Countdown to Shutdown; No Urgency Today T minus 8

 

There is no sense of urgency in Washington. The government will have to partially shut down in a week if the Congress does not pass a funding resolution. Plenty of time, right? The house has passed its version, just not the one the Senate Democrats want. Seems to be a bit of dispute over money to fund part of the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

Wait! The government will shut down? Wow, that seems urgent. Well, the Senate is not in session today and by the way, it will not be in session tomorrow either. The President is out of town, of course, meeting with someone or giving a fund raising speech or just generally bashing his opposition.

Move along people, there is nothing to see here. This one has already been decided, except some just have not heard. The results are waiting to be announced.

Eventually the precious government will be funded. The ACA will go into effect as scheduled.

It may be the political gamesmanship will stop the government for a few days. Each side can blame the other, with the conservatives taking a beating from most of the media. Maybe rightly so, as they lost the ACA debate long ago. 

What will have been accomplished? In a way, both sides will get what they want. Liberals get their government-mandated health care in tact (except it does not apply to Congress). The liberal base gets to spew venom for a while.  Conservatives will have shown their supporters they stand for what they call principal in a losing effort. Red meat for the masses, get everyone all ginned up.

At the end, nothing will have changed. Things will not change for some time.  Mr. Obama will continue to be what he is-a feckless non-leader determined to expand government no matter what the consequences. The Democrats in the Senate will continue to follow the lead dog where the view is always the same. Congressional Republicans will continue to push back, but not being able to accomplish much and prevent little.

In any event, as I said there is no urgency today in Washington but wait a few days for the fur to fly and the results announced. Faux crisis to come and pass.

T minus 8 and counting