Threat of gov't shutdown

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/ap_on_re_us/us_spending_showdown

Let me see if I get this straight: the House GOP threatened to shut the gov't down unless the Dems agreed to their draconian spending cuts (keep tax breaks for the rich - because that creates jobs of course, keep the military rolling, but cut aid for the poor and other liberal junk). The Dems compromised on like 90% of their demands last week, but still they didn't budge an inch. Their political posturing and theatrics took the country to the brink, despite a last-minute deal. As of a few hours ago, a shutdown appeared so likely that much of the gov't worked overtime this week to get millions of furlough notices drafted and plans in place to close down or seek alternative funding.

So in these uncertain, stressful times, just think of all the man-hours of lost productivity spent preparing for a looming shutdown that fortunately didn't materialize (not to mention the anxiety and distraction of worrying about it). If this budget battle was supposedly about cutting spending from the get-go, imagine all the millions of dollars wasted by our gov't agencies, because they had no choice but to prepare two action plans depending on what Washington did today.

If the GOP really cares about reducing the deficit, they have a funny way of showing it by engaging in totally unnecessary, reckless behavior that only caused more waste. They could have gotten their spending cuts days ago, without pulling this expensive, shameful poker bluff bitch-move on America, just so they could placate their base that they "worked down to the wire" to de-fund Planned Parenthood and de-claw the EPA. But they don't feel the externalities of their actions, so they don't care. They scared the crap out of millions of Americans who depend on a gov't paycheck or services. But why should we expect them to understand? The median net worth of Congress is over $800K, while overall US median household worth is $96K (that figure is down 23% since 2006, due to the recent recession mostly caused by Washington de-regulation and their Wall Street pals' excesses).

http://www.gobankingrates.com/savings-account/us-family-net-worth-drops-23-percent-during-recession/
http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2009/01/wealthy-freshmen-raise-congres.html