Because they said it's contingent on there being money in the Treasury. And calling it a "huge percentage of discretionary spending" is BS semantics. Military salaries are ~$160B a year out of a $3.8T budget, which is about 3% of the budget.
They withheld taxes from my last paycheck. Certainly, the IRS is collecting money, so there is money in the treasury. Or cash flow, at least. And the statement was huge pct. of DISCRETIONARY spending. The rest of the spending occurs because they are implemented as trust funds.
Well, Denny, here may be the first people it hits. So, to bring it a bit closer to home, if the rocket attacks we've been having get lucky and take me out tonight, my wife doesn't get our contractually-guaranteed death benefit, won't be able travel to Dover to meet my body, can't bring my mom and dad to wherever the funeral is: which wouldn't be a big deal, because we won't have cash to pay for a funeral because paychecks stop immediately (even though Death Benefit and life insurance won't get paid until money is appropriated). Meanwhile, the President's golf course at Camp David is open, Congress is getting paid, we can hire security to block WWII Memorial, but Marines getting blown up 7000 miles away can't get their contractually-guaranteed decent burial.
Brian, Sorry to hear it. It seems the administration is using you guys as pawns to make some point. As to "real jobs," I refer to the kind of make work jobs government has been about since the 3-letter programs in the FDR era. WPA and all that. My experiences in dealing with government workers has been pretty consistent over the years: In line to get a building permit, there are 4 windows, 1 is open, a long line of people waiting to apply. There are 5 workers clearly visible behind the counter chit chatting away or playing cards. Literally playing cards. So my view is either open the other windows and work, or get a real job. Fair enough? To boot, I finally got to the front of the line and a building inspector came to the window and acted like a complete jerk. Everyone in line commented about it. In a real job, he'd have been fired. I had similar experiences dealing with the federal government and city government since the 1970s. http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/article/20131003/NEWS05/310030032/House-passes-shutdown-exemption-VA The government shutdown exemption for the Veterans’ Affairs Department passed Thursday by the House of Representative does not resolve all of VA’s potential problems. Approved by a 259-157 vote, the measure comes in response to a warning from VA that it could run out money to pay veterans benefits by late October if a government shutdown continues. Not only are Nov. 1 payments at risk, but VA officials said claims processing could also slow. The House measure, HJ Res 72, would provide funds for disability compensation, survivors’ benefits and monthly GI Bill checks.
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/10/shutdown-salmonella/ under staffed FDA and CDC so we don't know what is causing a salmonella scare starting up on the west coast. So just cook all of the food you eat. That means you, bean sprouts!
From your own link: "It is the second time this year that the firm at the center of this alert, Foster Farms, has been linked to a nationwide Salmonella outbreak. In July, according to the CDC, 134 people in 13 states were made ill by chicken linked to two Foster Farms slaughterhouses." So government isn't stopping these outbreaks in the first place. Where's the actual value add?
Starting to hear a little rumbling going on . . . friend is changing his travel plans because getting a passport is a much longer process and he can't get any definite answers. Business trip so he doesn't care too much (business does) . . . maybe not really an impact but enough of a situation he called and bitch to me about it.
Awesome. So all we need is to open the passport office and fund the military. Anything else? Seems like all that can be done for way less than we're spending now.
I notice not a single one, like I wrote in the first post. And? Edit: ok, I do notice one thing. They talk about it on TV.
