No Shutdown Update 2015

Told ya.

Storms still flash over the Capitol
[public domain from the Architect of the Capitol showing dome repair scaffolding]

Chris Stewart, Politician. And Glenn Beck loses it (again).

Back in the days when Chris Stewart and Beck were buddies.

My Congressman, Chris Stewart, seriously disappointed his mentor, Glenn Beck, yesterday. Stewart did the most outrageous thing by voting to keep John Boehner as Speaker of the House! Beck wanted him to vote for Louie Gohmert or any of the other crazies in the Republican tea-party caucus. You can see Beck in all his whining glory at this link.

Now I'm not the world's greatest fan of Speaker Boehner, but it delights me to see my apocalyptic-novelist Congressman break ranks with the Beckians and support Boehner. It's a bold move to part with the forces of money-grubbing, phony patriotism. Maybe, just maybe, Chris Stewart has learned a little something about how the Congress actually works - politics - the art of the possible for who gets what, when, and how. The process is played, or should be played, under the rules of our Constitution - Supremacy Clause, Fourteenth Amendment, and all.

Boehner-Obama Budgeting - Not Funding Non-Action

The President and John Boehner accomplished a sort of Holiday Miracle by not shutting down the government. The managed to get a year-long spending bill approved in the House. Called the "Cromnibus" as in "CR" for Continuing Resolution, and "Omnibus" for a bill of multiple agency appropriations, the Republicans put enough "crappy" stuff in to make that the "CR" part. 

Boehner Presents Foolproof Plan to Get Wicked Obama

Speaker Boehner explains his brilliant plan to a confused Dorothy (representing America, of course)

Yes! The Brilliant Munchkins of the 113th Congress finally have the opportunity to do in the evil President Obama once and for all! Speaker Boehner just announced his plan to sue the President over his delay in implementing the Obamacare mandate!

Speaker Boehner's Monkey

Tea Party Caucus Meeting

This is great! The House just passed a clean authorization to allow the US Treasury to keep paying its bills! Yes, it's an increase of the rather arbitrary debt limit. But as our money only has the value of our robust economy under the full faith and credit of the United States, it's generally best, IMO, to keep that faith even with credit.

Speaker of the House, John "Are-you-kidding-me?" Boehner, is fast becoming a hero of mine. No longer beholden to the tea-party minority of his majority (which in no way represents the will of the People), he passed the authorization with very few Republican votes relying on the Democrats instead. Some said he was whistling "Zip-ah-dee-do-dah" today. Roll Call reports that after a brief conference last night in front of befuddled Republicans, he walked back to the podium and said, "You're not even going to clap for me getting this monkey off of our backs?"

Live-Blogging SOTU 2014

President Barack Obama delivers the State of the Union address at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., Feb. 12, 2013.
 (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

It's close to time! Keep checking back as I try to update this as we go along. Although I am using my new notebook with a different keyboard that sometimes trips me up and Windows 8.1 which I haven't gotten used to yet and sometimes the strangest things happen if I accidentally touch the screen.

But I wanted to give you a little preview before the Prez starts. The country is down. Congress is a disaster. The Prez is polling terribly (although much better than Congress!) The Prez is not going controversial tonight. No socialism (as if) and not much liberalism even except for what the Beckheads and Teapots will find regardless of what he says. It will be all the things that he knows John ("Are-You-Kiddin'-Me?") Boehner will at least want to talk about:

Two Munchkins Grow Up

Two Graduates of the Lollipop Guild

My sincere congratulations to Paul Ryan and John Boehner! Ryan has compromised on an agreement with Senator Patty Murray (D. Wash.) for the budget to go forward for the next little while. It's not a great deal, but it's a deal. And that's enough to send the tea-partiers into a frenzy. They don't like it, so it must be OK.

Ryan must have got a message through his head to abandon the tea-party extremism and become a leader of his party. That is a typical opportunity for a failed VP candidate (Palin the exception that proves the rule.) He is also claiming his love for Ayn Rand is all an urban legend and I couldn't be happier!

The Address

Something along these lines is what I would like to hear from the President tonight. But, hey! If John Boehner wants to give it, fine by me!

One hundred and fifty years ago, President Abraham Lincoln linked the concept of our nation’s founding with the structure of the Constitution asserting that this nation was conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great political war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are eternally grateful that this nation has passed far beyond a resort to violence and bloodshed disputing the rights and responsibilities of free men and women of all races and creeds. Yet we still are tempted by willful political whim, rather than the rule of constitutionally tested law and the results of broad-based elections.

Shutdown 2013 Update No. 1

My boss called me in today. He's a really good guy. He tried so hard to soften the message. "Well, I, uh, -sit down. I regret this, but I need to let you know that, well, you have been officially designated as 'non-essential.'"

My response: "Ha! No problem! I've been 'non-essential' for 30 years! I was shutdown by Reagan and Tip O'Neill!" He is too, of course.

We also found out, and I'm not supposed to say much about this, but certain persons, while still "non-essential," are paid out of different sources of funds. And as their salaries are already paid, they have to work. Of course that also means they will have no worries about being paid. When we get furloughed, we are legally prohibited from performing any work. And we have no expectation of being paid.

Sequester Day 4

Not all is as gloomy as this recent photo of Speaker Boehner would lead one to believe:

Speaker of the House John ("Mr. Happy") Boehner 

Both the Congress and the President are indicating that they want no government shutdown come the end of March when the current Continuing Resolution (CR) funding the government, now with sequestration, expires. They are working on a CR with a little more flexibility for Defense and Veterans Programs, and maybe other discretionary spending. Whatever. I'm still willing to sacrifice a few days of furlough to see the country get its act together and the Congress pass a budget (where the Constitutional duty lies - not with the President!).

And the Next Prize for Cliff-Walking Goes to. . .

I'm afraid it's the Republicans again, specifically Speaker Boehner who can't win because the majority of his majority will not allow it any other way. The President is still holding all the cards. Boehner is thrashing about trying to blame someone else - the Senate, the President, Seth Macfarlane - but the Constitution along with tradition says its the responsibility of the House to initiate bills to raise revenues and appropriate funds (Cons. Art. I, sec. 7 requires revenues in the House, appropriations traditionally - and theoretically - go with revenues and originate in the lower house. See this Republican source.)

The Sequester comes Friday. (Did I mention that "sequestrar" in Portuguese means "kidnapping"?) But it will be a slowly painful fiscal crisis unlike a government default or shutdown. Personally, and remember all my caveats that I do not speak in my official capacity on this blog, our DC office has informed us that we will be receiving furlough notices soon (probably Friday as law already requires 30-day notice and Congress hasn't gotten rid of that yet). And by imposing a hiring freeze, cutting travel and training, we can probably get by with just three days of furlough assuming this even goes to next October 1 when a new fiscal year supposedly begins. "I only regret that I have but three days to lose for my dysfunctional country!" (sorry, Nathan Hale).

Debt Limit Merging with Fiscal Cliff

Well played, Mr. Geithner, well played!

Secretary of Treasury Giethner just issued a letter to Congress informing of the need to raise the artificial and imaginary debt limit by December 31 (five days from now, for those who are counting). This directly links to the other artificial and unnecessary crisis of the fiscal cliff that Congress created for itself and seems unable to resolve.

Easing over the Fiscal Cliff

So far, the only victim of the fiscal cliff is Speaker Boehner, whose Republican House refused to support him on his "Plan B." Even they saw the phoniness of it. But it does seem that the secret tea party plan to destroy the Republican Party is working just fine.

Today, we got a memo by email about the fiscal cliff and possible effects on the Department of the Interior. I don't see any problem in sharing it here as it appears to be a public document and the Press has the Department of Defense memo which says essentially the same thing.

"We Are Met on a Great Battlefield of that War"

I guess I was wrong again. Speaker Boehner does not have his tea party House under control. I'll leave the rest of how I was wrong in that posting to your own conclusions. The Republican House refused to accept the compromise with the Senate and the President, even though the Senate and the President came to a bipartisan agreement on the extension of the payroll tax cut. And now we have several Republican Senators, generally those up for reelection in bluer or battleground states, who are furious at the Republican House for their silly grandstanding.

The payroll tax cut will likely survive somehow. Even if they can't get it done in this pre-Holiday debacle, the Congress could always come back in January and pass it as a furious electorate will likely demand and even "rebate" retroactively what will be charged against all workers' pay beginning January 1, 2012. It could end up sort of like those "stimulus" checks President W Bush used to hand out--yet another win for President Obama in turning a "tax cut" into a "stimulus" he can't get any other way out of this Congress. The dysfunctional tea party House just handed the President a political plum.

Republicans Are Not Stupid

You might not know that from the Fox Republican Presidential Debate that went on tonight which I did not blog as I am engaged in family history research and writing pursuits. And I just couldn't take another debate. Check it out elsewhere as apparently Gingrich continues to surge, Romney and the rest ('cept maybe Huntsmand and Paul) continue to pander. And the beat goes on.

I am also on travel (holed up in my hotel room this evening) to attend a conference and some work meetings. When I checked my work e-mail remotely this morning, there was yet another notice to prepare for furlough and government shut-down. In fact, it said that anyone on travel should return to their duty station as soon as possible as the funding could run out Friday at midnight and then we would all turn into pumpkins for attempting to do any government work including returning home from government travel. I figure I can get out of Vegas even if I have to walk to St. George. The desert isn't as hot this time of year.

The Prez vs. Congress

Another attempt at live-blogging. Will we see a feisty Prez or a conciliatory Prez? The Repubs have been playing this fairly well, passing on the theme the media, and even some Dems, that they have outmaneuvered him and he is weak, no leader. But isn't that how it works when you hold a majority like the Repubs do in the House? They should be able to outmaneuver. Let's see if he can challenge them for things they may actually have to accept because they are their sort of issues, or have to respond to the People, who may respond to the Prez's call for action.

Darling, I Don't Know Why We Go to Supremes

So, the 11th Circuit strikes down the mandate to buy health insurance as "unconstitutional." Since the 6th Circuit already says it is constitutional, now we have a split in the Circuits that likely means the Supreme Court will actually hear it. (There is only a slight hope that the 11th Circuit en banc, that is, all the judges on the Circuit, rehear the case and overturn its panel  - then the Supremes could still dodge). I will keep following these developments and refer you to a great blog I read on this and other matters. And the anti-Obama-health-care-reform crowd sure wants to get it to the high court. Which, when you think about it, is kind of funny. (Hint: they usually don't like the Supreme Court telling us what to do).

And the Supremes

Billy Joel

Blogging from the Trail

Hopefully, without unduly raising expectations, I have a plan for a series to blog this next week. I have quite a bit of material collected from my experiences in historic trail questing (see, Galahad). I've wanted to put this all into a book or something, but don't seem to be sufficiently organized to do so. Then I realized, "Wait a minute! I'm a blogger!"

Leaving adult children at home, I'll be spending the week at Philmont Training Center, Cimarron, New  Mexico right on the Mountain Branch of the Santa Fe Trail. My wife is presenting a class, and I am going as a spouse to help her out (a little) but mostly to relax, read, and blog.

The President Is Playing the Lollipop Guild for Suckers

Yes. While it is an artificial and unnecessary crisis, it is a real crisis with significant risks. But it is not all as it seems. And it is certainly not as the Lollipop Guild (AKA tea party) believes or wants it to be.

"The Bigger the Government, The Smaller the People"

The Lollipop Guild

Republican Leadership:
McConnell, Boehner, Cantor 

You said it, John! So I'm thinking maybe they should I will now call it the "Lollipop Guild" rather than the "Tea Party."