tuscl

Off Topic

Clubber
Florida
Thursday, October 3, 2013 7:52 AM
Enter a single letter responses: The government shutdown is the fault of: A) The president B) Congress C) The Republicans D) The democrats The government shutdown has a _______ effect on me: A) Major B) Moderate C) Minimal D) None E) What shutdown?

65 comments

  • crsm27
    •
    11 years ago
    First answer B and A. The reasoning is the elected officials need to get away from the Us vs Them mentality. No matter what party the elected official is apart of they are going against +55% of the nation. Because the rest are third party, other party, or independent. So their decisions if they vote on party lines is only helping 45% and even with that some of that 45% don't agree 100% of what that person is doing. They all need to realize they are governing the whole population not just a partial or the political party they are apart of. They need to make decision that are good for all. Second question: C
  • jackslash
    •
    11 years ago
    C and C
  • Prim0
    •
    11 years ago
    It's everyone's fault because no one is coming up with a good solution to the problem. And if two sides don't compromise, how the hell is anything going to change. So far, I haven't noticed the government shut down.
  • rockstar666
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    11 years ago
    C and B. The GOP should just let Obamacare happen and wait. If it's a failure, they win. If it's a success, America wins. No wonder people don't trust Congress: all they care about is themselves. Shutting down the government only hurts all Americans, and highlights how the GOP has morphed in to the party of obstruction. Frankly I'm tired of it.
  • Alucard
    •
    11 years ago
    The voters are at fault for electing members of Congress who can't/refuse do their jobs as members of Congress. And instead engage in highly partisan shit slinging & promoting their own agendas.
  • Gucci_Mane
    •
    11 years ago
    J
  • SlickSpic
    •
    11 years ago
    E.
  • georgmicrodong
    •
    11 years ago
    First question is E, all of the above plus voters for putting up with their shit. Second question is D.
  • rockstar666
    •
    11 years ago
    @Alucard Actually the people that voted Tea Party candidates in seem quite happy with their congressmen. The gutting of most/all social programs is one of their platforms and they don't think throwing 800,000 people out of work is too small a price a to pay to gut Obamacare. I think they'll even support a default on our debts, which would quickly drive us into depression. When the US Government can no longer get credit, millions of people will end up unemployed. Until the rank and file Republicans stand up to these people, America as we know it is in serious trouble IMO.
  • Dougster
    •
    11 years ago
    C and A
  • rockstar666
    •
    11 years ago
    Both parties working together (albeit in a negative way with the sequester)has cut both spending and the deficit the last 2 years; the first time in decades we've done that for 2 straight years. So as dysfunctional as Congress has become, we see a silver lining to the dysfunction. The only danger to our economy today is not the deficit or even spending, but if America defaults on it's debt. If we don't extend the borrowing limit and stop paying what we owe as a country, the world loses confidence in our currency and credit. We would quickly end up like Greece or Iceland. The irony is we ourselves have 100% control over avoiding this eventuality. I hope we don't blow ourselves up.
  • Dougster
    •
    11 years ago
    If the net outcome of this is that it gives Obama the oppurtinities to completely discredit those faggots in the tea party I say it's worth 300 points on the S&P over the next couple of years.
  • Estafador
    •
    11 years ago
    B & B
  • jester214
    •
    11 years ago
    A&B in the first, C in the second. It really hasn't affected me directly at all. But I have a couple friends and at least one family member who are no paycheck or short paycheck till this end. If it lasts 10 days I expect to get asked for a loan.
  • DandyDan
    •
    11 years ago
    b and c
  • newmark
    •
    11 years ago
    I don't know who is to blame, but I do know who loses.
  • gawker
    •
    11 years ago
    I believe the last time we had a national balanced budget was in the Clinton presidency. During Bush43's years Republicans were pressing for national health insurance but demoncrats blocked proposals. Massachusetts has required health insurance for years and we haven't gone to Hell in a hand basket , IMO. I don't understand why TeaParty candidates don't run as Libertarians and let the Republicans flounder on their own platform.
  • jabthehut
    •
    11 years ago
    A & D If any of us didn't know before, doogie's answers tell us he is a "non-essential" gov't worker. I, on the other hand, am suckling at the gov't teat - SS and Medicare.
  • georgmicrodong
    •
    11 years ago
    @gawker: Um, the Tea Partiers are *not* Libertarian, at least as a group. Some individuals might be closer to that, but many are just ultra-conservative Republicans. Too bad; when the movement started, it had promise.
  • Dougster
    •
    11 years ago
    gawker - the tea party probably doesn't run separate from the republicans because they don't want to split the vote which is getting further and further away from majority. homothehut - wrong it has a major impact on my life because of the market volatility it causes. Good logic, as usual, though, bozo.
  • Ermita_Nights
    •
    11 years ago
    C&D
  • nickifree
    •
    11 years ago
    C (Big time) and B (due to shutdown's stock market downturn).
  • jester214
    •
    11 years ago
    Keep trading that monopoly money Dugly.
  • Dougster
    •
    11 years ago
    Nicki: I thought you went all cash around the beginning of September.
  • Dougster
    •
    11 years ago
    Keep taking those anti-depressants, jestie.
  • jester214
    •
    11 years ago
    Sorry Dugly nobody followed your genius move to go "all cash" 3 weeks ago.
  • mjx01
    •
    11 years ago
    #1 = E, just about everyone involved including many voters. - The tea party is in some ways holding the country hostage by not 'playing fair.' - The rest of the republican party has apparently lost whatever balls they had left in letting the tea party hijack things, even though they really don't have an alternative plan. A lot of blame should be directed at House Speaker Boehner for letting this shit happen because he's so desperate to cling to the power of his speaker-ship. And don't forget Bush and the Republican sank the budget before Obama was elected. - The democrats and Obama are (no pun intended) the tea pot calling the kettle black. They cheated in Senate to get ACA/ObamaCare/PelosiCare through. And now they expect the republican to play nice and play by the rule? Ha ha ha. IMO they opened Pandora's box, and aren't allowed to pretend to be so agast that things have spiraled out of control when they bear a lot of responsibility (not all but a lot) for burning bridges. - Furthermore, exactly what is the 'great uniter' Obama doing to mend fences here? Nota. Zip. He's eager to makes friends with Iran, but all he does is play the blame game with the half of congress that isn't 'his team.' Being the blamer-in-chief is really beneath the office. - 90% of people think congress sucks. But more than half think 'their' individual senator or representative is great. As long as they keep bringing home 'their' piece of the pipe, well to hell with everybody else. Hey fellow Americans is doesn't work that way. If we're all out to cheat the system, the system is going to break. If 'your' senator or representative isn't voting against this shit and publicly condemning this shit, then, wake up folks, they are part of the problem. If 'your' senator or representative is towing the party line, they are part of the problem. - WTF supreme court? Companies have the same right regarding election contributions as actual living breathing human citizen? Essentially anonymous donations aren't a problem? Gerrymandered districts ok? - 16th amendment. Let all take a second to point out that the founding fathers didn't give the federal government the tax powers they have today. Today's bullshit in DC wouldn't be a problem if the 16th amendment directly linked spending and revenue. And until spending and revenue are constitutionally like, the country is fucked. But that isn't going to happen any time soon, if ever. - And lets not forget the media. My word, doesn't this mess help fill air time.Don't all those vilify your opponent ads help drive the profits of media companies? Fox news in so contently the propaganda wing of the Republicans. MSNBC is the propaganda wing of the Democrats, but at least they're more subtle about it. Hell, it's even seems difficult for CNN to give you both sides of an issue. #2 = C. Major collator damage was expect, but so far, it appears to have missed affecting me much, so far. If there is a debt ceiling default I'm toast.
  • dallas702
    •
    11 years ago
    To answer the original questions, D and D. When one party refuses to negotiate, that does not mean the other party is "wrong." Note that only 18% of the Federal government is "shut down." Of more than 3.5 Million people paid salaries by the Federal government, ONLY something less than 800,000 actually received "furlough" notices and some of them are on the job. In spite of the intense press blitz with news readers screaming at us from all over the country about the "disaster" created by not "funding" government and the $30 to $50 million per day this "shut down" is costing us, there is actually little impact on citizens. If you are on vacation, fed parks are closed, and forget about getting a passport, but all the alphabet agencies are still reading your emails and checking on your cell phone usage. The military is being paid. The IRS is still collecting taxes (but not issuing refunds). In truth, even the media claims of "additional cost" for this reduction in government services is wrong. While it is true that many agencies spend more to "prepare" for a shutdown and there are security costs involved in closing offices, if this reduction in service lasts over 6 days, the total cost of federal government will go down until more money is authorized. I am not even sure it is a bad idea to fail to increase the borrowing limit. If the US does NOT increase the "debt ceiling" government will have to reduce services and expenditures. That does not necessarily mean a default on existing debt. The US government collected over $2.5 TRILLION in taxes for FY 2013 (ended 9/30/2013), that is more than any year EVER. In spite of record tax collections the Feds spent and additional $885 Billion. If we spent less on Islamic TV stations, aid to countries that hate us, UN support, food subsidies, DOJ suits against states that arrest illegal aliens, drug raids and cell phones for welfare receivers maybe, just maybe we could manage to pay our debts and provide appropriate government services.
  • mjx01
    •
    11 years ago
    ^^ constitutionally LINKED (not like) ^^ blatantly not contently and of course, as long as we the people remain divided, then the elite ruling class has a much easier time holding on to power and money
  • Dougster
    •
    11 years ago
    Jestie? You do realize the market is down since then don't you? Not sure what bizarre point you think your making...
  • joker44
    •
    11 years ago
    C= Republicans & B= Moderately Why Republicans? Best explanation found in: "It's Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism" is a 2012 book of political analysis by Thomas E. Mann of the Brookings Institution [liberal], and Norman J. Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute [conservative], published by Basic Books. "The authors analyze the current U.S. Congress, and conclude that the lawmaking body is almost completely ineffectual. Two sources of the problem are given. The first is the serious mismatch between the two major parties, the Democrats and the Republicans which "...have become as vehemently adversarial as parliamentary parties, and a governing system that, unlike a parliamentary democracy, makes it extremely difficult for majorities to act" [2nd] and the Republican Party, described as "...an insurgent outlier -- ideologically extreme; contemptuous of the inherited social and economic policy regime; scornful of compromise; unpersuaded by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition" Republican obstructionism started when Newt Gingrich came to Congress in 1978 and adopted this tactic. It has been abetted by Obama who continued to pursue bipartisanship in 2009 even after the "birther" bullshit and statements by many Republicans stating their goal was to make him fail and limit him to one term. Republican icon Ronald Reagan became a president to be feared as well as admired after he broke the air traffic controllers strike. Instead Obama usually caved to Republican obstruction. Also abetted by mostly weak Democratic leadership in Congress following Obama's failure to become his party's leader in more than name.
  • bang69
    •
    11 years ago
    The Government as a hole is responsiable
  • jester214
    •
    11 years ago
    Yeah two weeks after you moved your imaginary position.
  • Dougster
    •
    11 years ago
    Still not sure what your point is. I was saying long stocks, short treasuries back in dec and jan and didn't waiver from that until mid September. Both did tremendously well. Yeah, I didn't catch the exact top in the former or bottom in the latter, but being off by a week or two is nothing after nine months. You have to weigh return with risk and remember that the perfect is the enemy of the good. I was sitting on over 75% gains for year when I made that post and thought something was up. Didn't get it right to the exact day , but so what we you are up that much? But tell you what, I apparently missed your post calling the exact top. Care to point it out to me, genius?
  • sharkhunter
    •
    11 years ago
    The buck stops at the White House. Obama is to blame. He negotiates with Iran and Syria but only seems to want to pin blame on his opponents at home and offers nothing. If Obama can't make things happen, he justs proves himself to be an ineffective or a dysfunctional president. He has offered blame and many have lapped it up. Now everyone needs to get to work and raise the debt ceiling and do whatever it takes to make a deal or there will be blame for everyone in office and the people might resort to storming Washington DC with everything they have left.
  • sharkhunter
    •
    11 years ago
    Actually I blame everyone. Like I said before this is like a contest between Dumb and Dumber. No one wins and they both look stupid. As far as how it has affected me, personally not a whole lot so far. I have held off buying stocks because I'm wondering if there might be a default on US debt. Been in cash more often than not because of our crisis to crisis dysfunctional government. I have been affected a lot by the change in healthcare. I now pay a whole lot more for health insurance and I'm not better off.
  • Dougster
    •
    11 years ago
    Obama is taking such a hard line here because he wants to deliver a big defeat to the Tea Party. I hope he sticks through until he has done that because those faggots are doing serious harm to country and it will only get worse if he caves into them. Now his dealing with the mid-east is a whole separate matter...
  • Dougster
    •
    11 years ago
    shark: "I have held off buying stocks because I'm wondering if there might be a default on US debt. Been in cash more often than not because of our crisis to crisis dysfunctional government." Don't tell jestie. If you didn't get it right to exact day on each he'll try and crawl straight up your ass about it...
  • jester214
    •
    11 years ago
    The same overarching point I've made for years, you're full of shit. To be more specific: a troll wasting away its days on the internet trying to project itself as everything it isn't.
  • Dougster
    •
    11 years ago
    Hey, look, jestie. Seems me nickifree and shark have all been cautious and mostly in cash lately. Hmmm.... What is up with that? Thought you said no one else besides me was do it? I don't worry, jestie, try and be as mean and nasty as you like. I know you are just hating because you are jealous of the facts that I make much more money than you! :-) Not the first time you've hate on someone more successful than you on here, merely because of that success.
  • txtittyfan
    •
    11 years ago
    Yep, Shorting treasuries sure has been good. Volatility is good. Only pussy traders are afraid of it.
  • Dougster
    •
    11 years ago
    Yes, shorting treasuries has been good this year, txtittyfan. Only problem is you said to short them in 2009 and it has been a disaster if you started then! (Would have got margin calls and not lived to see them drop this year.) I also didn't say the "major" impact on my life was negative. I'm up about $24,000 since the start of the government shutdown. Have you done well this week, tittyfan? :-)
  • Dougster
    •
    11 years ago
    *** SLAM DUNKED THOSE FAGGOTS TITTYFUCK AND THE JESTIE-GIRL ***
  • jester214
    •
    11 years ago
    I don't see where nicki said that at all, though they did predict a September crash which didn't happen. Shark seemed to be implying a long term situation not a sudden one day shift which you apparently didn't maintain. Cautious but up 24K in 3 days? The bullshit always shows through. I said nobody followed yoru shit "position" 3 weeks ago. But we've discussed your lack of reading comprehension before. A jet setter who had to ask a group of strangers on the internet how to carry around 10 grand on vacation? A financial whiz with a high paying job making $24,000 "cautiously" in 3 days but spends hours per week calling people "faggot" and claiming to have "won" on an internet strip club site? Yeah, sounds totally believable.
  • Dougster
    •
    11 years ago
    The position was definitely cautious given the situation jestie. The bet was kind of like a strangle but with the legs in different months, heavily leaning toward betting the market would go down in October and down in November. I was definitely thinking the market would be down this week and if I had only gone with the first half, would have made $40,000 this week, but it would not have been cautious. The second leg cost me some reward, but in exchange for much less risk. Plus it still has until November to come back, so I could very well profit on both legs. Go and lookup "strangle" and "calendar spread" under options strategies jestie and you will learn that, if you get market volality, it is definitely possible to get "decent" returns for very limited risk. As I say, you just hate because I make way more money than you do, and I still call tea partiers "faggots". Just can't stand it can you? Hate, jestie! Hate! I thrive on it, faggot!
  • Dougster
    •
    11 years ago
    *** RE-SLAM DUNKED THAT FAGGOT THE JESTIE-GIRL ***
  • Dougster
    •
    11 years ago
    Corrrection to above "heavily leaning toward betting the market would go down in October and down [meant to say up] in November"
  • SuperDude
    •
    11 years ago
    B & B
  • Clubber
    •
    11 years ago
    Very few followed my rules, but I'll compile the "data" when responses slow to a drip.
  • inno123
    •
    11 years ago
    One thing to bear in mind that the only thing the House Republicans offered in exchange for their demands about the affordable care act was SIX WEEKS of continued funding, barely enough time for them to put together another set of crisis demands. Is that any way to run a country? The House Republicans have become like the ATF that has discovered that if there is some crisis you will give her money. What happens? You get more and more crisis happening closer together until all you are doing is sacrificing your life for her emergencies. And there is only one way to end it. You have to say no, and not give in to anything. So I only blame Obama for being like the PL who let the stripper think that she could get things by creating a crisis. But the House Republicans are the main culprit, the crazy self-obsessed stripper who is willing to manipulate and destroy everything around her to get what she wants. And just like the self-obsessed stripped they never will admit that any of it is their doing. It is all everybody else's fault.
  • rockstar666
    •
    11 years ago
    @inno123: I agree. If Obama had had a few ATF's in his life, he'd have been far better equipped to deal with this crisis. Needy strippers actually have educational value!
  • Clubber
    •
    11 years ago
    RESULTS! Not so amazingly, most couldn't follow simple directions, ergo, so few responses. I found this interesting. Some had multiple answers, and of those I only counted the first, as it was likely their most honest answer. The answers for the second question I found even more interesting. 2 to 1 minimal or no impact. Goes to show how important government is in the daily life of most. The government shutdown is the fault of: A) The president 3 B) Congress 4 C) The Republicans 5 D) The democrats 1 The government shutdown has a _______ effect on me: A) Major 0 B) Moderate 5 C) Minimal 4 D) None 6 E) What shutdown? 1 The correct answers are D and D. Double D's are always correct! :)
  • Dougster
    •
    11 years ago
    Hey, jestie-fag, you must think me, shark and nicki were pretty smart to be cautious and move mostly to cash now, huh? Another good couple of days for me since I last posted. Thought I would let you know I modified my position so the bet for upside was rolled back to December now since, at least according to republican rheoteric this might stretch well into December. The bet on October downside is doing very well. How are your investments doing? (Just kidding - as if a 28 y/o janitorial consultant has any!)
  • jester214
    •
    11 years ago
    Thanks for proving my points.
  • Dougster
    •
    11 years ago
    Hey, jestie-girl, quick question for you. I don't get how dumb you are. Were you born with brain damage or did you get it for sniffing too many solvents in your janitorial occupation?
  • Dougster
    •
    11 years ago
    Stay out of the ammonia next time, jestie. Stay out!
  • georgmicrodong
    •
    11 years ago
    @Clubber: "Not so amazingly, most couldn't follow simple directions" Don't blame us for your failure to include all the possible answers. :) The fact of the matter is, there are 445 members of the government in Washington, 446 if you count the Vice President (I don't; he matters even less than the president does wrt the economy). If those 445 wanted things to be different, they would be. Since things are *not* different, it follows that they like things the way they are. It's not the fault of any one group of them, regardless of how you organize those groups. It's *all* of them.
  • Clubber
    •
    11 years ago
    gmd, It was MY survey. I make the rules. If one can't abide by them, then don't bother with it. Quite simple, even for the moronic. :)
  • ime
    •
    11 years ago
    Who is really at fault Piece By Thomas Sowell senior fellow at the Hoover Institute Stanford University originally in print [view link] Even when it comes to something as basic, and apparently as simple and straightforward, as the question of who shut down the federal government, there are diametrically opposite answers, depending on whether you talk to Democrats or to Republicans. There is really nothing complicated about the facts. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted all the money required to keep all government activities going — except for ObamaCare. This is not a matter of opinion. You can check the Congressional Record. As for the House of Representatives’ right to grant or withhold money, that is not a matter of opinion either. You can check the Constitution of the United States. All spending bills must originate in the House of Representatives, which means that Congressmen there have a right to decide whether or not they want to spend money on a particular government activity. Whether ObamaCare is good, bad or indifferent is a matter of opinion. But it is a matter of fact that members of the House of Representatives have a right to make spending decisions based on their opinion. ObamaCare is indeed “the law of the land,” as its supporters keep saying, and the Supreme Court has upheld its Constitutionality. But the whole point of having a division of powers within the federal government is that each branch can decide independently what it wants to do or not do, regardless of what the other branches do, when exercising the powers specifically granted to that branch by the Constitution. The hundreds of thousands of government workers who have been laid off are not idle because the House of Representatives did not vote enough money to pay their salaries or the other expenses of their agencies — unless they are in an agency that would administer ObamaCare. Since we cannot read minds, we cannot say who — if anybody — “wants to shut down the government.” But we do know who had the option to keep the government running and chose not to. The money voted by the House of Representatives covered everything that the government does, except for ObamaCare. The Senate chose not to vote to authorize that money to be spent, because it did not include money for ObamaCare. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says that he wants a “clean” bill from the House of Representatives, and some in the media keep repeating the word “clean” like a mantra. But what is unclean about not giving Harry Reid everything he wants? If Senator Reid and President Obama refuse to accept the money required to run the government, because it leaves out the money they want to run ObamaCare, that is their right. But that is also their responsibility. You cannot blame other people for not giving you everything you want. And it is a fraud to blame them when you refuse to use the money they did vote, even when it is ample to pay for everything else in the government. When Barack Obama keeps claiming that it is some new outrage for those who control the money to try to change government policy by granting or withholding money, that is simply a bald-faced lie. You can check the history of other examples of “legislation by appropriation” as it used to be called. Whether legislation by appropriation is a good idea or a bad idea is a matter of opinion. But whether it is both legal and not unprecedented is a matter of fact. Perhaps the biggest of the big lies is that the government will not be able to pay what it owes on the national debt, creating a danger of default. Tax money keeps coming into the Treasury during the shutdown, and it vastly exceeds the interest that has to be paid on the national debt. Even if the debt ceiling is not lifted, that only means that government is not allowed to run up new debt. But that does not mean that it is unable to pay the interest on existing debt. None of this is rocket science. But unless the Republicans get their side of the story out — and articulation has never been their strong suit — the lies will win. More important, the whole country will lose.
  • Clubber
    •
    11 years ago
    ime, I've been a reader of Thomas Sowell, Walter E. Williams, and now Benjamin Carson. Why are these three successful black men and many other blacks (Clarence Thomas, Condoleezza Rice, Herman Cain, Tim Scott, etc) not held up to the black youth of American as to what they can obtain? Oh sorry, I forgot, not liberal!
  • ime
    •
    11 years ago
    Clubber, I just thought this was one of the best written, most concise articles about the situation. But I think you make a good point.
  • Dougster
    •
    11 years ago
    Quite a day with Reid and Obama even saying "no" to Collins proposal, which was fairly moderate, IMO. This time I have to agree with the tea partiers who say that Obama was just putting on a show all along the last couple of days about "negotiating" to keep the markets up. This has now gotten extremely interesting how it plays out next week. If nothing gives by Monday morning, I think the market will have something to say about it! (Almost as good drama as that Breaking Bad series...)
  • jabthehut
    •
    11 years ago
    gmd, from where did 445 come. There are 537 elected officials in our government - 435 representatives, 100 senators, 1 president, and 1 doofus aka vice presdent.
  • SlickSpic
    •
    11 years ago
    Both Joker & Dallas brought up great points AND REFERENCES.
  • georgmicrodong
    •
    11 years ago
    I mistyped. It should be 545 with the nine Supreme Court Juctices.
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