Word on the street is that there may be an agreement in Congress to keep the government from shutting down. As a Department of Defense employee, I must confess to having a direct interest in this battle. I am a little more than an hour away from being laid off ("furloughed" in government speak). I spent all today getting my subordinates ready for being furloughed, for, you see, very few of us are considered "essential" to government service despite what the media says about people in the military being exempt.
Well, yes, the active duty military are exempt in the sense that they are required to remain on duty without pay. I get the 'privilege' of being temporarily fired without pay--which means that I can't even volunteer my time back to the military to continue taking care of my brothers and sisters in arms.
So if we have to go through all of this ass pain, is it too much to ask that it be worth something? The rumor is that the Republicans have agreed to a cut of $38 Billion or so. Consider that our government is accruing deficits of $50 Billion a week (hat tip: Ace of Spades), $38 Billion is less than a week's worth of deficit spending and mere pissing in the wind. This year's non-budget budget of $3.6 Trillion dollars is about $1.6 Trillion worth of deficit spending that we have to borrow to spend.
I am very disappointed that the Republicans didn't start at $360 Billion as a starting point. Ten percent of the deficit is a small starting point, but would have made a statement. And it would have made the hours and hours of time we wasted getting ready for this feel like it was worth it. Instead, our elected representatives are at loggerheads over a mere $21 Billion worth of spending. At least the lizards are talking about cutting spending now, and are just haggling over the amount (just like the whores some of them are). And it's not like the Democrats were in charge last year when it was time to pass a budget for this fiscal year... oh wait, they were. They give assclowns a bad name.
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