More on the shutdown

I’ll start off with a personal note: this bites.
Thousands of workers are out of work at the moment, from contractors to federal employees. That’s thousands of people not getting paid, which is a huge drag on an economy that wasn’t in the best health even before this. And a slumping economy doesn’t benefit anyone, certainly not freelancers. I want a nice healthy economy where people can buy stories or buy the things advertised in the online magazines that might buy stories.
And that’s not to imply I’m worse off than, say, cancer patients who no longer have clinical trials to go to (or even my friends who work for the government). But that’s my personal stake. Or maybe it’s everyone’s personal stake. This is bad (given Obama’s willing to accept big budget cuts as a compromise, even after the dust settles it’ll be bad [as Grover Norquist is gloating]).
Apparently one reason the resistance is so hard is that a large chunk of Repubs really believes this is the first step into socialist tyranny. Dems have used welfare, unemployment insurance and food stamps to build a coalition of dependency and this will add everyone who doesn’t have insurance (here’s a pol from my former home state making the same point).
I’d love to know how this works. After all, a lot of older Repubs collect Social Security and Medicare and don’t feel compelled to vote to protect their income (and while Obama’s not great on protecting the programs, he’s not as bad as Republicans). Building roads hasn’t created a climate of dependency for all the drivers. I suspect it may be the distinction between themselves (white, Christians, conservative Real Americans) and Those People who are vile parasites. And often not white.
One Republican voter has his kids covered by Medicaid by insists, sort of incoherently, that they shouldn’t be (because government shouldn’t do stuff like that). This may be an example of “Well, I earned it” (he mentions that government takes his money so he’s entitled to get some back) or just that he can’t get by without the Medicaid and he’s embarrassed. Quite unembarrassed is this legislator, who feels perfectly entitled to get his paycheck during the shutdown. Another legislator (personally wealthy) says the shutdown is “fun.”
•According to Ted Cruz, the GOP has compromised because it’s not trying to repeal the ACA. Actually it’s tried well over a dozen times; not being able to win is not the same as a compromise. Indiana Rep. Marlin Stutzman asserts they have to keep things shut-down because “we’re not going to be disrespected.” Of course Stutzman is also the guy who insists he can’t refuse to take federal farm subsidies because they’re mandatory.
•Even if the Affordable Care Act survives, it’s not going to reach millions of poor people due to the Supreme Court’s ruling that allows states to refuse federal funding for expanding Medicaid (to cover people who can’t buy insurance even under the best exchange).
•The IRS still collects from tax delinquents but the staffers who help defend taxpayers are off-duty.
•Amusingly, Rep. Darrell Issa still wants the DoJ working on investigating one of the alleged Obama scandals during the shutdown. The judge replied that having caused the shutdown, Issa can hardly complain if things are shut down.
•One libertarian pundit asserts that if Obama were a real leader, he’d just make Congress do it, so it’s all Obama’s fault.
•Rightbloggers, of course, are cheering and hoping the shutdown will bring the evil socialist tyrant to his knees. At the same time they’re outraged by some of what’s shut down, which an LGM blogger suggests shows they don’t understand what government is.
•Roy Edroso offers his view of what’s fueling Repub outrage: they’ve never gotten over that the New Age of Republican Rule that began with Reagan died in 1992 when Clinton got in. I’ve often thought that myself.
•To finish up with, here’s an Arizona Republican who saved $13,000 in premiums via ACA, and got a deductible dropped from $10,000 to $750. He’s not switching parties (take that, culture of dependency) but he’s pleased with it.