Two Things That Everyone Needs To Know About the Government Shutdown

Admit it, you don’t really know what’s going on and you want to. Read the below few paragraphs and you will know more about the current situation than 90% of your friends.

The reason that the government is currently shutdown is because Congress has not passed a Continuing Resolution to allocate government funds and so portions of the government can’t be run because money isn’t being assigned to them to spend. The only thing required to avoid a government shutdown is to pass a Continuing Resolution free of any extraneous legislation (this is being called a “clean CR”).

So, why hasn’t a bill containing such a resolution occurred? Well, such a bill would have to come from the House Appropriations Committee and this committee has a Republican majority led by longtime Kentucky Republican, Hal Rogers. In order for a clean CR to even appear before the House of Representatives for a vote it has to make it out of this committee. So, on to the two things.

1. If a clean CR were to make it out of committee and be voted for on the floor of the House then it would pass and the Government would reopen.  All House Democrats would vote for it and enough moderate Republicans would vote on it so that it would move on to the Senate where it’s already passed multiple times. It would then be signed by the President and this nonsense would be over.
2. John Boehner has not even allowed the Appropriations Committee to push a clean CR out for a vote. Hal Rogers is many things but he has never been a tea party Republican. However, the threat of Repubicans losing their seats to tea party candidates is an all consuming fear. Ultimately, the power on this decision lies with Boehner. If he were to tell the Appropriations Committee to bring a clean CR to the floor then they would and it would pass. But, the tea party would crucify them for it.

So, be clear when people say things to you about “everybody’s fault” and “they’re all bastards.” No, they’re not, I mean not on this they aren’t. This is absolutely a function of the House GOP preventing democracy from functioning, preventing the people’s will from being voiced and exerted via our elected representatives and nothing, absolutely nothing more.