Countdown to Shutdown: T minus 11

 

It is only 11 days until the expiration of the current fiscal year. Not one congressional appropriation bill has passed so the Congress must pass legislation authorizing the continuation of our money being spent or non-entitlement spending will more or less stop. The country is on the countdown to shutdown.

Of course, this is serious business being conducted by non-serious politicians. Led by the feckless, finger pointing, name calling President, the hapless lap dog Senate Majority Leader and the cat herding Speaker of the House, a collision course has been set. Conflicting ideas and lack of decent political comity has ensnarled the process.

We can all agree the government must continue its function, although legitimate functions, priorities and funding levels can be debated and differ. After all, that is why elections have consequences.

The immediate and biggest impasse is the funding of the Affordable Care Act; major parts are scheduled to go into effect on October 1. Liberals, in spite of its enormous unpopularity, cost and economic disruption defend the law as a mother bear defends her cubs. Conservatives view the law as the interim step to the annihilation of the private health care system (which it is). The mere mention of the ACA brings a sneer to the lips.

The politics and political leverage are against the “defunding” of the ACA in spite of the premium increases, layoffs, and conversion of full time jobs into part time jobs, all direct consequences of the costs Obamacare is already imposing on private insurance and on employers. 

Even if conservatives would be successful in their effort to defund the program, major parts of the law — Medicaid expansion and Medicare changes — would still go into effect as mandatory spending. The subsidies to buy insurance in the health law are also mandatory spending. Makes me wonder what this is all about as those portions are incredibility expensive and at the heart of government health care expansion.

If one can assume the program is going to continue to be unpopular, encounter embarrassing snafus and disrupt the economy, the irony of all of this is the effort by Republicans to try to stave off the harm of a law the Democrats have inflicted. Maybe that is also part of the strategy. We tried but failed-- so do not blame us.

In any event, the countdown to shutdown is well underway. T-minus 11 and counting.