EVERYONE SHOULD READ THIS! PLEASE READ AND PASS ON SO ALL
WILL BE INFORMED OF WHAT IS GOING ON IN D.C.
CONCERNING THE "SHUT DOWN"!
OCTOBER 4, 2013
Who Shut Down the Government?
Thomas Sowell
10/4/2013 12:01:00 AM - Thomas Sowell
Even when it comes to something as basic,
and apparently as simple and straightforward, as the question of who shut
down the federal government, there are diametrically opposite answers,
depending on whether you talk to Democrats or to Republicans.
There is really nothing complicated about
the facts. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted all the
money required to keep all government activities going -- except for
ObamaCare.
This is not a matter of opinion. You can
check the Congressional Record.
As for the House of Representatives' right
to grant or withhold money, that is not a matter of opinion either. You can
check the Constitution of the United States. All spending bills must
originate in the House of Representatives, which means that Congressmen there
have a right to decide whether or not they want to spend money on a
particular government activity.
Whether ObamaCare is good, bad or
indifferent is a matter of opinion. But it is a matter of fact that members
of the House of Representatives have a right to make spending decisions based
on their opinion.
ObamaCare is indeed "the law of the
land," as its supporters keep saying, and the Supreme Court has upheld
its Constitutionality.
But the whole point of having a division of
powers within the federal government is that each branch can decide
independently what it wants to do or not do, regardless of what the other
branches do, when exercising the powers specifically granted to that branch
by the Constitution.
The hundreds of thousands of government
workers who have been laid off are not idle because the House of
Representatives did not vote enough money to pay their salaries or the other
expenses of their agencies -- unless they are in an agency that would
administer ObamaCare.
Since we cannot read minds, we cannot say
who -- if anybody -- "wants to shut down the government." But we do
know who had the option to keep the government running and chose not to. The
money voted by the House of Representatives covered everything that the
government does, except for ObamaCare.
The Senate chose not to vote to authorize
that money to be spent, because it did not include money for ObamaCare.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says that he wants a "clean" bill
from the House of Representatives, and some in the media keep repeating the
word "clean" like a mantra. But what is unclean about not giving
Harry Reid everything he wants?
If Senator Reid and President Obama refuse
to accept the money required to run the government, because it leaves out the
money they want to run ObamaCare, that is their right. But that is also their
responsibility.
You cannot blame other people for not giving
you everything you want. And it is a fraud to blame them when you refuse to
use the money they did vote, even when it is ample to pay for everything else
in the government.
When Barack Obama keeps claiming that it is
some new outrage for those who control the money to try to change government
policy by granting or withholding money, that is simply a bald-faced lie. You
can check the history of other examples of "legislation by
appropriation" as it used to be called.
Whether legislation by appropriation is a
good idea or a bad idea is a matter of opinion. But whether it is both legal
and not unprecedented is a matter of fact.
Perhaps the biggest of the big lies is that
the government will not be able to pay what it owes on the national debt,
creating a danger of default. Tax money keeps coming into the Treasury during
the shutdown, and it vastly exceeds the interest that has to be paid on the
national debt.
Even if the debt ceiling is not lifted, that
only means that government is not allowed to run up new debt. But that does
not mean that it is unable to pay the interest on existing debt.
None of this is rocket science. But unless
the Republicans get their side of the story out -- and articulation has never
been their strong suit -- the lies will win. More important, the whole
country will lose.
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1 comment:
There is no debt.
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