112th Congress: Everybody's Angry At Everybody

Quid

The old thread is getting long in the tooth. Where we're at right now is in an astonishing turn of events Democrats stared Republicans in the eye and didn't blink. Admittedly, they may have squinted some but government shut down has been averted. Thus making everyone simultaneously happy with themselves for solving the problem and angry at the other guys. A permanent bill is in the works for next week.

In other news rumors abound that ED 209 may be running for for Michigan's 13th congressional district.

Gosling

Solve for a certain value of "functioning".

Khavall

Do we have a breakdown on the compromise yet?

override367

Wait why do we want to replace congress with robots? Are the current units malfunctioning? Their AbsurdPander4b units appear to be working fine as well as their Circularlogic 2.0 processors

Edit: Wait can things still break down? Isn't it too late?

Ringo

override367 wrote: »

Wouldn't it be wonderful if the Dems had let the shut down happen and insisted the Bush rich tax cuts end before resuming?

I mean, the American people really do want us to raise taxes on the rich - they do. I wish we could have that fight, because we'd win it.

You say things like this and it hurts me deep inside to know that it will never happen

Quid

Khavall wrote: »

Do we have a breakdown on the compromise yet?

Not that I've seen. But it's also late where it happened so they may be waiting for morning or even Monday.

enlightenedbum

Democrats mostly blinked still. They just didn't cave entirely.

Kagera

So like what....$50-$55 billion in cuts?

enlightenedbum

38.5 billion

Barcardi

so.... wait who won the standoff?

democrats kept PP and the EPA, but it cannot have been just that, what did the republicans gain other than the 38.5?

override367

Boehner got a continuation of his tanning spray subsidy

Gosling

The ire of the Tea Party, really, because the Tea Party wanted a shutdown.

For everyone else, like I said in the previous thread, the shutdown is the equivalent of Survivor's purple rock, it looks like. People will make shitty quickie solutions everybody hates in order to avoid the purple rock.

enlightenedbum

Barcardi wrote: »

so.... wait who won the standoff?

democrats kept PP and the EPA, but it cannot have been just that, what did the republicans gain other than the 38.5?

The DC media won. They got to cover a dramatic story, poor people get to suffer, and we get to do it all again with the debt ceiling!

South host

Gosling wrote: »

The ire of the Tea Party, really, because the Tea Party wanted a shutdown.

For everyone else, like I said in the previous thread, the shutdown is the equivalent of Survivor's purple rock, it looks like. People will make shitty quickie solutions everybody hates in order to avoid the purple rock.

I'm assuming the purple rock is bad?

enlightenedbum

How the purple rock works is this: if there is a tie before the last 4 players, and the tie is not broken on a re-vote, the two players who were voted for are granted immunity and every other player in the game draws rocks. The one who takes a purple rock is eliminated.

ahava

That....sounds like the stupidest thing.... the rock, not congress necessarily this time.

WMain00

You guys play some weird games.

Spoit

Wait, what? purple rocks?

Kagera

Don't blame us Sweden started it!

Lawndart

enlightenedbum wrote: »

38.5 billion

Which, and correct me if I'm wrong, is $38.5B cut from the 2010 budget levels, not from Obama's proposed budget. Compared to what Obama originally proposed, which entailed a $40B increase in spending, this budget entails $78.5B in cuts.

I'm pretty sure nobody in Congress at this point actually knows where those cuts are coming from. Let's just say we'll see huge cuts in military spending on mercenaries and from corn and oil subsidies.

Oh yeah, that doesn't fuck the poor over.

DevoutlyApathetic

I'm not sure about the word "Functioning" in the title. Funded might be a better choice.

OptimusZed

Word yesterday was that the numbers being thrown around were cuts to mandatory programs, where the Republicans wanted discretionary spending cuts. Mostly because discretionary spending is what keeps us poor folk from killing and eating each other.

I don't know how accurate that is, but that was what I was hearing yesterday as to why they kept pushing for more cuts, because they wanted to get at that icky discretionary spending.

rockrnger

Have we heard anything from the far right house republicans?

Are they going to vote with the speaker?

nexuscrawler

I dunno but the politico nuts are having a seizure

enc0re

Hey look, I wake up and still have a government. A fine day indeed. Presumably my more conservative friends won't be as happy. They thought a shutdown was a great opportunity to show the country that we don't need most of the government.

override367

cuts to mandatory spending I'm fine with, reason being I don't think either party would actually cut medicare significantly

In any case I think cutting 10 billion out of medicaid is less destructive than 10 billion out of education, but we're talking eating our shit on a salad or on ice cream here.

enc0re wrote: »

Hey look, I wake up and still have a government. A fine day indeed. Presumably my more conservative friends won't be as happy. They thought a shutdown was a great opportunity to show the country that we don't need most of the government.

Are these individuals capable of unassisted breathing?

OptimusZed

I have this pipedream where the debt ceiling and budget battles get used to push the idea that sane levels of taxation are actually part of being fiscally responsible.

It's probably just my glands acting up again.

override367

It's such an easy battle to win. Even regular joe teapers are upset about GE getting a refund instead of not paying taxes.

Frustrating how much stock the dems put in Fox News' opinion of America

OptimusZed

jdarksun wrote: »

OptimusZed wrote: »

I have this pipedream where the debt ceiling and budget battles get used to push the idea that sane levels of taxation are actually part of being fiscally responsible.

It's probably just my glands acting up again.

This would require a group of people diametrically opposite to the tea party in every conceivable way.

We theoretically have those.

They're called "sane people."

Delzhand

enc0re wrote: »

Hey look, I wake up and still have a government. A fine day indeed. Presumably my more conservative friends won't be as happy. They thought a shutdown was a great opportunity to show the country that we don't need most of the government.

You know, I bet those people would be singing a different tune if the shutdown didn't exclude fire and police.

Or maybe they would, because they're ideological mouthbreathers.

adytum

So.. the new spending bills cut funding for abortion services in D.C.

override367

DC is basically Washington's bitch, this shouldn't come as a shock

Cantido

There are cheaper alternatives!

override367

I think Republicans would be okay with suicide booths, but not abortion booths (or women who are pregnant using suicide booths)

OptimusZed

override367 wrote: »

I think Republicans would be okay with suicide booths, but not abortion booths (or women who are pregnant using suicide booths)

What about putting a baby in a suicide booth.

override367

If it's post birth? That'd be fine.

BUT NOT ONE FUCKING SECOND BEFORE ITS BORN

After that you can toss in a dumpster or whatever, who cares

enc0re

Delzhand wrote: »

enc0re wrote: »

Hey look, I wake up and still have a government. A fine day indeed. Presumably my more conservative friends won't be as happy. They thought a shutdown was a great opportunity to show the country that we don't need most of the government.

You know, I bet those people would be singing a different tune if the shutdown didn't exclude fire and police.

Or maybe they would, because they're ideological mouthbreathers.

Fire and police are local. These are 'the feds are doing too much' types. And of course they hate the idea of the military not being paid.

Cantido

There's always A Modest Proposal and Soylent Green too.

Gnome-Interruptus

Cantido wrote: »

There's always A Modest Proposal and Soylent Green too.

Didnt one of the republicans actually unironically write some republican solution to the poor and call it 'a modest proposal'?

iTunesIsEvil

This has been a good opportunity to explain to people the Hyde Amendment, but the number of people who will willfully ignore the info are mind-boggling. :x

I had a horribly wonderful talk with a small business owner yesterday, wherein he posited that Planned Parenthood was lying about only 3% of their services being abortions. Self-reporting being untrustworthy and all. I agreed that sometimes self-reported stats can be questionable. Then I asked him about that tax fraud he must be committing when falsely reporting his business' income/profit to the IRS. Things went downhill from there. Oddly enough, people aren't a big fan of having their own lazy arguing turned toward them.

shryke

So how are these "$39 billion in cuts" calculated?

Like, if the last 2 CRs had $30 billion and $31 billion in cuts each, respectively, would we now be at a total of $100 billion in cuts from last years budget?

Or is it more like "$39 billion if this bill was for the whole year, but less then that because it's not" or what?