The Shutdown Diary, Valentine Edition: Postscript

Well, color me surprised.  They did it.

The government technically shut down for several hours this morning, while Ron Paul continued his one man crusade against increased spending (in the face of his vote to reduce revenues by way of sweeping tax cuts late last year).  While we slept, the Senate finally passed the budget, which funds certain programs for two years or more, and funds the government for another six weeks while they hammer together a real budget.  (So, you know, stay tuned in late March, right?)

Around 5:30 a.m. Central, the House also passed the bill, sending it to the President to sign.

Here's a link to the highlights of what the new spending bill does.  There are a lot of good things in the bill, though left-leaners don't like that it fails to address the dreamers and DACA (which issue does require attention) and right-leaners don't like the departure from fiscal austerity that they favor (and I also sympathize with their aversion to deficit-making spending).

So the Valentine shutdown was over before it began.  I'm frankly glad of it.  But the starting and stopping that comes from short term budgets and the now-regular run up to the brink of a shutdown (and, now twice, with a brief shutdown to follow) has got to stop.  This is no way to run a government.  Congress can do better.  And I encourage them to do better before March 23rd, when government funding is set to run out again.  Let's not put it to the last minute yet again.  (And by "let's," I mean, "you guys," because I am at your relative mercy . . . .)

Happy early Valentine's Day, folks.  See you after St. Patrick's Day, maybe . . . .

(Oh, and what did I DO today in light of the non-shutdown?  Went to work.  Went to the ophthalmologist. Went to lunch.  Went home for a nap to sleep off the eye dilation.)

Shutdown Diary, the Valentine Edition: Preface

Disclaimer:  The thoughts and feelings expressed in this post are solely the author's and do not represent the official position of any government agency.

Oh for fuck's sake.

Honestly.

It's 8:50 p.m. Central time.  I just checked CSPAN2:  It was showing a Ron Paul speech from earlier today in the lower lefthand corner and a view of an empty Senate chamber in the upper right with the legend, "Awaiting Senator to Speak."  Some random Senator, two hours before funding ends, is going to make a speech.

Cool.

So they'll definitely get this new deal voted on in the Senate and then get the House to vote on it AND get the President to sign it into law in the next two hours.  Right?  Sure.

Who could have predicted this two and a half weeks ago, right?, that we'd be doing this again?  Oh wait, I did.  😉

And the stock market is going ape-shit too.  I'm sure the volatility in the market has nothing to do with the volatility in our government.

This is so frustrating.

I refrained from using more profanity just there.  Good girl.  Proud of me.

Hey, Mr. McConnell and Mr. Schumer, who was in charge of getting Ron Paul onboard with your two-year budget deal?  Did that person take a nap?

Never mind, I'm not watching CSPAN2 until 11 p.m. my time this go 'round.  I'm going to grab my puppy and a glass of wine and switch over to watch the Olympics until I get tired.  (And what's all this with the songs with lyrics in figure skating?  Is this new?  I don't like it.  When does curling start?)

See y'all on the flip side.