand for a meeting at the White House the other day. If Boehner really believed he deserved his position and that it was his responsibility as Speaker of the House to represent all Americans his response would have been something along these lines:

      No. Barrack Obama is not King and I am not a subject to be summoned to the White House. When he and Harry Reid are willing to meet us a co-equals in government selected by the people of the United States to represent them, and seriously discuss the necessary budget reductions to return our country to prosperity, we will resume talks. Until then there is nothing else to say.

  • MikeG (Icythus)

    People don’t work for the federal government for the pay, they work for it either because they’re patriots who want to serve their country, even if they’re not wearing a uniform, or because they’re willing to trade high saleries for a greater degree of job security. In almost every case they make less money than their counterparts in the private sector. The only reason federal workers make “more” than the “average American” is because you pretty much have to have a bachelor’s degree to even get your resume looked at by most federal agencies. Of course a workforce comprised almost exclusively of college graduates is going to make more than a workforce with a sizeable underclass of high-school drop-outs and welfare recipients!

    Shutting down the government for a few weeks is not going to solve our fiscal problems. Cutting pay or slashing the size of the workforce permanently isn’t going to do so either.

    These are distractions from the real problems that are killing our country: SOCIAL SECURITY, MEDICARE, MEDICAID, OBAMACARE! We need to deal with these programs before they send our nation down the same hole as Europe.

    Look, my dad is a federal worker with the Defense Intelligence Agency, and I am all in favor of shutting the government down this time around, if that’s what it takes to pass a budget with serious spending cuts, defund Planned Parenthood, etc. I called my congressman today and told him the same thing. We need to stand up to Obama and Reid and not back down from this fight. But we also need to remember that the real fight to save our country lies ahead of us.

    This is our Midway, our el-Alamein. Let’s not lose sight of the campaign that lies ahead of us. And let’s not demonize our fellow Americans who do vital work for this country, even if that work is as humble as managing payroll for the Border Patrol, or IT support for the Department of Defense. Those are the types of people who are being derisively dismissed as “non-essential”, and I’m donewith not speaking up for them.

    • http://theminorityreportblog.com Repair_Man_Jack

      Bravo!!

      • MikeG (Icythus)

        Though it’s my dad, not I, who is a proud bureaucrat. The sentiment is still appreciated. :-) I, thanks to the Borders Books Chapter 11 fiasco, will shortly be an unemployed bookseller (hopefully not for very long).

        Have to say, I’m really enjoying looking for a job in the Obama economy!

        • http://theminorityreportblog.com Repair_Man_Jack

          Also a 3rd generation ORSA. People in my family have worked as mathematicians for the govt. since before WWII. It does get tiring to listen to lick-spittle hacks accuse us of all being on a permananet vacation from reality. Oh well, off to funemployment!

          • MikeG (Icythus)

            Police or Fire & Rescue; something where I can make decent money while I work on finishing my bachelor’s degree. I’m sick to death of working retail: the pay is jack and it leads nowhere.

            I had hoped to follow in my dad’s footsteps and work for DOD or DIA, as his office does some pretty interesting work, but I’m not a Chinese or Persian linguist, nor do I have a couple of combat tours to the Middle East under my belt, so THAT’S a non-starter. Starting to wish I had chosen to major in computer science instead of business; USAJobs ALWAYS has listings for IT professionals. :-P

          • http://theminorityreportblog.com Repair_Man_Jack

            does tend to reward you if you can stand 4 years of it. I’m lucky I had relatives that kicked my butt good and hard on that stuff as a kid.

    • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

      Medicare is not “killing the country.” It’s killing the budget. Government does a lot of things that harm the country’s freedom and prosperity.

      And uh, you take a job with the government, with all the cushy benefits involved, then you get to suffer some slings and arrows.

      Them’s the breaks. Don’t like it? Don’t work for Leviathan.

      • ultraconservative

        to Neil, The benefits are not that “cushy”. I pay $400/mo for health care $82/mo for dental for me and my family. I contribute to the Thrift Savings Plan which is not a defined benefit pension plan. I am prepared and willing to take the slings and arrows just like the rest of the country. I mostly do it for the job security.

        • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

          Ask everyone else in the Obama economy :)

          • MikeG (Icythus)

            Job security is a benefit, and when planning their lives, a lot of people see that as more important than the potential for higher lifetime earnings. It’s a legitimate choice, and people have the right to make that kind of an economic determination for themselves. That’s why it astounds me when conservatives denounce that determination as vehemently as the Communits used to denounce “speculators”. Not everyone is cut out to be an entrepreneur or a venture capitalist.

            We can debate the proper limits of government, and I think almost everyone on this board feels that government has vastly overgrown its boundries. But I also think that nearly everyone hear would agree that, were we to reduce government back to its proper and constitutional size, we would want to attract the highest-caliber of people to work it, and demonizing civil servants like nearly every conservative pundit has been doing for the past several weeks is not the way to do that.

          • bay0wulf

            “we would want to attract the highest-caliber of people to work it, and demonizing civil servants…”

            IF we were to shrink the Government back to where it belongs we COULD attract the highest caliber of people. We already pay our “Civil Servants” more than the “average” income.

            Our Government is bloated and weighed down by lackluster and mediocre people who profess to be “Civil Servants”.

            It is hard not to castigate or demonize our current Civil Servants since this is true. Yes, unfortunately all Civil Servants are being painted with the same brush. Yes, there ARE some good and conscientious ones but they are in the minority. The same applies to Teachers.

            In some areas we probably have a majority of “good” Civil Servants but they are victims of “A Few Bad Apples” obscuring the good ones in the basket … and … if you ever noticed, once a few apples begin to “turn” it doesn’t take long before the whole basket turns to compost.

            Until the rot is cut out of the pile, Civil Servants are going to ALL be demonized … and perhaps thy should be. Where are their supervisors and management? Like Muslims … the “Good Ones” should be willing to “fix or correct” the “Bad Ones”.

    • clowngirl

      My mom also works for the Federal Government. During the 95 shutdown she was furloughed from working for OSHA — inspecting workplaces to make sure they are safe for their employees was deemed a “non-essential” function of government for purposes of the shut down, but it is actually a necessary service and one that I don’t think many conservatives would want to get rid of.

      There’s nothing dishonorable about being a public servant – and we shouldn’t be celebrating because a lot of government employees will suddenly be waiting for a paycheck for an indefinite period and may even lose pay.

      A shutdown may be a better alternative than cutting a bad deal– but it’s definitely not good in itself.

      • MikeG (Icythus)

        While there is truly a great deal of waste and inefficiency in the government, I hate how everyone ends up getting tarred with the same brush.

        I swear, if I didn’t know any better, I’d think that all federal workers were basically corrupt, meddlesome welfare recipients! And liberal activists to boot!

      • MikeG (Icythus)

        While there is truly a great deal of waste and inefficiency in the government, I hate how everyone ends up getting tarred with the same brush.

        I swear, if I didn’t know any better, I’d think that all federal workers were basically corrupt, meddlesome welfare recipients! And liberal activists to boot!

    • cjca

      is higher than the private sector these days. It’s in all the news; even the MSM reports it. The only exception may be those in public sector unions.

  • MikeG (Icythus)

    People don’t work for the federal government for the pay, they work for it either because they’re patriots who want to serve their country, even if they’re not wearing a uniform, or because they’re willing to trade high saleries for a greater degree of job security. In almost every case they make less money than their counterparts in the private sector. The only reason federal workers make “more” than the “average American” is because you pretty much have to have a bachelor’s degree to even get your resume looked at by most federal agencies. Of course a workforce comprised almost exclusively of college graduates is going to make more than a workforce with a sizeable underclass of high-school drop-outs and welfare recipients!

    Shutting down the government for a few weeks is not going to solve our fiscal problems. Cutting pay or slashing the size of the workforce permanently isn’t going to do so either.

    These are distractions from the real problems that are killing our country: SOCIAL SECURITY, MEDICARE, MEDICAID, OBAMACARE! We need to deal with these programs before they send our nation down the same hole as Europe.

    Look, my dad is a federal worker with the Defense Intelligence Agency, and I am all in favor of shutting the government down this time around, if that’s what it takes to pass a budget with serious spending cuts, defund Planned Parenthood, etc. I called my congressman today and told him the same thing. We need to stand up to Obama and Reid and not back down from this fight. But we also need to remember that the real fight to save our country lies ahead of us.

    This is our Midway, our el-Alamein. Let’s not lose sight of the campaign that lies ahead of us. And let’s not demonize our fellow Americans who do vital work for this country, even if that work is as humble as managing payroll for the Border Patrol, or IT support for the Department of Defense. Those are the types of people who are being derisively dismissed as “non-essential”, and I’m donewith not speaking up for them.

    • cjca

      Reply to wrong post (above)
      cjca Friday, April 8th at 11:39AM EDT (link)

      …is higher than the private sector these days. It?s in all the news; even the MSM reports it. The only exception may be those in public sector unions.

  • drfredc

    If the GOP had any sense, they’d work to spin off as many ‘government operations’ to be independent operations. For example, National Parks should be able to keep running because they SHOULD (but aren’t) set up to be able to largely run independent of Washington DC politics. If Park operations are too expensive, hmmm… perhaps that’s part of the problem…

    It shouldn’t require political decisions in DC to sort out simple market based decisions of how to operate independently in a fiscally responsible fashion without signficant taxpayer/Chinese loan support.

    Ditto for Planned Parenthood. It should be able to operate by increasing it’s focus on getting (left leaning) taxpayer donations to keep it going — if it’s as important as the left says it is. Ditto for NPR and many other gubermint programs…

    One thing to contemplate in all of this is where are there any conservative programs (besides the military and paying down the debt) to spin off? It’s easy to name tens, if not hundreds of liberal programs, many with a strong RINO flavor to them (such as Medicare Drug benefit). It’s tough to name even a few conservative ones of similar stature.

    • banzaibob

      Privatize as much government as you can. Force them to exist off market wages and costs. See how far they can go if they decide to unionize and if the public will pay for it.

  • kestrel

    The Democrats’ devil-may-care attitude toward the military — using it as a prop in their self-serving refusal to be serious about budgets — is not going to play well in 2012.

    With Paul Ryan introducing an especially courageous 2012 budget, Harry Reid looks increasingly like the state legislators who ran away from their jobs in Wisconsin and Indiana. I suppose he thinks he’s safe because he’s got five more years on his term, but with people like Feingold having already lost seats, Reid can certainly expect a demotion to minority leader. His attitude toward his vulnerable colleagues appears to be that of Obama to ObamaCare-supporting legislators in 2010: “Thanks and sayonara.” Or didn’t he say “Thanks”?

  • http://theminorityreportblog.com Repair_Man_Jack

    A lot of people where I work think this will be short–lived. They joke about their gardening tasks over the next 3-5 days. They aren’t calculating which services to cancel or what their monthly burn-rate is. They probably haven’t calculated how many unpaid checks would jeopradize their ability to pay the mortgage. They may have to. This is not just a procedural dispute.

    There are two “circuit-breakers” so-to-speak that would force the two sides to forget the dumb and get a deal done pronto.

    1) A significant number of soldiers could organize a work-stoppage at or near the FEBA after the military stops being able to pay them. That would end it in maybe 15-30 minutes.

    2) The Senate could fail to muster a quorum on May 8, when the debt ceiling expires. Senators of both parties, seeking to end the shutdown, could refuse to even consider debating the debt ceiling until a stop-gap to finish FY11 is finalized.

    If those two don’t work, it may be a while before any “non-essential” person is allowed onto Redstone Arsenal.

  • bay0wulf

    Is it any surprise that this President and His Administration and the Democrats-In-General would pull this sleaze? It should come as no surprise that he will willingly sell anyone ?down the river? to push His agenda forward.

    He is a piss poor excuse for a President. He is an even lousier excuse for a Commander -In-Chief.

    He is looking for any way possible to throw dirt on ?His Opposition? be they the GOP or the Tea Party or ? just common folks like you and I. This action in particular should speak loudly as to just how much he cares about ?We The People?.

    His action in this does not just impact the soldiers (which is reprehensible enough) BUT it also will impact the families, their wives, their children. If he doesn?t manage to throw all the blame on the GOP, I see a very good possibility that we may experience our very first military coup here in the USA ? or is he deliberately trying to provoke this type of thing so he can put us under martial law?

    He and His Administration are being criminally stupid and wrong-headed OR they are playing out a very dangerous strategy that may very well burn not only Him and Them but may change the very fabric of Our Nation beyond recognition.

    This may be the biggest REAL Change he unleashes.

  • texan4america

    With this budget mess that we have, we have got to start somewhere, and if it takes a total gov’t shutdown, so be it! High time our representatives stood firm against such “Chicago Politics.”