Hellobee Boards

I think politics as a whole are a crapshoot...I voted blue sky. I am very liberal on some things (same sex marriage, pro-choice) but then very conservative in other areas. It's a finger pointing game and I really don't like it, seems very childish...so I'll be a child and stick my head in the sand and eat ice cream

They all hold some responsibility and need to quit blaming each other and start working.

@bluestriped bee: agreed on stop paying them, especially since their pay isn't affected by the shutdown.

@bluestriped bee: Unfortunately, the 27th Amendment provides that Congressional pay can only be changed with an election of a new class (not that the "old" class has to be voted out, just that that's the only period of time in which it can be changed.) In theory is designed to prevent legislators from giving themselves pay bumps, but at times like this it's particularly bitter because they can play willy-nilly with other peoples' salaries knowing their own can't be touched...

As for the shutdown, I absolutely blame the Republican party. The Democrats in Congress have tried 18 times to sit down at and conference with the Republicans over the budget, and were blocked every time. 18 tries to sit down and talk and compromise.

And now the GOP is pitching a temper tantrum and shut down the government because they don't like a LAW that was extensively debated, legislated, passed by Congress and signed by a President, upheld by the SCOTUS, and voted on in a national election. No.

And even all of that aside, John Boehner himself could have averted the shutdown by bringing a clean continuing resolution to the house floor for an up or down vote. He chose to honor the "Hastert rule" and put party before country.

I blame the Tea Party Republicans most of all, but I assign plenty of blame to the rest of the Republican party because they're too chicken shit to stand up to the far-right fanatical minority.

@MrsKoala: And that piece by Jon Stewart was brilliant. I loved the football analogy.

@lovehoneybee: temper tantrum. This exactly.

@lovehoneybee: I heartily agree with all you wrote.

My second favorite video re: the Government Shutdown comes from my very own State Rep:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/01/john-larson-government-shutdown_n_4020877.html

I think both sides are to blame to an extent.

@Mrs. Pen: You don't think they did? Repealing it was the basis of Romney's presidential campaign, and what Obama ran for re-election on. They lost, and it wasn't a close election. They lost Senators and members of Congress, too.

I have my opinions but I don't want to get into it...gives me a headache! LOL.

I will say, I'm so tired of the crap people are posting all over facebook about it all. Someone shared a photo of a lady that said someone should give Obama a BJ so we can impeach him. That's super helpful, thanks. ???

@lovehoneybee: Well said!

@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: ooh after your explanation I change my vote to blue sky! I feel bombarded by both sides.. In the end it's people like me (potentially getting furloughed) who have to suffer!

@lovehoneybee:

@MrsKoala: Just wanted to thank you for posting that Jon Stewart link! So funny and accurate!

Even republicans blame certain members of their party http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2013/09/30/2698471/republicans-against-the-shutdown/

I am so sick of this bullshit! Even when the awful George W Bush was president this shit was not pulled by liberal dems. I don't think Obamacare is the awesomist plan and I don't adore Obama but I also don't think these guys trying to stop it give a rats ass about healthcare costs. They just wanna let their rich friends keep their money. Yuck!

I think Obama put it wonderfully in an interview with NPR. This is the tea party republicans holding the whole nation hostage.

"Absolutely, I will not negotiate. And the reason, Steve, is because if we establish a pattern whereby one faction of one party controlling one chamber in Congress can threaten default, that the United States of America is no longer meeting its obligations and fulfilling the full faith and credit of the United States unless they get 100 percent of what they want, then we've established a pattern that fundamentally changes the nature of our government. At that point, any president — not just me — any president is subject to that kind of blackmail continuously.

If you had a Republican president in here and a Democratic speaker said, "We're not going to raise the debt ceiling unless you pass background checks on guns. We're not going to pass the debt ceiling unless you raise the corporate income tax by 30 percent," you know, that Republican president would find him- or herself in a similar position. That's not how our Constitution was designed. Raising the debt ceiling is not raising the debt; it is simply saying Congress is authorizing the Treasury to pay for those things that Congress has already approved."

@MrsMccarthy: Unfortunately that's where "Hastert rule" came into effect, which basically says the Speaker can't bring anything to the floor (for a clean up and down vote) unless a majority of the House majority supports it.

So even though there would have been enough votes to avoid this had there been an up and down vote (including Democrats), Boehner wouldn't even bring it to the floor because a majority of the House Republicans didn't support it.

The kicker is, of course, that it's not a law, more of a guideline, one that Boehner himself has violated several times. He could have ignored it this time, but he didn't.

@lovehoneybee: If he brought it up for a vote though, he'd probably lose his Speakership?

@mrbee: Quite possibly. Clearly his position is more important than the country, or he just didn't care. On the flip side, he might lose his job by letting it happen. I wouldn't want to be in his position right now, but I hope that if I would take the chance and do the right thing by the country.