Senate Reaches Deal to Open Government

Senators Reid and McConnell have brought their parties, at least at the senate level, into agreement range in a bid to reopen the federal government. Speaker Boehner will call the House to vote on a resolution for the end of the shutdown as well.

The House is scheduled to consider the deal at 3 p.m.; the Senate, "after dinner," according to CNN.

The Senate deal would:

• Keep the government open until Jan. 15;
• Increase the debt ceiling through Feb. 7;
• Appoint negotiators to hammer out a long-term budget deal;
• Require income verification for those signing up for Obamacare subsidies.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Republican leader Mitch McConnell announced the agreement on the Senate floor, where it was expected to win swift approval after a main Republican critic of the deal, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, said he would not use procedural moves to delay a vote.

Senator Cruz of Texas has come out against the deal stating that it does not address Obamacare: ""The deal that has been cut provides no relief to millions of Americans who are hurting because of Obamacare. The deal that has been cut provides no relief to the young people coming out of school who cannot find a job because of Obamacare."

Regardless of who is to blame for having kept the government shut down for the past two weeks, the people of the United States are the real losers in all the political wrangling during this beltway showdown. The politicians that have been sent to Washington are not there representing the interests of the people of this country. The bullying, the haranguing, the posturing and posing, have all been for the benefits of the cameras covering the events of the shutdown. Washington keeps itself separated and segregated from the rest of the country by passing laws that they, themselves, do not follow or adhere to.

According to some legends of King Arthur, Camelot fell into sharp decline when there was one set of laws for the kingdom and a different set of laws for the King. Are we, as Camelot, falling into decline as a nation because of the same circumstance? Can a nation exist if there is one set of laws for the governors and another set for the governed? If history is any judge, looking at Rome and the Soviet system, such a system is doomed to failure...

Just a thought

Sic vis pacem parabellum

MT

Updated: Government Denies Death Benefits to Service Members During Shutdown

See update below.

Adding to the list of things not being done by the federal government during the government shutdown, the Pentagon has released a statement that it does not have the "authority" to authorize death benefits for service members killed during this time period.

All of the leaders noted that despite the recall of most civilians, and the resumption of many activities across the Department of Defense, there are critical programs and benefits that remain halted. For example, the department does not currently have the authority to pay death gratuities for the survivors of service members killed in action – typically a cash payment of $100,000 paid within three days of the death of a service member. In addition, emergency funding that supports commanders on the ground and intelligence activities remains unavailable. Service leaders also reported that because of the shutdown, they are curtailing training for later deploying units – an activity that has already been reduced due to sequestration.

Blame who you will for the current governmental shutdown, but for service members to be denied death benefits, for the families of those service members to have stress added upon them unnecessarily, because two groups of people cannot come to terms, compromise with each other, and come to agreements over what amounts to little more than individuals being worried about their legacies over serving the public they were elected to represent, is reprehensible.

It is of little wonder that our founding fathers warned us against political party systems.

To our legislative bodies: fix this mess.

Now.

Sic vis pacem parabellum.

MT

Update: A private charity has stepped up to the plate to do what our government can't/won't do during the shutdown period.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said on Wednesday families of troops who die during the government shutdown will receive a death benefit payment, despite legal restrictions on the Pentagon, thanks to a deal reached with a private charity.

The Blame Game

I have a very serious question to ask. If you didn't know, thanks to the media telling you over and over how the government was shut down, would you feel any repercussions from it personally? It's a serious question, not one that requires any answer to me, personally, but one that you have to answer for yourself. Once you've answered that question for yourself, then you have to decide whether or not to do something about it.

The media is full of blame, the politicians are full of blame, the American people are all taking their sides on who is to blame for this shutdown. The main streamers seem to want to blame the Republicans, shouldering the burden of blame fully on them for responsibility for this latest (I shudder to use the word that has been so overused the past several years) crisis. According to Media Research Center, the main stream media was blaming the pending shutdown on Republicans for two weeks before it even happened. There seems to be a trend to this, we'll discuss that at another time.

Who do we blame, who do we blame, who do we blame and pile heeps of shame? The real answer to this question is no further away than your bathroom mirror.

I'll let that soak in for a moment while posting a picture of a random Kardashian, Rob, who doesn't care about "keeping up" with the rest of the family, to distract you, main stream media style, from the real problems and events of the day:

I'm not here to play the blame game with anyone, I'm not here to play he said/she said. I will point out that the federal debt limit has been raised under el Presidente Obama. I will also say that we, the citizenry of the United States, do not do our own research on our candidates, but will instead let the media present our politicians to us like a pig at a luau. We the people do not participate in our government, as responsible citizens, such as were our founding fathers. We participate in keeping up...be it with the Kardashians, Miley Cyrus, or who George Clooney is being seen with this week. Distraction is the game of the day, and until the government shuts down, we don't really pay that much attention, and as a result we do not send the best and brightest to Washington, or even to our state or local governments, to represent US. When we do pay attention, such as in the case of the current shutdown, the main streamers do what they can to hype it up into an evangelical frenzy, only instead of preaching about the Grace and Wrath of God, their subject is how you should be afraid, be VERY afraid, that your nanny state isn't able to watch over you...

Just a thought.

Sic vis pacem parabellum.

Mike Tippitt