13 thoughts on “Shutdown?”

  1. I don’t see how a short shutdown affects anybody who doesn’t work for the government. And I don’t see how a short shutdown would influence public opinion that much. People who already care about that kind of stuff aren’t going to change their opinion because the government was shut for two days. People who don’t care aren’t going to remember for long.
    A longer one shutdown, would be different.

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  2. Yes, I’m paying attention. It’s going to affect me ’cause I think the Statue of Liberty is going to be closed when we visit NY for spring break. We’re thanking our lucky stars that our DC vacation was last year, because the list of things to do in DC when the government is closed is a pretty depressing list.
    I and spouse worked in the federal government during the last shutdown. I was a fellow, and thus continued to work and get paid. My husband’s agency had had its appropriations bill passed, and so he continued to work. In our agency, many people were fellows, and a number had already been designated “essential” (because they had to take care of animals/equipment in the labs). So, it meant that we did without secretarial/purchasing support for a few weeks, over winter break, so the support staff all got extended vacations over winter break.
    I think one of the lessons from the shut down is that the executive (i.e Obama) basically has the power to keep whatever part of the government he wants to function functioning. For example, I’m not seeing why air traffic control is an essential function, except for the fact that everyone would get really really annoyed if they shut down the airports. I think that gave Clinton a lot of power to manipulate things the way he wanted them to go.
    (Fed employees will experience significant uncertainty and missed paychecks that make life difficult for them. We missed that in the 90’s, because of our specific situations).

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  3. If the federal government is shut down on the day you file your income tax return, they can’t prosecute you for any falsification on the return.

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  4. I’m paying attention. For one thing, I’m supposed to go down to NSF next week to sit on a panel, but if the gov’t shuts down, that’s not happening. OK, that’s minor, but the consequences for scientists are not. A student in my dept who is currently being paid on an NSF fellowship isn’t sure if his funding will continue. Some people in my department (myself included) have grant applications in and now we don’t know when they’ll be evaluated, much less awarded (should we be so lucky). My husband works for a small company that is getting money from a government contract, and we don’t know how long the $$ is going to be flowing on his contract. So yeah, I’m paying attention.

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  7. I’m paying attention because our main source of income comes from a federal job. My husband has been deemed an “essential” employee. He gets to keep working and will eventually get paid for time worked, but he may not get paid on time if a shutdown is extensive. If a shutdown lasts a short period of time, we are not concerned, if it extends past the three week mark, we will have to dip into our savings.
    Not sure how this will pan out. I think a short term shutdown is likely. A few days will have little impact on most people’s lives.

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  8. I’m having a fight with a(n extended) family member now because they complained about the shutdown affecting another family member, then when I pointed out it was because of Republicans, I got the “Oh, I don’t care about politics!” routine. You have to care about politics. This is all about politics. It is Republicans willing to hold all federal employees hostage till they get what their corporate overlords want. And when Republican supporters say “Oh, it’s all politicians!” when it’s really not all politicians, it’s Republicans, I want to shake them and scream “What the fuck did you think would happen when you voted for a Republican?” It’s the refusal to take responsibility that drives me crazy.

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  9. Wendy, it’s point of view. Harry Reid says, the Reeps are willing to shut it down because of ideology, they are cutting off access to health care for women. Fine, but if you think humanness starts at conception (I don’t), you think the Dems are willing to shut it down over ideological determination to keep killing babies. One person’s ideology is the next person’s moral imperative. Both sides can reasonably say they are being faithful to the electorate which put them in place. The Reeps have maybe a better case, because their electorate is more recent, the Dems have the power they do only because they have 2008 electorate (Obama) and 2006 electorate (senators from the 2012 class) manning the barricades.
    I’m out of work as of Monday if this doesn’t get solved, so I am rooting for a solution! I’m also sort of fearful that if there is a shutdown it will be long – it’s more plausible to say, ‘I swallowed ongoing baby-killing because the alternative was a shutdown’ than to say ‘I decided to let the baby-killing start up again because the government had been shut down for four days’.

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  10. Dave, cool, I’ll present that alternative to my aunt. “Either the baby-killing continues, or your son can feed his family. Which do you prefer?”

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  11. “Dave, cool, I’ll present that alternative to my aunt. “Either the baby-killing continues, or your son can feed his family. Which do you prefer?””
    As soon as the shutdown starts, Homeland Security goons will sweep in and remove all food from the home, confiscate ATM cards and credit cards, empty bank accounts, cut phone lines (so they can’t call mom), rip up their garden, and slash their tires to make sure that they can’t take on part-time jobs in the interim.
    It’s not at all enjoyable, but quite a number of people have done a one-month pantry challenge where you try just to eat what you have at home. This thing is not going to last a month.
    http://brokeprofessionals.com/2011/02/20/saving-money-by-eating-only-food-already-in-the-house-can-we-last-a-month-week-4/

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  12. Apparently they’ve reach a deal. Woo hoo, I get to see the statue of liberty after all.
    wonder if this going to be a bill passed by

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