Motus Mentis

19 Comments

1. JK says

   I wonder, given today’s climate (unlike the most recent precedent) should one suppose this to be a “high crime” or a “misdemeanor?”

   http://www.gao.gov/legal/lawresources/antideficiencybackground.html

   Posted October 1, 2013 at 11:09 pm | Permalink
2. JK says

   As Derb might say,”Long quote.”

   The Antideficiency Act is one of the major laws in the statutory scheme by which Congress exercises its constitutional control of the public purse. It has been termed “the cornerstone of Congressional efforts to bind the Executive branch of government to the limits on expenditure of appropriated funds.”

   “The original section 3679 . . . was derived from legislation enacted in 1870 [16 Stat. 251] and was designed solely to prevent expenditures in excess of amounts appropriated. In 1905 [33 Stat. 1257] and 1906 [34 Stat. 48], section 3679, was amended to provide specific prohibitions regarding the obligation of appropriations and required that certain types of appropriations be so apportioned over a fiscal year as to‘prevent expenditures in one portion of the year which may necessitate deficiency or additional appropriations to complete the service of the fiscal year for which said appropriations are made.’ Under the amended section, the authority to make, waive, or modify apportionments was vested in the head of the department or agency concerned.
   By Executive Order 6166 of June 10, 1933, this authority was transferred to the Director of the [Office of Management and Budget].

   Posted October 1, 2013 at 11:42 pm | Permalink
3. Frederik Von smellsburg says

   The USDA turned off their website. It is tough coping without it. I was going to grow some food but decided I can’t do it without USDA.gov to guide me.

   Posted October 2, 2013 at 12:30 am | Permalink
4. the one eyed man says

   Here by the Bay, Alcatraz is closed. This is a head scratcher, as it makes lots of money for the government, especially now that we are in prime tourist season. However, no sacrifice is too great when it comes to standing between people and their health care. (Certainly no hill is too great, and no bridge too far, in this noble pursuit for the Koch brothers, whose creepy Uncle Sam ads strive to convince the uninsured to stay that way. What fine Americans. Kinda makes you want to think of them in the same light as Sully, Pat Tillman, and the Let’s Roll guys.)

   Your implication that high visibility targets are chosen, while everything else is hunky dory, is elusive. Veterans disability claims are not being processed, as well as Social Security claims, SNAP, and so forth. Border Patrol agents are being furloughed, passport offices are closed, and the long lines at customs are much longer. The Times estimates that a prolonged shutdown will knock 1.4% from fourth quarter GDP. Here by the Bay, there is illegal crabbing because the rangers are not there. Not a big deal, but one imagines that not having government workers inspecting food, drugs, and airplanes is probably a great time for unscrupulous meat packers putting some horsemeat in your burger. Etc., etc.

   All of this because — for the first time in American history — House Republicans are upset about a bill they don’t like, but lack the votes to repeal. So they let everyone else suffer so they can have their hissy fit. Why does the Tea Party hate America so much?

   Here by the Bay, I went to the health exchange site yesterday to find out that I can get lower rates from my insurer than I’m paying now. I now have to decide if I want to spend less money or get a better plan for the same money. Life goes on.

   .

   Posted October 2, 2013 at 9:50 am | Permalink
5. JK says

   Veterans disability claims are not being processed

   Well, at least one thing appears not to’ve been affected.

   “Illegal crabbing” going on eh, One Eye? I was vaguely aware your region is The Land of the StartUp Venture but I hadn’t a clue just how rapidly a new industry could get into gear unmolested by the Federal regulatory environment.

   For now at least, maybe I won’t have to buy Chinese crabs.

   How quick do you reckon, they can get those crabs to Burlington Northern One Eye? Pretty quick now there’s a shortage of Border Patrol keeping “illegals” from crossing borders?

   Oh wait. The Border Patrol and the VA. Make that two things unaffected.

   Posted October 2, 2013 at 10:21 am | Permalink
6. Malcolm says

   Veterans disability claims are not being processed, as well as Social Security claims, SNAP, and so forth. Border Patrol agents are being furloughed, passport offices are closed, and the long lines at customs are much longer.

   Oh, the House will be perfectly happy to fund those things. No problem there. (In fact, they already voted to do so.)

   Re your coverage: have a nice suckle at the government teat. It’s splendid what’s possible once you get private industry in a hammerlock, and compel entire classes of free citizens to overpay for services they don’t even want.

   Posted October 2, 2013 at 10:56 am | Permalink
7. Malcolm says

   Certainly no hill is too great, and no bridge too far, in this noble pursuit for the Koch brothers, whose creepy Uncle Sam ads strive to convince the uninsured to stay that way.

   Well, one might interpret the ads that way, I suppose (if one were trying to come down slowly from a two-week meth binge by snorting some Krokodil).

   Or maybe it’s they’re just “striving” to say it might be better not to have unelected Federal bureaucrats in charge of all our healthcare, and an additional sixth of the economy.

   Posted October 2, 2013 at 11:30 am | Permalink
8. Malcolm says

   Why does the Tea Party hate America so much?

   I dunno, but I expect they’d like to ask you guys the same thing. Great question, though.

   Related: why did Tip O’Neill hate America so much as to preside over twelve different government shutdowns?

   It’s just one of those things, I guess. A mysterium tremendum.

   Posted October 2, 2013 at 11:33 am | Permalink
9. Frederik Von smellsburg says says says

   you can’t snort krokodil

   Posted October 2, 2013 at 12:31 pm | Permalink
10. Malcolm says

    You can snort anything. Shooting it is a terrible way to come down off a meth binge; one needs to be gentle.

    Posted October 2, 2013 at 12:36 pm | Permalink
11. the one eyed man says

    Regrettably, I have too much work to do today to point out the copious weaknesses in your responses. I would only point out that when Tip O’Neill was Speaker during the Reagan and Bush administrations, the longest shutdown was four days, which typically included weekends. All government shutdowns until this one have been over budget disputes, and have never been used as leverage to extract concessions over the Senate and Presidency over policy differences.

    If this shutdown lasts three or four days, it won’t be the end of the world. It will likely mirror the other self-inflicted wounds which the Tea Party bestowed on us: the downgrade of the national debt and the uncertainty created by six previous manufactured crises for government shutdowns and one manufactured crisis for debt default (and the massive uncertainty engendered by these gifts, from those who piously lectured us in 2010 on how the alleged uncertainties of a new health care program would cripple the economy).

    What worries me is the possibility of a government default, which would be catastrophic.

    But hey: in the long run, this may all be good. 72% of Americans oppose the shutdown (a fact ignored by Ted Cruz and his ilk, who assure us that they are responding to “the voice of the people.”) Another poll taken yesterday shows the percent of voters who would choose a generic Republican in a Congressional race is at its lowest level ever. The Tea Party has vastly overplayed its hand, and a resentful public watches as they float off from the rest of us, like an ideological Major Tom. Their contempt for governance, tradition, and democracy itself will ultimately rid us of this pestilence. All’s well that ends well.

    Posted October 2, 2013 at 3:38 pm | Permalink
12. Malcolm says

    All government shutdowns until this one have been over budget disputes, and have never been used as leverage to extract concessions over the Senate and Presidency over policy differences.

    Just to clarify this for readers who might not understand government as well as some of the rest of us: “budgets” have nothing to do with “policy”. Shutdowns over “budgets” are OK, but shutdowns over “policy” are not. (If you don’t understand why this should be so, don’t worry; it’s just what philosophers like to call a “brute fact”. Some things are just OK, and some things aren’t.)

    Posted October 2, 2013 at 9:55 pm | Permalink
13. the one eyed man says

    I’m not here to bang a drum for government shutdowns. They cause unnecessary pain for many people. However, they are the regrettable and sometimes unavoidable consequence of irreconcilable budgetary differences. My preference would be to adopt what some European countries do: when opposing sides cannot agree, the status quo stays into effect until they do.

    The difference with the current imbroglio, of course, is that Obamacare is extraneous to the budget. Hence this precedent, if continued, would allow any party to use chaos and catastrophe as leverage to demand anything they want: gun control, abortion rights, repealing the designated hitter rule, whatever. This essentially nullifies our entire system of government.

    The stock market is tanking again today, military contractors have announced layoffs, and people are getting really upset. The silver lining here is that the Republican Party is being hit by a Cruz missile, and the formerly silent majority is disgusted with the tactics, sanctimony, and pig-headedness of its extreme right flank. Not a good thing for those who, ideologically speaking, are close to the edge, down by the (Potomac) river.

    Posted October 3, 2013 at 11:22 am | Permalink
14. Malcolm says

    I’m not here to bang a drum for government shutdowns either. They cause, as you say, a lot of pain.

    However, your notion that there is some clear line to be drawn between matters of “budget” and everything else — and, further, that while shutdowns are “regrettable and sometimes unavoidable consequence of irreconcilable budgetary differences”, that for the House otherwise to exert its power of the purse “nullifies our entire system of government” — is wrong. It’s wishful thinking, and it fatally discounts the Framers’ deep pessimism about the inherent failings and weaknesses of both democracy and human nature.

    That the House can do exactly this — use its control of money to resist whatever actions of the Senate or the Executive it sees fit — is an intentional feature of our system of government (as is made clear in the Federalist Papers and other documents). The Founders were deeply concerned with checking and slowing the engine of government, so as to place a brake on democracy’s natural tendency to slip into factional and majoritarian tyranny — and they deliberately made antagonism and conflict of interest between the various components of the government a central principle of their new system. (As John Derbyshire has written: “Perhaps never in human history have civilized men expected less of each other.”) The Constitution is designed to make just this sort of gridlock possible.

    This isn’t a bug, it’s a feature.

    Posted October 3, 2013 at 11:39 am | Permalink
15. the one eyed man says

    It’s not a feature, it’s a bug. If it were a feature, it would have been used in the past 224 years. It hasn’t, until now.

    Meanwhile, the loathsome Ken Cuccinelli is toast in what had been a close race for the Virginia governorship. His rabid opposition to Obamacare and the taint of the Tea Party is too much for Virginia voters. Schadenfreude: it’s a beautiful thing.

    Posted October 3, 2013 at 4:13 pm | Permalink
16. Malcolm says

    Peter, read some history: it’s a feature.

    If anything’s unprecedented here, it’s the absolute unwillingness to negotiate.

    Posted October 3, 2013 at 4:34 pm | Permalink
17. Malcolm says

    If it were a feature, it would have been used in the past 224 years.

    It has been, 17 times.

    But even if it hadn’t: by what screwy logic do you arrive at this conclusion? The ability of the States to create amendments by convoking a Constitutional Convention, for example, is a feature of the Constitution that has never been used since the Ratification. (It may be, before much longer, though.)

    Just because something hasn’t been used doesn’t mean it isn’t there for a reason. The fire alarm at my office has never been pulled, but it was wise planning to make sure it’s there if we need it.

    Posted October 3, 2013 at 4:47 pm | Permalink
18. the one eyed man says

    Negotiate? When someone tries to extort you, there is only one possible response. Harry Reid may have the hangdog look of a bus driver after a bad day, but he is full of guts, grit, and determination. If the perpetually farbissina Mitch McConnell were to demand unilateral concessions, I know exactly what the man from Searchlight would tell him.

    “Senator? You can have my answer now, if you like. My final offer is this: nothing.”

    Posted October 3, 2013 at 9:08 pm | Permalink
19. Malcolm says

    Well, there you are, then. Either party could end this in a moment, but both believe they have God and Right and Justice on their side, and both are prepared to drag this thing out until the other guys yield, the nation be damned. No compromise anywhere in sight (at least not on the central issue, that is; the Republicans will cheerily fund the rest of the government, and have already passed bills to do so).

    It’s like the story of Solomon and the baby, minus the real mother.

    Enjoy the shutdown! A foretaste of bitterer things to come, I ween.

    Posted October 3, 2013 at 9:18 pm | Permalink