After the Shutdown

I've been too busy with RL to do more than observe the posturing of various politicians over the last few weeks. I have, however, a few remarks to make about this time:

1. Both sides bear some blame.
   
   Various factions of the Republican Party are jockeying for position, leadership, and media attention. As a result, some important points about the future of this country are getting lost. Lets make this less about the individuals, and more about the nation, OK?



2. My major comment about the Democrat party is that they seem to exhibit remarkable cohesion on their party discipline, and, as a result, their message does reach the voter clearly.
   
   Too bad that their message is: We won, so all y'all taxpayers have to cough up as much cash in taxes as we want - forever. If we run out of money to pay off our campaign donors, just suck it up and give us more. NO reduction of spending - no matter how wasteful or ridiculous - can EVER be considered. If you protest, we're gonna talk about starving babies and homeless old people.



3. I'm so excited that average citizens stood up to the Park Service Nazis, and put those Barrycades on the White House sidewalk. That's the sort of American Action I like to see - in this country, the Government doesn't tell law-abiding citizens where they can go.



4. The settlement may be the best we can hope for. We should use the next few months to educate the American public about the dangers of long-term debt. I'm working to put together a Youtube presentation about it - it'll be a first for me.



5. TV is boring. They don't actually analyze any of the issues. They just look for cool soundbites.



6. I haven't read a newspaper in months. Most of my information is gotten from websites (OK, they are sometimes web editions of newspapers, such as the Wall Street Journal or Fortune), TV news, government sites (well, until the shutdown).



7. For those who think the answer to the government running out of money is to raise the debt ceiling:
   
   

   Consider a family who spend without regard to their budget, and eventually ran out of money, and maxed out their credit cards. If they then went to their creditors, and said, "We can't pay our bills. Our solution is for you to raise our credit limit."
   
   How many of you think their creditors would think that a good idea? How many would think their response would be, "Find a way to make do with the money you have coming in. Cut out the luxuries and frills."

   
   

THE GREAT OBAMACARE/BUDGET/OVERREACH CRASH

Hard as it is for the dedicated, loyal Obamanuts to imagine, The Great and Powerful O is well on the way to crashing and burning - in a mess of his own making. Some of the most recent ways he is screwing up:

• Obamacare Website Fiasco. Few can get through the initial creation of a sign-on and password. Even fewer can navigate the system to sign on, and select a plan. Those persistent few who WERE successful have NO IDEA how much it will cost them. In the process, they have had to give their financial and medical information to a government that routinely violates privacy protections, agree to let a credit agency release their credit information (and pay more if they have a low credit rating), and passively accept whatever terms the Feds want to give them.
  Bad planning, bad coding (by an outsourced CANADIAN company - hey, I thought only the EVIL Republicans/Capitalists did that!), and bad decision-making.
• The shift from Friendly Park Service Employees to Terrifying, Brown-Shirted (literally), Uber-Nazis.
  See Here, Here, and Here.


• For a man that was touted as the MOST INTELLIGENT PRESIDENT OF ALL TIME, Obama sure makes some DUMB moves.