Feature Article: Government Shutdown: Yes or No?

Well, with all the attention that’s direction toward the topic, I thought it was time for a post.  It seems, thankfully, that Republicans, or at least John Boehner:

And we’re not going to allow the Senate or the White House to put us in a box where we have to make a choice between two bad options: cutting a bad deal this week in order to keep the government open or allow the government to shut down due to Senate inaction

He said it bluntly. There is no need for person or blog interpretation. He said Obama is not going to push us into compromising on what we are trying to achieve or on accepting a government shutdown. However, the first thing for Republicans to do is hold on to their principles on this. They will probably get nervous and crumble. We cannot let this happen. People put the Republicans into Congress to do exactly this, stop the reckless spending. This is what they are doing. However, I fear they’ll break. We need to prove we mean business.

I realize this has implications. One of the most controversial is that soldiers would stop getting paid. I realize that this upsets a great many people. Liberals like to think that we are gun totting,  racist people. I will say several things to that statement. One: We are not racist. Just because we disapprove and dislike Obama doesn’t mean all of a sudden we are racist. Second, I would like to say that what I am about to say is a generalization. That doesn’t mean all of us are like this. I have seen that Tea Partiers do not necessarily “like” guns. They do kill people you know. However, if we are hunting, shooting on the range, or trying to protect ourselves, they are a vital need. Perhaps shooting on the range is not vital, but the others are. If we need to hunt for food (see the last 200 years, and before), you need a weapon of some sort. Common nowadays? guns. However, I do not hunt often so some many disagree, but one of the uses that I think is the most important is defense. For a nice story about that see my post about gun control laws, see my post regarding the shooting at Luby’s Cafeteria. Do to our use of guns, we tend to like the army. The go out away from there loved ones, fight, and die so that we may fly our flag, enjoy a safe country, and apparently shut down the government because democrats called

GOP’s tea party wing is making “extreme” demands that will lead to a shutdown

Yes, after being in trillions of dollars in debt, attempting to cut spending is…..extreme? Regardless, According to articles at politico (number one, number two), the GOP today (by article time: 4/6/11 10:19 AM EDT Updated: 4/6/11 9:19 PM EDT) put up another bill that cuts $12 billion in spending during a week. It would also, until September,  fund the Defense Department. However, Harry Reid (according to the article) at6:49 PM EDT today rejected it.  Reid says, and get ready to be angry:

“Instead of solving the crisis the way we should, instead of saying ‘yes’ .. what they’re going to do is pass what they’ll call another short-term stop-gap measure,” Reid said of the Republicans. “They’ll say it’s short-term but what that really means is it’s a short-cut around doing our jobs. Instead of solving problems, they’re stalling. They’re procrastinating. That’s not just bad policy, it’s a fantasy.”

“We want to avoid a shutdown and the terrible consequences that would follow. The only thing Republicans are trying to avoid is making tough choices,” Reid said on the floor.

Actually, I thought it was a pretty simple choice. Stand for what you believe and thus cut spending or don’t cut spending even though we are in trillions of debt. Will any Democrat please inform me how cutting spending would be bad here? Lucky Minority Leader Mitch McConnell responded:

“Throughout this entire debate, Republicans have not only said that we’d prefer a bipartisan agreement that funds the government and protects defense spending at a time when we’ve got American troops fighting in two wars. There is a Republican plan on the table right now that would do just that,” “Democrats can accept that proposal, or they can reject it. But they can’t blame anyone but themselves if a shutdown does occur. Because they’ve done nothing to prevent it.”

“We’ve done our job,”  “If the government shuts down, the American people will know it was because Senate Democrats failed to do their job.  We can still avoid a shutdown, but Democrats are going to need to get serious about cutting spending—and soon.”