Quote :

"What’s revealed by the fact that we’re now talking about opening the government and raising the debt ceiling in exchange in part for getting rid of the portion of people’s compensation that goes to health insurance? What it shows is that the Tea Party emperor has no clothes — that they never should have, or could have, forced their idiocy on the other house of Congress, or the other branches of government. That their blackmail and extortion and coercion has been recognized for exactly what it is. It’s never made any sort of sense or had any moral strength to say to America, as they’ve said, “If you don’t let us steal your car, we will burn down your house.” They tried to steal the car, which was Obamacare, under threat of burning down the house, which is the U.S. economy. That was always wrong, it’s still wrong. It’s always gonna be wrong. The sad thing is that they were able to extort the concessions that they’ve already received with those kinds of tactics, such as the fact that they took the president’s budget, cut it by 20 per cent, and then threw it in the trash can."

Quote :

"What about if there’s a deal in the next couple days? It’s irrelevant. They keep dragging America into heavy traffic. They’ve done this over and over again. The fact that there’s some kind of temporary deal until December or January doesn’t change the fact that they are anarchists. To the extent that responsible people want to continue having our society function, the Republicans will have to be rejected. They’ll have to be expelled from the body politic."

Quote :

"How concerned are you that there would be a debt default at this point? I’m concerned. You know, the president has made it clear that the debt ceiling needs to be increased or we’re likely to default. I take his word for it. I wish that he would declare the debt ceiling unconstitutional, but he has said that he is presently inclined against that approach. I hope he changes his mind… In a Reuters op-ed piece a few days ago, I pointed out that you could easily avoid this entire problem if the Federal Reserve simply wrote off its treasury debt… The letter that I sent to Chairman Bernanke has gone unanswered… The Republicans seem to be bent on destroying the credit of the United States. They actually want that to happen as far as I can tell. There was an interesting ABC/Washington Post poll where we got the crosstabs… 31 per cent of Republicans thought that breaching the debt ceiling would cause serious economic harm, and they wanted to do it anyway. So yes, all of that makes me concerned. We have a significant part of the population that seems to have a financial death wish, and I’m concerned that they’re going to drag us down with the rest of them."

Quote :

"So when we hit midnight Thursday night what is going to have happened? I don’t know. But I do know that this will prove once and for all, beyond any doubt, that the Tea Party and the Republican Party are agents of chaos. And they are completely unsuited to participating in government. Are you suggesting the voters will prevent it from happening again? The voters will prevent this from happening again. Even a dog knows when it’s being kicked. How will they do that? By voting the Republicans out of power and relegating the Republican Party to the ash heap of history. Does that mean a new era of liberal legislation out of Washington? I don’t know. You know, eventually the Whig Party was replaced to some degree by the Republican Party. I don’t know what’s going to replace the Republican Party. I just hope that it’s more benign and less malignant."

http://www.salon.com/2013/10/16/theyre_fools_and_work_for_fools_alan_grayson_unloads_on_gop_staffers_and_much_more/

[Edited on October 17, 2013 at 3:18 PM. Reason : ]

10/17/2013 3:17:36 PM

^Salon.com is the Liberal equivalent of the Tea Party a bunch of looney tunes on that site hell bent on crushing Capitalism and bringing in socialism

10/17/2013 3:55:09 PM

i can't tell anymore when someone is trolling

10/17/2013 3:59:19 PM

really hard to take a group seriously when they use ridiculous amounts of hyperbole on a regular basis

just sayin'

(and I'm not even a fan of Salon, but come on)

10/17/2013 4:05:26 PM

It isn't Salon per se, it's a crazy Congressman from Florida

10/17/2013 4:06:58 PM

what the crazy guy said is 90% true though

and what is wrong with Salon?

10/17/2013 4:07:54 PM

they lost me when they attempted to take down Patton Oswalt a few months ago

10/17/2013 4:09:42 PM

^^ yeah i enjoyed the interview. can't argue with most of what he said.

10/17/2013 4:16:55 PM

I have a question:

I've heard that furloghed employees will be getting backpay. How does that work?

I've heard federal employees whine about being out of work, and now they are getting backpay for sitting on their ass at home?

Surely they don't get payed 100% and use no PTO for these 16 days?

10/17/2013 5:19:37 PM

I was only furloughed 4 days until the Pay Our Military Now act was "conveniently" interpreted by DoD lawyers to send basically the entire DoD back as "essential", "coincidentally" around the same time the House unanimously passed a bill that would give furloughed employees back pay.

however, for the 4 days my ass sat at home, I will be fully reimbursed for, whenever they get around to it. some people got 12 days off because their agencies weren't unfurloughed. they, too, will get full back pay. they will not have to take annual leave, etc for those days (unless they had planned to be on leave and had it approved before the furloughs). it isn't really "fair", but neither is not letting us go to work when we'd rather go and get paid than sit at home and not get paid.

in other words, blame congress, not the federal employees

10/17/2013 5:24:45 PM

Quote :

"Surely they don't get payed 100% and use no PTO for these 16 days?"

Yup, that's how it works.

10/17/2013 5:29:37 PM

Quote :

"I've heard federal employees whine about being out of work, and now they are getting backpay for sitting on their ass at home?"

they didn't have a choice in the matter...

they weren't on strike

10/17/2013 5:46:59 PM

Blame the House for shutting down the government knowing that the money would get paid out anyway and not even benefiting from the labor that could have been used.

10/17/2013 6:46:13 PM

10/18/2013 5:09:11 PM

Feds also get a huge raise...1%...it was included as well..

10/19/2013 3:00:01 AM

1% is huge now?

10/19/2013 9:31:08 AM

considering our pay has been frozen going on 4 years...

10/19/2013 10:24:21 AM

Maybe you should consider a job in the private sector? If I was working in a job that hadn't given me a raise in 4 years, I would have found something new at least three years ago.

[Edited on October 19, 2013 at 4:47 PM. Reason : ]

10/19/2013 4:46:56 PM

Sweet, I love those "I'm better than you" posts

10/19/2013 5:46:06 PM

CREW wants to know the reasoning Obama has used to announce that the Congressional debt ceiling is actually binding on him, despite what the 14th Amendment says, and so do I: http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/329407-watchdog-demands-to-know-why-obama-renounced-debt-limit-power

10/20/2013 6:24:30 PM

ttt

1/20/2018 2:58:11 PM

ttt, B


Who here will be effected by a government shutdown?

9/26/2023 7:05:11 PM

Every federal government shutdown since 1991 has been when Republicans controlled the House, and in all but one they also controlled the Senate. The party of taking your ball and going home.

9/26/2023 7:09:48 PM

I'm not even sure what this debacle is about this time. Like, had the republican- led house even passed a budget yet?

9/26/2023 7:14:20 PM

LOL! No.

9/26/2023 7:32:13 PM

Congress sucks

should've been the best branch of government

ended up being a massive L

9/26/2023 10:15:52 PM

Quote :

"Who here will be affected by a government shutdown?"

this guy

9/27/2023 11:16:46 AM

I still work on government contracts, so...


Latest word is that our contract is still fully funded throughout October. After that, if a shutdown is still going on, we shall see. Previously, when an extended shutdown happened, they started to furlough people.

9/27/2023 12:50:44 PM

yo yo yo federal civil servant here about to be furloughed! MFW there is another government shutdown:

9/27/2023 1:43:09 PM

Looks like a 45-day reprieve is in the making.

9/30/2023 3:37:48 PM

wish I could get fucking 45 days off

9/30/2023 3:50:48 PM

It's 45 days ON, son!

9/30/2023 4:11:27 PM

wat

9/30/2023 4:14:06 PM

It's a reprieve FROM a government shutdown due to 45-day stopgap funding bill. Pay attention, BB.

9/30/2023 4:58:00 PM

^^^^ and ^^ lol!

9/30/2023 7:09:13 PM

^^I don't give a shit about any of that mess

9/30/2023 7:27:09 PM

now guessin' some random words and filling out parts of speech.. that's where it's at

9/30/2023 7:29:12 PM

^^don't ask "what" and then act dismissive

9/30/2023 8:09:26 PM

I just fucking did

fuckin do something about it

9/30/2023 8:28:43 PM

you think you're tough? Then come say the shit you said about me and my friends on TWW to our faces

9/30/2023 9:05:47 PM

ford tuff

9/30/2023 10:20:27 PM

TWW WWE FIGHT

WHO WINS

9/30/2023 10:27:42 PM

I have a friend who is ex-Navy that now works for a defense contractor. At one point, I was told that she makes $80k working part time! That had to be 15 years ago. She probably makes $200k now or more. She's all the time complaining about the impending government shutdown lately. I don't know if she's affected, but that would be a fat paycheck to have delayed.

9/30/2023 11:13:31 PM

[Edited on October 1, 2023 at 12:39 AM. Reason : my honest reaction]

10/1/2023 12:39:02 AM