Tuesday, October 01, 2013

'House of Turds'

The New York Daily News for the win.


As soon as the markets start dropping, Jamie Dimon will call Boehner and tell him to cut the crap. But I don't expect that to happen before the end of the week.  In the meantime, the cost is harsh for some (and it's not a political one, either).

Federal employees who are considered essential will continue working. Those deemed non-essential -- more than 800,000 -- will be furloughed, unsure when they'll be able to work or get paid again. Most furloughed federal workers are supposed to be out of their offices within four hours of the start of business Tuesday. 
The shutdown could cost the still-struggling U.S. economy about $1 billion a week in pay lost by furloughed federal workers. And that's only the tip of the iceberg.

While many agencies have reserve funds and contingency plans that would give them some short-term leeway, the economic loss would snowball as the shutdown continued.

The total economic impact is likely to be at least 10 times greater than the simple calculation of lost wages of federal workers, said Brian Kessler, economist with Moody's Analytics. His firm estimates that a three- to four-week shutdown would cost the economy about $55 billion.

Eight hundred thousand people is roughly the size of San Francisco (which by itself provides incentive in the TeaBagger mind).  Locally, NASA is all but closed today. But the troops, Medicare and Social Security recipients, and yes, members of the House and Senate still get their paychecks.

And Obamacare is gearing up right on schedule.  It's obviously more popular than Ted Cruz says.

So the next time the Democrats have the House of Representatives and a Republican is in the White House (maybe never again in my lifetime for the latter), let's see the House shut down the government over going to war.  Or rolling back the Bush tax cuts.  Hell, since this is a dream, a tax increase on the wealthiest 1%.

Makes sense in this world turned upside down, doesn't it?

Monday, September 30, 2013

The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance is as eager as everyone else for Thursday's announcement as it brings you this week's roundup.

Off the Kuff is glad to see more people questioning the purpose of Rick Perry's job-stealing trips, which do little more than spend tax dollars promoting Rick Perry.

This week, McBlogger tells the story of a man with no plan, who'll get no pay because he caused a delay. While others worked hard, his head was filled with lard. And then he tried to hide, so now we get to chide.

Somebody is going to have to do some dirty work if Wendy Davis is going to get elected governor, and PDiddie at Brains and Eggs nominates the Castro brothers.

Sophia at Texpatriate got a special sneak peak of (Houston mayoral candidate) Ben Hall's newest television ad.

Ted Cruz doesn't think waiters and maids deserve health care. CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme doesn't think Ted Cruz deserves to represent Texas.

Neil at All People Have Value made more posts at his new blog. All People Have Value is part of Neil's new website, NeilAquino.com.

Lightseeker at Texas Kaos offers another in his continuing investigation of the education wars. Check out Three Telling Articles on The Education Wars. Give it a look; Rick Perry sure will.

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John Coby mocks Ted Cruz as only he can.

Jason Stanford, on the other hand, sees Ted Cruz as a great gift for Texas Democrats.

Concerned Citizens stands up for San Antonio City city council member Diego Bernal, author of their new non-discrimination ordinance and much more.

Texas Redistricting reports that True The Vote wants to get involved in the voter ID litigation.

The TSTA Blog asks what "education reform" means to Greg Abbott.

Better Texas Blog points out the mental health care benefits of the Affordable Care Act.