Federal Shutdown Begins After Lawmakers Fail to Reach Deal

Hold on tight, gentle readers. It looks like this will be a wild ride

For the third time during the Trump administration, the U.S Government is being shut down, despite GOP ownership of the Legislative and Executive branches, demonstrating the unfitness of the Republican Party to govern. The Standard-Examiner carries four different stories this morning, which we'll reel out in no particular order:

• Federal shutdown begins after lawmakers fail to reach deal
• Open and closed: shutdown's varied impact on parks, tourists
• Access to parks in US Southwest a mixed bag during shutdown
• Partial government shutdown likely to extend past Christmas

The impact of this blunder will be significant, Gentle Readers:

The gridlock blocks money for nine of 15 Cabinet-level departments and dozens of agencies, including the departments of Homeland Security, Transportation, Interior, Agriculture, State and Justice.
The lack of funds will disrupt many government operations and the routines of 800,000 federal employees. Roughly 420,000 workers were deemed essential and will work unpaid just days before Christmas, while 380,000 will be furloughed, meaning they’ll stay home without pay.
Those being furloughed include nearly everyone at NASA and 52,000 workers at the Internal Revenue Service. About 8 in 10 employees of the National Park Service will stay home and many parks were expected to close.

Although partisan politicians are scrambling to place blame, there can be little doubt in whose lap this blunder belongs:



Hold on tight, gentle readers. It looks like this will be a wild ride.

Meyerson: Tea Party Seeks to Purge GOP "RINOS" (So Called)

Moderate Utah Republicans, please take note -- Time to take corrective action, while you still can

Like the Stalinists and the Jacobins, today’s tea party zealots have purified their movement — not by executing but by driving away those Republicans who don’t share their enthusiasm for wrecking their country if they can’t compel the majority to embrace their notions. Today, there are fewer but "better" Republicans — if "better" means adhering to the tea party view that a United States not adhering to tea party values deserves to be brought to a clangorous halt.

Salt Lake Tribune Op-Ed
Meyerson: Tea party seeks to purge GOP
October 17, 2013

If anything illustrates just how far today’s Republicans have drifted from their traditional moorings, it’s the dismay with which their longtime business allies have greeted their decisions to close the government and threaten default. Such pillars of the Republican coalition as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers and the National Retail Federation have called for an end to the shutdown and an increase in the debt limit. Bruce Josten, the chamber’s executive vice president for government affairs, told The Washington Post last week that his organization is considering backing primary challenges to tea party incumbents.

Salt Lake Tribune Op-Ed
Meyerson: Tea party seeks to purge GOP
October 17, 2013

Today’s tea party-ized Republicans speak less for Wall Street or Main Street than they do for the seething resentments of white Southern backwaters and their geographically widespread but ideologically uniform ilk. Their theory of government, to the extent that they have one, derives from John Calhoun’s doctrine of nullification — that states in general and white minorities in particular should have the right to overturn federal law and impede majority rule.

Salt Lake Tribune Op-Ed
Meyerson: Tea party seeks to purge GOP
October 17, 2013

First rate Herald Meyerson (Washington Post) op-ed, via the Salt Lake Tribune:

• Meyerson: Tea party seeks to purge GOP

Moderate Utah Republicans, please take note.

Time to take corrective action, while you still can, to avoid landing the Grand Old Party (GOP) in the dustbin of history.

On a local level, passage of the now-pending Count My Vote Initiative, and eliminating the current Utah right-wing extremist caucus/nomination system stranglehold would be a great start, or so it seems to us.

Standard-Examiner: Default Avoided, Shutdown Ends, But Anger Lingers - Updated

Sodden question: Was Cruz, Mike Lee's shutdown quest a fool's errand?

The Standard reports on last night's bi-partisan "deal," whereby our U.S. Congress pulled a rabbit out of its hat and voted to reopen and fund the government into January:

• Default avoided, shutdown ends, but anger lingers

The Washington Post reports on the respective Senate and House votes:

The Senate voted on a bipartisan bill to reopen the government and extend the debt ceiling. The final tally was 81-18.

• Votes to end the government shutdown - U.S. Senate

The House voted to end the government shutdown and raise the debt ceiling late Wednesday night, by a final tally of 285-144.

• Votes to end the government shutdown - U.S. House of Representatives

A Weber County Forum Tip of the Hat to the following Utah-based federal legislators, who demonstrated the maturity and wisdom to place the best interests of this country ahead of political expediency, by voting in favor of the compromise bill:

• Representative Jim Matheson
• Senator Orrin Hatch

Notable among the Congress-critters who voted against the last-minute "deal" were the following members of our Utah congressional delegation:

• Representative Rob Bishop
• Representative Jason Chaffetz
• Representative Chris Stewart
• Senator Mike Lee

With a federal general election coming up in another relatively short 12-1/2 months, we'll assume that our ever-savvy and politically-wonkish WCF readers will write this info down so the don't forget it.

And via the Standard-Examiner, we'll raise the sodden question:

• Was Cruz, Mike Lee's shutdown quest a fool's errand?

(Hint: the correct answer is "yes.")

So what about it O Gentle Ones?  Is your blogmeister the only one who's feeling "warm and fuzzy" this morning?

Update 10/18/13 4:23 a.m.: the Trib chimes in this morning with this top-flight editorial

• Editorial: Republican-led shutdown gained the country nothing:

This handy graphic scorecard displays the final results:

Sunday Funnies: Utah Senator Mike Lee Skips Church Services to Stage a Photo Op - Updated

"Power to the People," sez shutdown co-conspirator Senator Mike Lee

With his Utah polling numbers slipping, Tea Party Senator Mike Lee skipped his LDS church services on Sunday, and hooked up with his cronies Sarah Palin, Ted Cruz and a handful of easily manipulated U.S. military veterans to stage a high profile photo op:


Read the full Salt Lake Tribune story:

• Utah’s Mike Lee, others push through barriers to WWII memorial (video)

"Power to the People," sez shutdown co-conspirator Senator Mike Lee.

Quick, O Gentle Ones! Can anyone amongst our vast collection of ever-savvy Weber County Forum political wonks explain what's wrong with this picture?

This will be on "the test." of course.

Here are a few helpful hints to add to your crib-sheets:

• Give Sen. Lee his pink slip
• A Federal Budget Crisis Months in the Planning
• The GOP's little rule change they hoped you wouldn't notice
• Why did House GOP Rig the Rules to Keep The Government Shut Down (Explosive Video)
• The GOP Shutdown Is Sedition and Shouldn't be Forgiven

Update 10/14/13 7:19 a.m.: Oh; and here's another relevant one, inasmuch as this whole story involves a purported U.S. military veteran protest:

• Million Vet March Organizers Condemn Sarah Palin, Ted Cruz, and the Tea Party

Update 10/15/13 8:00 a.m.: The Trib's Paul Rolley reports that the tea party shutdown co-conspirators within Utah's congressional delegation are suddenly missing in action:

• Rolly: Amid the shutdown, Chaffetz lies low, Lee hides out

"Lee appears to be cracking from the pressure of the mounting anger toward him. His communications director, Brian Phillips, told a reporter for the Deseret News that not only would Lee not comment about recent polls showing the senator’s approval rating sinking fast, but also Lee would not grant an interview if the reporter even broached the subject. By speaking only with Fox News, Glenn Beck and others media types who encourage them and avoid weightier questions, such Republicans in Congress live in an echo chamber and have lost touch with average Americans," Mr. Rolly speculates.

Go figure:

• 74 percent now dislike Republican budget stand: Poll

Have at it, O Gentle Ones...