No. of Recommendations: 11
"We have seen this movie plenty of times and guess what, we have survived each and every shutdown with the average Citizen barely noticing any effect." - BHM
"Well, we have a trip to DC that we're taking at the end of the month with the Albabykids. They were very much hoping to go to Air & Space and the National Archives. Those might end up being closed. Certainly not something that affects whether we "survive" the shutdown, but there are still impacts - minor as this is." - Albaby
Many years ago when the Republicans were holding the economy hostage with their shutdowns under Obama, many of the Republicans were doing the say things by saying it was no big deal and that it was better to shut down the government for a while. The kicker though was that a story spread through conservative media about how one of the National Parks was closed down (Maybe Mt Rushmore or Yellowstone, I forget which) and how Obama did it intentionally to punish the people who wanted to shut down the government.
It was one of those "Keep your government hands off of my Medicare" moments. Conservatives news outlets were able to convince their viewers that shutting down the government was a good thing, but at the same time provoke misdirected outrage at Obama about government facilities being closed. More evidence for Alpha's decree that you can't fix stupid.
"You're right that we've seen this movie plenty of times before. And we know the ending. It always ends with the parties pretty much striking the same deal they were looking to strike before the shutdown. It doesn't matter whether the deal is wrecked by Newt Gingrich making a point, or Ted Cruz making a point, or (now) Elon and Vivek making a point: the shutdown puts massive pressure on the majority party of the holdout chamber of Congress, and eventually they have to agree to the terms that are necessary to either get the votes in their chamber or pass the other chamber.
Unless Trump can whip every single Republican, including the ones who vote against CR's as a matter of principle, they need Democratic votes. Those Democratic votes come with Democratic priorities being met. That's what comes with having appropriations power in a Legislative body - you have to put together a deal that a majority of members will support. There's no evidence that such a deal exists on the terms that Musk and Trump have laid down, but we'll see what happens." - Albaby
You are correct of course. The shut down will end the same way all of the others did. By making essentially the same deal that was available before the shutdown. Trump knows this. Johnson knows this. Most Republican legislators know this. What this does though is that this allows Trump to do two things. One, by killing the bill he is showing his dominance over the party and making it appear to the people he is calling the shots. Two, it allows him to look like a hero that when he is in office a deal finally gets done. He will brag it was made because of him. Plus, even if it is an objectively worse deal (for Republicans), it will be easy to sell it to the stupid masses that it is the best deal ever and only he could have made it.
Nothing like creating a minor emergency so you can look like a hero by fixing it.
"But I know what happened the last dozen times we saw this movie, so the most likely outcome is that we end up with something very similar to what was just negotiated. And so the shutdown doesn't accomplish anything (other than create inconvenience for people who want to use non-essential services)." - Albaby
The shutdown does more than just create a little bit of inconvenience for people who want to go to National Parks. Employees at those non-essential services do not get paid during shutdowns. Sure the usually get back pay after the shutdown ends, but it can cause real havoc on households that live paycheck to paycheck. Shutdowns also create uncertainty in government contracts and spending. For example, the U.S. government pays more for certain defense spending than it would under normal budgeting procedures. Government contractors cannot plan for the future so they are constantly hiring and letting go of workers based off of Continuing Resolutions, shutdowns, or normal budgeting. That turnover has real world costs.
It all doesn't matter though to the Party of Stupid. What is a little bit of inconvenience and pain for people if it otherwise would make Trump look like a hero in their minds.
