Now, I am not American and don't really follow the news, but to me it looks like a 'Government shutdown' is averted every few months. Is this normal?
It happens whenever Republicans control one house of Congress and there is a Democrat President. It's an obstruction tactic based on the lie that they care about increasing the national debt. That concern disappears when a Republican is President (Trump increased debt by $7 trillion).
The longest shutdown we’ve ever had started when the GOP controlled the House AND the Senate AND Trump was president.
That's because Republicans are incapable of governing, and can't think of anything new so they repeat things they did in the past regardless of context.
No. The Republicans use it as a cudgel to get the spending cuts and other harmful legislation passed.
It always backfires spectacularly on them. They've lost every election since 2018 because of it and people waking up to the fact they are women hating racists too.
It happens all the time in America, which is not normal and it feels like the government's on its last legs
At this point, it is normal, but definitely shouldn't be. We keep "averting" shutdowns mainly because Republicans don't know how to govern. But also because all congresspersons don't know how to cooperate and get over their petty bullshit.
No, it’s a catastrophic failure on our government’s part. We’ve had government shutdowns before, it was a tactic of our right wing party but now they’ve been passing temporary budgets this past year and it’s just a complete shitshow
Every October we start a "fiscal year" and because we don't plan ahead we do one year at a time.
So October 1st every year a new budget takes effect.
But the House. Senate, and president all need to agree on a single budget, which often includes random shit.
Like, this one bans aid to UNRW till 2025 based on Israeli Intel we know was false and obtained via torture. But it's in this budget.
So unless the same party controlls all three of those parts of our government, they can never agree on a budget, which means constantly passing "interm budgets" so that the government keeps running.
Sometimes those interm budgets aren't enough and leads to partial government shutdowns. In 2019 the Coast Guard went a month without pay checks. So sometimes it's a big deal. Other times people are just forced to take paid leave because it's paid out of a different allocation.
But it makes it even harder for agencies to plan, the more long term you can plan, the better. But these short term continuing resolutions essentially make agencies operate "paycheck to paycheck".
So...
Is this normal?
Unfortunately, yeah. It has been for a while now. But we do get a few years here and there where we easily pass the budget on 10/1.
You'll probably start hearing about the next one coming Sept 1st for the pregame.
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/09/13/congress-has-long-struggled-to-pass-spending-bills-on-time/ seems to have a pretty decent grasp of the history warts mostly included if anyone wants more info.
The current process was established in 1974. Not everyone gets furloughed for every shutdown, and it's worth noting the government is the biggest employer in the country iirc & manages social security benefits, and taxes don't stop while the shutdown happens. Basically it's a huge mess and the '74 law needs serious reform to require Congress to compromise on a budget again as a requirement of their role.
Basically it’s a huge mess
Ridiculously expensive as well.
Sometimes we'll hear about "they'll get paid later, it's fine".
But to push all those payments out ASAP at a moments notice it costs millions in overtime. Just burning money for no reason.
We need to have general budgets for like a decade at a time. Build in adjustments for inflation, but if anything major changes during that decade, just have a process for doing amendments for that shit.
The basic ahit is safe and agencies can be proactive instead of reactive. Hell, require the budget be finalized a year before implementation even.
This shit sucks so bad it's legitimately not hard to think of a better system
Republican antics.
It is the "new normal" yes.
Back in my day, the government wasn't in a constant state of nearly shutting down. Thanks Republicans.
I mean, it's been happening for 30+ years...
The system is flawed but we just keep not fixing it.
Our reprenatastion varies a shit ton for a country that was supposed to be all about representation even though the founders all owned other humans as slaves.
And the wealthiest don't have to spend much to buy one of those politicians who represent a small amount of people with an oversized amount of power. And the people with that oversized power are always going to vote to keep it.
I mean, it's been happening for 30+ years...
Sure, but name one single time where a shutdown was pushed by Democrats.
Why would Republicans stop when it works?
trump shut it down to build a border wall, and the next Dem president now also wants a wall. Either because he's only saying it to try and get votes from Republicans, or he always wanted it but thought it would cost him votes. The only thing that changes is the Overton window's march to the right...
The thing is, republicans keep being able to do it, because they keep getting elected.
They keep getting elected, because when we do vote them out, Democrats still don't fix the system. Which depresses turnout. And with depressed turnout comes republicans in office.
It's a very obvious cycle, and it's pretty easy to break out of it:
Elect Dems willing to take action when they have the numbers.
We can't do that without replacing some incumbents.
The issue is that every time the budget comes through, politicians want to use it as a method to get what they want, more so thsb previously. Some far right Republicans were totally fine with having a shutdown. My understanding is that ppl previously, they all agreed a shut down was bad but couldn't figure out how to resolve the issue. Now, some Republicans think it would be great to have a shut down and to intentionally use that threat as a means to get what they want.
But we still don't fix the system when we control the House, Senate, and presidency...
Believe me, I'm all about complaining about the inheirtant flaws of our system. Ignoring shit never works.
But we've had the political numbers to fix shit a couple times, and our only options to vote for besides Republicans just don't fix it.
That tells me we need a higher standard than "not a Republican".
I 100% know it won't be quick or easy, but that's the absolute worst reason to put something off. If it's going to be hard and take a long time, we need to get fucking started.
I agree with all that you're saying but it seems the steps are where we disagree but my steps are: we need to make the current Democrats the new conservative party. This is what I feel is the most realistic way to move forward. Regardless, I still support pushing for a system that supports multiple parties that would ultimately get more progressive legislation pushed, the way to that point is ultimately to keep ensuring Republicans don't win.
US congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was one of 22 House Democrats who voted against the $1.2tn, six-month spending package. The package includes a ban on direct US funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees, an agency providing key assistance to Gaza, until March 2025.
Biden has already said he will sign the bill “immediately” once it reaches his desk.
Biden doing all he can to throw the fucking election away.
Hed rather have trump in the White House than one less genocide against brown people.
If Trump is as big of threat to America as Biden says (and I agree with Biden there) then the only explanation is Biden has more loyalty to Israel then America. There's no threat to Israel's existence, if they stopped the genocide everything would go back to how it was 10/6.
But if Trump gets elected we might not have another election.
I see you don’t understand how Congress works. You see, in America we don’t have a dictator who can do whatever the fuck he wants. I know things may be different where you’re from.
Does a budget take effect without the president's signature?
I thought I knew, but apparently you're the expert.
Edit:
Here's an example of Biden acting without going through Congress, and it's topical too
President Joe Biden’s administration said in January it was temporarily pausing new funding to United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) after Israel accused 12 of the agency’s 13,000 employees in Gaza of participating in the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas attack.
All three, House, Senate and President, need to agree to the same budget. As Republicans control (on paper) everything but the presidency it's not like Biden has true agency. If he grandstands on the UNRWA funding here the shutdown that would follow would be squarely on Biden. Thousands of American government employees wouldn't be paid and people relying on the federal government for aid and support would be out in the cold.
The fact of the matter is that the average American voter care more about the US doing well and everything working than they do about Palestine in general and the UNRWA funding specifically.
If he grandstands on the UNRWA funding here the shutdown that would follow would be squarely on Biden.
...
You legitimately believe Biden is reluctant?
He literally led the charge and banned the aid himself till it could be passed legislatively...
President Joe Biden's administration said in January it was temporarily pausing new funding to United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) after Israel accused 12 of the agency's 13,000 employees in Gaza of participating in the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas attack.
You're being downvoted here because you set the goalpost as "Biden shouldn't sign this pro-Israel, anti-palestine budget because he'll lose the election" when that is refuted you then move it to "Biden wants to sign this budget, you're dumb if you think he's reluctant". I don't think he's reluctant, but not because he today wants to block aid to UNRWA, because he as a life long career politician knows there's no such thing as a bill you support 100% if you reach 51% that's good enough.
Biden wants to defund UNRWA, that's why he didn't it on his own before Congress did with legislation.
That hurts him with voters with a sense of empathy.
Implying Biden is reluctant to defend UNRWA has zero basis in reality.
And the justification used to defend it is more flawed than what lead to the Iraq war.
Shit has consequences. And it's often complicated, but I'm trying to communicate it as simply as possible.
It's not "moving the goalposts" it's addressing things as they come up because trying to cover everything in perfect detail wouldnt be a social media comment, it would be a serious of books so long no one is ever going to read it.
If different accounts bring up different specificities, they're going to get different explanations. Because there's lots of things that go into shit this complicated.
Well, let's be fair to Biden, Congress was supposed to have already given him the TikTok ban he also said he'd sign right away, and that would have shut up a lot of the people who complain about his support for an ongoing genocide
What?
You think if Biden banned TikTok it would make up for funding a genocide and refusing to help the victims?
Oh no, pretty much nothing they're doing is anything I want out of my government, I'm just saying that I think that their preferred strategy for dealing with critics of their policies would have been to shut down the social media those critics are most likely to use and it's left then a bit out of sorts not having the power to do that handed to them by Congress yet
The most everything country on earth can’t even fund itself.
Real title: Biden defunds UNRWA
Yes, the decision as to whether to fund the while government just boils down to one foreign policy issue.
I believe this bill also gives Israel billions
Thanks for barely doing your job, government!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a $1.2tn budget bill to keep the US government funded through a fiscal year that began six months ago and to avert a partial shutdown, according to a statement released by the White House.
“The bipartisan funding bill I just signed keeps the government open, invests in the American people, and strengthens our economy and national security,” Biden said in the statement.
It came after funding had expired for government agencies, but the White House sent out a notice shortly after the deadline announcing the Office of Management and Budget had ceased shutdown preparations because there was a high degree of confidence that Congress would pass the legislation and the president would sign it on Saturday.
“Because obligations of federal funds are incurred and tracked on a daily basis, agencies will not shut down and may continue their normal operations,” the White House statement said.
Members had to unanimously agree on fast-tracking the bill’s passage, and some Republicans raised objections to the expedited process, insisting on taking up amendments to the proposal.
Senator Rand Paul, a Republican of Kentucky, attacked congressional leaders for releasing the lengthy bill in the early hours of Thursday morning and holding a final vote one day later.
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