For the past several days, the government shutdown has been the major topic of conversation on my Facebook newsfeed, in the workroom and in general around school. The reason people are so interested in my life is because among the things that will be suspended will be pay for the military, including the 146,000 service members in Iraq and Afghanistan. The word at lunchtime today was that the military paychecks on the 15th would be only for April 1-8 instead of for the usual two weeks.
But a lot of people aren't really clear what is really happening in the government. The reality is being obscured by a bunch of politics, so it is very hard to decipher what is truth or fiction. After some research, the dispute seems to be over Riders on the federal budget. A rider is a clause appended to a legislative bill to secure a usually distinct object. I think that one of the biggest flaws in our government is that our representatives are allowed to attach riders to bills. The federal budget and every bill eventually passed is full of riders. Some of the riders are related to the main bill, many are not. But no one knows what the riders say (outside of the government at least). A congressman doesn't want to vote no on a crime bill that is important, so he ignores the distasteful riders attached to the bill. Our laws are so full of riders that if we took them all out, we would probably have to spend years to figure out the mess. Entire other bills can be attached as riders to a bill more likely to pass. I wish the Senate shared a House rule that only related amendments to a bill can be added, no riders.
Too much money goes to bill riders that no voter would support if we could vote directly. Too much money goes to bill riders that no congressmen would support if they knew the American people would know what they were really voting for. So as we're counting down the hours before the government shutdown, how much of our national debt, our annual budget has been wasted on ridiculous line riders? I would imagine if someone actually counted, the number would anger and insult us all.
The press is really making a big deal of the military not getting paid, which does infuriate me, but that is exactly why they keep pushing it. Not paying combat troops is a big deal. In fact, if you listen to all the perspectives, both sides are taking turns jabbing at military pay to get attention for their sides. Some of the talking heads on CNN including Anderson Cooper have more than suggested that one or both parties are politicizing the lack of pay for the military to distract the American people from what the real issues are. One of my friends was criticizing the President for saying the troop pay issue was just a distraction, but in the context of all sides of the story, I think was he was saying is that the issue is being used as a distraction, not that funding our troops isn't important to him.
One of the major riders that is being debated is Planned Parenthood. The Democrats say PP is about providing health services for women. The Republicans say PP is about abortion. In fact, Senator Jon Kyl said abortions are well over 90% of what PP does when in fact abortion services account for less than 3% of what PP truly does as verified by an external auditing agency. The true PP statistics are 35% disease prevention, 35% contraception, 16% cancer screening, 10% other women's health services, and 3% abortion with a 1% variance. One abortion is too many, but how many do they prevent by providing information and contraception?
Other major riders -
1. Defunding National Public Radio and Public Broadcasting System
2. Reduce funding to monitor greenhouse gases and to implement health care reform
3. Blocking restrictions on strip mining near streams and non-profit colleges
Another big issue is that congress continues to receive a paycheck even though the military won't. The congress's pay is guaranteed by the Constitution and set so it cannot be adjusted midterm. This was set in place to prevent them from giving themselves raises midterm. I understand the protection against political pressure being brought to bear and preventing corruption, but it feels like a slap in the face to the many middle class and lower class families facing some real financial hardship that the Representatives and Senators making six figures. In fact, Linda Sanchez said she couldn't give up her $174,000 salary due to obligations in her life, but the soldiers making less than a third of her salary usually with spouses, children, households (sometimes two) are expected to do so and have no option. The ridiculousness of the situation is infuriating. There is no justification for withholding military pay over petty disagreements.
I was glad to see that Kay Bailey Hutchison (R) Texas has a stand alone bill to fund the military in the interim if necessary. I hope that it doesn't come to it, but if it does, I hope clear heads prevail and at least make sure that the people protecting our nation aren't distracted from doing THAT job. I don't want my husband's head anywhere but on keeping himself and his men safe. I am SO happy that we took some time to get on board with Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover so that we've been able to watch this from the sidelines without being too concerned. A few years ago, losing half a paycheck would have devastated us. Now it would just be irritating.
Now it looks like they've developed a deal to sign a temporary agreement until they can finalize a written version of the oral agreement. But they are passing a Band-aid budget for this week.
What got me more fired up than the loss of pay, was the assumptions of the D.C. politicos that the American people are so stupid to get distracted by all the smoke of military pay and abortion and the ilk. As I watched a fairly balanced reporting between Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper, I was able to discern that the real issues are pretty complicated, but that many of the Republicans were reluctant to say on camera that abortion was not one of these issues.
I listened to raging debates on Facebook and blogs, but found many people were terribly ill informed, but plenty willing to share their opinions. I often write about my opinions here, but do try to either be informed or issue a disclaimer that I am just ranting. I found out this week that an article I read, sent to me from a close, educated friend, was a scam/urban myth. I didn't research it because I trusted the sender and ended up getting embarrassed. I won't make that mistake again. I can't know everything. I think a lot of what happens in politics is like making sausage - you like the result, but don't wanna know how it got made. I do try to make sure that I at least inform myself somewhat before blogging about a public issue.
I wonder how much of our nation's problems are because in a nation of the widest public education system, we have so many people who choose to ignore information and be actively under informed about what is happening around the world and in our government. In fact, Americans are less informed about world events and national politics than any other first world nation. We came in last! (According to a Newsweek article "How Dumb Are We?" by Andrew Romano) How can we fix our budget, economy, educational system, if we don't care enough to learn what is really going on. If we vote uninformed opinions or straight down party lines, nothing will change for the better.
I do wonder if my family can have a money make-over, why can't our government? I think I've covered enough issues for one blog. I will save solving our multi-trillion dollar debt for another night.
But a lot of people aren't really clear what is really happening in the government. The reality is being obscured by a bunch of politics, so it is very hard to decipher what is truth or fiction. After some research, the dispute seems to be over Riders on the federal budget. A rider is a clause appended to a legislative bill to secure a usually distinct object. I think that one of the biggest flaws in our government is that our representatives are allowed to attach riders to bills. The federal budget and every bill eventually passed is full of riders. Some of the riders are related to the main bill, many are not. But no one knows what the riders say (outside of the government at least). A congressman doesn't want to vote no on a crime bill that is important, so he ignores the distasteful riders attached to the bill. Our laws are so full of riders that if we took them all out, we would probably have to spend years to figure out the mess. Entire other bills can be attached as riders to a bill more likely to pass. I wish the Senate shared a House rule that only related amendments to a bill can be added, no riders.
Too much money goes to bill riders that no voter would support if we could vote directly. Too much money goes to bill riders that no congressmen would support if they knew the American people would know what they were really voting for. So as we're counting down the hours before the government shutdown, how much of our national debt, our annual budget has been wasted on ridiculous line riders? I would imagine if someone actually counted, the number would anger and insult us all.
The press is really making a big deal of the military not getting paid, which does infuriate me, but that is exactly why they keep pushing it. Not paying combat troops is a big deal. In fact, if you listen to all the perspectives, both sides are taking turns jabbing at military pay to get attention for their sides. Some of the talking heads on CNN including Anderson Cooper have more than suggested that one or both parties are politicizing the lack of pay for the military to distract the American people from what the real issues are. One of my friends was criticizing the President for saying the troop pay issue was just a distraction, but in the context of all sides of the story, I think was he was saying is that the issue is being used as a distraction, not that funding our troops isn't important to him.
One of the major riders that is being debated is Planned Parenthood. The Democrats say PP is about providing health services for women. The Republicans say PP is about abortion. In fact, Senator Jon Kyl said abortions are well over 90% of what PP does when in fact abortion services account for less than 3% of what PP truly does as verified by an external auditing agency. The true PP statistics are 35% disease prevention, 35% contraception, 16% cancer screening, 10% other women's health services, and 3% abortion with a 1% variance. One abortion is too many, but how many do they prevent by providing information and contraception?
Other major riders -
1. Defunding National Public Radio and Public Broadcasting System
2. Reduce funding to monitor greenhouse gases and to implement health care reform
3. Blocking restrictions on strip mining near streams and non-profit colleges
Another big issue is that congress continues to receive a paycheck even though the military won't. The congress's pay is guaranteed by the Constitution and set so it cannot be adjusted midterm. This was set in place to prevent them from giving themselves raises midterm. I understand the protection against political pressure being brought to bear and preventing corruption, but it feels like a slap in the face to the many middle class and lower class families facing some real financial hardship that the Representatives and Senators making six figures. In fact, Linda Sanchez said she couldn't give up her $174,000 salary due to obligations in her life, but the soldiers making less than a third of her salary usually with spouses, children, households (sometimes two) are expected to do so and have no option. The ridiculousness of the situation is infuriating. There is no justification for withholding military pay over petty disagreements.
I was glad to see that Kay Bailey Hutchison (R) Texas has a stand alone bill to fund the military in the interim if necessary. I hope that it doesn't come to it, but if it does, I hope clear heads prevail and at least make sure that the people protecting our nation aren't distracted from doing THAT job. I don't want my husband's head anywhere but on keeping himself and his men safe. I am SO happy that we took some time to get on board with Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover so that we've been able to watch this from the sidelines without being too concerned. A few years ago, losing half a paycheck would have devastated us. Now it would just be irritating.
Now it looks like they've developed a deal to sign a temporary agreement until they can finalize a written version of the oral agreement. But they are passing a Band-aid budget for this week.
What got me more fired up than the loss of pay, was the assumptions of the D.C. politicos that the American people are so stupid to get distracted by all the smoke of military pay and abortion and the ilk. As I watched a fairly balanced reporting between Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper, I was able to discern that the real issues are pretty complicated, but that many of the Republicans were reluctant to say on camera that abortion was not one of these issues.
I listened to raging debates on Facebook and blogs, but found many people were terribly ill informed, but plenty willing to share their opinions. I often write about my opinions here, but do try to either be informed or issue a disclaimer that I am just ranting. I found out this week that an article I read, sent to me from a close, educated friend, was a scam/urban myth. I didn't research it because I trusted the sender and ended up getting embarrassed. I won't make that mistake again. I can't know everything. I think a lot of what happens in politics is like making sausage - you like the result, but don't wanna know how it got made. I do try to make sure that I at least inform myself somewhat before blogging about a public issue.
I wonder how much of our nation's problems are because in a nation of the widest public education system, we have so many people who choose to ignore information and be actively under informed about what is happening around the world and in our government. In fact, Americans are less informed about world events and national politics than any other first world nation. We came in last! (According to a Newsweek article "How Dumb Are We?" by Andrew Romano) How can we fix our budget, economy, educational system, if we don't care enough to learn what is really going on. If we vote uninformed opinions or straight down party lines, nothing will change for the better.
I do wonder if my family can have a money make-over, why can't our government? I think I've covered enough issues for one blog. I will save solving our multi-trillion dollar debt for another night.
