State of the American Population – we have lost our ability to see truth

State of the American Population – we have lost our ability to see truth

Posted by David Roberts

So I could not really help but notice all the unusual posts and perspectives about the government shutdown that started roughly 24 hours ago. First, the government did not shutdown. There is a mass % of the government that is running just fine and continuing to spend money at a dizzying pace. I will not bore you with the details but there are some legitimate web posts that detail what did and did not shutdown today. While we are all panicking and blaming Republicans, POTUS or generally everyone in Washington, please note a few interesting but clearly unknown facts by most who seem more interested in utterly ridiculous FB posts than understanding reality. This goes for many of my friends.

• Just because something is the law of the land, does not mean you don’t do everything in your power to change it, stop it, defund it, or whatever it takes if you feel it will destroy your country. Don’t believe me? How about slavery? Yeah, go think about that one. 
• Tip O’Neill, the legendary Democratic leader presided over 12 government shutdowns. Yeah, back then they just called them “funding gaps”, and today they are “shutdowns”. Today, the one presiding over them in the House is typically referred to as “terrorists”, assuming they are Republican. 
• The media started reporting these “funding gaps” as “shutdowns” only in the 90’s when Newt Gingrich presided of 2 of them. These intentional shutdowns were to force a balanced budget. Ironically, they worked and the last balanced budget we had in this country was under Clinton/Gingrich. Oh what we would do for those days again.  
• The House of Representatives passed a budget bill and it was actually the Democratic-led Senate that voted 54-46 against the bill, which would fund the government only if President Obama's healthcare law were delayed a year. I know, crazy Republicans wanting to hurt Obama, right? Since Obama already delayed parts of his own law because they could not get it kicked off successfully, why are the Republicans terrorists for asking to do the same for just one more year? Hmmm. Nevermind. 
• Obama in a stump speech during the first campaign claimed Bush was irresponsible and unpatriotic for using a federal credit card to raise the debt limit from $5 trillion to $9 trillion. Hmmm. In 5 years, he has raised it from $9 trillion to $17 trillion. Any liberal media folks are calling Congressmen terrorists for saying we are fine shutting down the government if that is what it takes to stop the spending madness?

Dont believe me? Here is the YouTube feed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8PKtcwzA8A (watch it for yourself)...

Below are the 5 steps to a federal budget. Does anyone online complaining about Congress have a clue how this even works? Do any of these amazing folks have a clue that Obama has failed to send a single budget to Congress since he stepped into office 5 years ago? What you may notice below is that of the White House, Senate and Congress, there was actually only 1 group who actually did their job this week. Ironically it is the group that most super intelligent people on Facebook today are whining about and blaming. Yep, Congress did their job. The WH and Senate did nothing but say NO. That includes POTUS and Harry Reid on the record. 

How Does the Federal Government Create a Budget?

There are five key steps in the federal budget process:

Step 1: The President submits a budget request to Congress

Step 2: The House and Senate pass budget resolutions

Step 3: House and Senate Appropriations subcommittees “markup” appropriations bills

Step 4: The House and Senate vote on appropriations bills and reconcile differences

Step 5: The President signs each appropriations bill and the budget becomes law

And to close, please know this is not a big Republican fund raiser I am pulling here. Frankly, the establishment Republicans make me sick. I have WAY more to lose than most that might read this. During the 90’s shutdown, the US Consulate’s did not issue almost 30,000 foreign VISAS. That means if they repeat that, my little girl in China might not get what is required in time for her to come home with us prior to November 3rd, when she ages out of the system in China and becomes unadoptable. So, while some of my federal employee friends are freaking out right now, I find it ironic that they were not freaking out when they were spending year end budgets to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars on absolutely nothing useful, just because it had to be spent. That is just the tip of the iceberg and the hypocrisy is quite amazing. And that is for many who I claim as friends. Don’t even get me started on the rest of the population.