The Government Shut Down, One Week Later…Some Surprising Results

By Joseph R. Carducci on October 7, 2013 Subscribe to Joseph R. Carducci's Feed



So, it was just a week ago tonight at midnight that the government shut down officially begun. As you have seen, pretty much we are still in the same situation. Obama and his libertard cronies in the Senate are still flatly refusing to negotiate or even talk with their Republican counterparts. And, of course, Obama and the White House are engaged in a huge blame game, trying to sway public opinion and get them to believe that, contrary to all facts, it is the Republicans fault for the entire matter. While they are at it, they are blaming the Republicans for everything else they can think of including the murder of Jimmy Hoffa! OK, so I made up that last part, but you get the idea.
Now, one week later, we are no closer to a solution than before. And the battle over the debt ceiling is quickly approaching. The government will actually run out of money sometime near October 17th. The White House and the Obama Regime are trying to make things seem to be as difficult as possible in order to help with their Republican smear campaign and turn public opinion. This seems to include things like barricading World War II veterans from their memorial, throwing the elderly out of their homes, blocking off both national and private parks, and even shutting down the amber alert system, among other things.
But never fear, because Obama is still living high on the hog. You will be happy to know that Obama still has at least two personal chef’s on the government payroll and he also has graciously allowed the private presidential golf course to remain open. Oh, and let us not forget that Michele Obama’s physical fitness site for kids, LetsMove.gov is still up and running. Boy, now I feel relieved knowing that the important functions of government are still safe!

An interesting question in all of this is exactly how much of the government is really closed…and how much is still operating. For starters, there was a Military Pay Act passed by Congress right at the start of the government shut down. This is a large part of the government’s discretionary spending in any year. There is, of course, a fairly large amount of entitlement spending that is not affected either. Then, there are a number of areas that are deemed critical and have been exempted from a shut down. According to a Republican source on the Senate budget committee, the government is still spending somewhere around 83 percent of the projected 2014 spending of $3.6 trillion.
So, in reality, the government is only about 17 percent ‘closed.’ At east in terms of evaluating how the money is flowing and being spent. But, of course, the federal government will not admit this. And certainly Obama and the White House will not admit this. No need to wait for press secretary Jay Carney to make some snide remark about this…there is just no way that Obama could afford to have people realize just how hugely bloated the government has become.
Given all that has happened this last week, the so-called shut down is not likely to end any time soon. In fact, it seems like Obama, Dingy Harry and his libertard allies are committed to a good fight. They seem intent on merging this into the fight over raising the debt ceiling. I think the name calling and the viciousness of the attacks is likely to get worse, but it should be interesting to see how this plays out.
What do YOU think about knowing the 83 percent of government is still operating? How do you feel about the tactics of Obama, Reid and the other Democrats simply refusing to talk to the GOP leaders? What would you do to solve this issue? What type of ‘deal’ do you think we will eventually see?

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