The new deal... isn't

[neadods]

I'm seeing a lot of celebration on the news that there's a Senate deal that's going to fix the mess this country's in. First of all, it's a no-deal until the House blesses it... not that Boehner's got a lot of alternatives, considering that this is the second time he's tried to grandstand with a Republican alternative at the nth second and gotten cut off at the knees by the Tea Party.

Second and far more importantly, look at what the Senate's proposing. Reopening the Government until mid-January. Raising the debt ceiling until mid-Feb. This isn't fixing anything, it's not even deciding anything - it's just kicking the can down the road a few more months.

Nor, even if this does pass and the Government reopens Friday, do the repercussions in my life magically go away. Government open or not, because I used up all my leave, I'm going to have to take the upcoming federal holiday Veteran's Day as yet another day without pay (see previous post about contractor holidays =/= Government holidays.) And because I'm in the hole for leave *and* not earning any back with every day without pay that I take, I'm probably not going to have anything earned back by ChicagoTARDIS, meaning *that* will be without pay, with all the ramifications of that.

And boy howdy, is that going to impact Christmas. Do you think I'd even consider lavish spending on presents under these conditions, with pay lost and a potential repeat of this nonsense right when the bills come due? No one with brain cells would go on a spending spree.

Comments

[suze2000.livejournal.com]

Even from over here, I was sooo angry that they didn't make a deal - you know find an actual solution. All they did was put it off for a few months so we can go through it all again in Feb. And when I say "we", I mean it, because the US sneezes and the rest of us catch cold. At a time when the recovery from the GFC is still fragile, these IDIOTS are grandstanding and putting it at risk. And I DO NOT understand what they think they can do instead - how the US can just miraculously stop spending money without sending the country into a catastrophic spiral? And just what.the.FUCK is their problem with Obamacare? In what way is Obamacare making people's lives WORSE or infringing on their oh-so-precious liberty? It makes NO SENSE to me. None.

(incidentally, if they want to fund Obamacare, they should just withdraw all their troops from the global hotspots and stop buying massive amounts of weaponry. Plenty of money now. And I have to ask: why is the US expected to be the global police anyway? Why is Australia expected to police our near neighbours? Why can't stable, Middle-Eastern countries such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia enforce a peace in Syria, instead of people expecting the US to do it? Shouldn't Kuwait have learnt its lesson and raised an army after Iraq invaded? Can't they do it? Why the HELL are there still Australian troops in Afghanistan?)

[suze2000.livejournal.com]

Just call me Ranty McRanterson. :D

[suze2000.livejournal.com]

Were you too cowed to comment on my comment, haha?

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Been offline a bit - saw your comment while I was at work and can't reach LJ there.

And yeah - I'm livid that they didn't reach a real decision. It means I have to live like this for another four months. Thanks, Congress.

And just what.the.FUCK is their problem with Obamacare? In what way is Obamacare making people's lives WORSE or infringing on their oh-so-precious liberty?

There's a huge Ayn Randian belief that people who are getting aid don't *deserve* it, and that the Democrats aren't providing it out of principal, but instead because we want to deliberately create a voting block addicted to the aid we give to people too lazy to get things themselves.

As one of our pundits has pointed out, if you tell people about the Affordable Care Act, they love what's in it. But if you ask about Obamacare, it's horrible. It's all knee-jerk thoughtless tribalism.

[suze2000.livejournal.com]

That attitude (that the poor do not deserve medical care) is the same kind of attitude that is creeping in here - where the govt has set the unemployment benefit so low as to be an actual handicap to finding work. And then they said that any mother of children over 8 must also receive only that because they should get out and get a job as well (instead of the seperate, far more generous supporting parent's pension). It's like they want to punish people for being out of work, and it makes me angry. How are they supposed to drag themselves out of poverty if they don't have the tools to do it?

But I'm trying to work out HOW these people deserve to be sick? How their kids deserve to be left with the debts for the (ultimately futile) cancer treatments (or whatever). I don't understand the logic of it.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Logic? What does logic have to do with it? It's all "I've got mine" and fear and hatred of the poor and other.