kiwiman127
Comfortably Moderate
I really hate to use news resources by any resource viewed as slanted. But I did come across this story by the NYT that I thought might be good for a discussion.
A Federal Budget Crisis Months in the Planning
WASHINGTON Shortly after President Obama started his second term, a loose-knit coalition of conservative activists led by former Attorney General Edwin Meese III gathered in the capital to plot strategy. Their push to repeal Mr. Obamas health care law was going nowhere, and they desperately needed a new plan.
Out of that session, held one morning in a location the members insist on keeping secret, came a little-noticed blueprint to defunding Obamacare, signed by Mr. Meese and leaders of more than three dozen conservative groups.
It articulated a take-no-prisoners legislative strategy that had long percolated in conservative circles: that Republicans could derail the health care overhaul if conservative lawmakers were willing to push fellow Republicans including their cautious leaders into cutting off financing for the entire federal government.
We felt very strongly at the start of this year that the House needed to use the power of the purse, said one coalition member, Michael A. Needham, who runs Heritage Action for America, the political arm of the Heritage Foundation. At least at Heritage Action, we felt very strongly from the start that this was a fight that we were going to pick.
Last week the country witnessed the fallout from that strategy: a standoff that has shuttered much of the federal bureaucracy and unsettled the nation.
To many Americans, the shutdown came out of nowhere. But interviews with a wide array of conservatives show that the confrontation that precipitated the crisis was the outgrowth of a long-running effort to undo the law, the Affordable Care Act, since its passage in 2010 waged by a galaxy of conservative groups with more money, organized tactics and interconnections than is commonly known.
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It's a four page article and here's the link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/u...ths-in-the-planning.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0
One of the results is how the shutdown effects the US economy:
A partial shutdown of the federal government will cost the U.S. at least $300 million a day in lost economic output at the start, according to IHS Inc.
While that is a small fraction of the countrys $15.7 trillion economy, the daily impact of a shutdown is likely to accelerate if it continues as it depresses confidence and spending by businesses and consumers.
Lexington, Massachusetts-based IHS, a global market research firm, estimates that its forecast for 2.2 percent annualized growth in the fourth quarter will be reduced 0.2 percentage point in a weeklong shutdown. A 21-day closing like the one in 1995-96 could cut growth by 0.9 to 1.4 percentage point, according to Guy LeBas, chief fixed income strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott LLC in Philadelphia.
Government spending touches every aspect of the economy, and disruption of spending, more than the direct loss of income, threatens to damage investor and business confidence in ways that can seriously harm economic growth, LeBas said yesterday in an interview.
Shutdown Will Cost U.S. Economy $300 Million a Day, IHS Says - Bloomberg
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So there we have it. The shutdown was certainly anticipated as long as close to a year ago, at least according the NYT article and it's having an adverse effect on the very shaky recovery.
As we know the GOP and Tea Party have felt the brunt of the blame for the shutdown, is that fair?
How long will the shutdown continue?
Who will be willing to negotiate where there is no winner take all? I ask that question because I foresee that end-result to be the only end-result.
How much damage to the economy will the sides be willing to allow?
Questions, questions, questions.
A Federal Budget Crisis Months in the Planning
WASHINGTON Shortly after President Obama started his second term, a loose-knit coalition of conservative activists led by former Attorney General Edwin Meese III gathered in the capital to plot strategy. Their push to repeal Mr. Obamas health care law was going nowhere, and they desperately needed a new plan.
Out of that session, held one morning in a location the members insist on keeping secret, came a little-noticed blueprint to defunding Obamacare, signed by Mr. Meese and leaders of more than three dozen conservative groups.
It articulated a take-no-prisoners legislative strategy that had long percolated in conservative circles: that Republicans could derail the health care overhaul if conservative lawmakers were willing to push fellow Republicans including their cautious leaders into cutting off financing for the entire federal government.
We felt very strongly at the start of this year that the House needed to use the power of the purse, said one coalition member, Michael A. Needham, who runs Heritage Action for America, the political arm of the Heritage Foundation. At least at Heritage Action, we felt very strongly from the start that this was a fight that we were going to pick.
Last week the country witnessed the fallout from that strategy: a standoff that has shuttered much of the federal bureaucracy and unsettled the nation.
To many Americans, the shutdown came out of nowhere. But interviews with a wide array of conservatives show that the confrontation that precipitated the crisis was the outgrowth of a long-running effort to undo the law, the Affordable Care Act, since its passage in 2010 waged by a galaxy of conservative groups with more money, organized tactics and interconnections than is commonly known.
========================================
It's a four page article and here's the link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/u...ths-in-the-planning.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0
One of the results is how the shutdown effects the US economy:
A partial shutdown of the federal government will cost the U.S. at least $300 million a day in lost economic output at the start, according to IHS Inc.
While that is a small fraction of the countrys $15.7 trillion economy, the daily impact of a shutdown is likely to accelerate if it continues as it depresses confidence and spending by businesses and consumers.
Lexington, Massachusetts-based IHS, a global market research firm, estimates that its forecast for 2.2 percent annualized growth in the fourth quarter will be reduced 0.2 percentage point in a weeklong shutdown. A 21-day closing like the one in 1995-96 could cut growth by 0.9 to 1.4 percentage point, according to Guy LeBas, chief fixed income strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott LLC in Philadelphia.
Government spending touches every aspect of the economy, and disruption of spending, more than the direct loss of income, threatens to damage investor and business confidence in ways that can seriously harm economic growth, LeBas said yesterday in an interview.
Shutdown Will Cost U.S. Economy $300 Million a Day, IHS Says - Bloomberg
==========================================
So there we have it. The shutdown was certainly anticipated as long as close to a year ago, at least according the NYT article and it's having an adverse effect on the very shaky recovery.
As we know the GOP and Tea Party have felt the brunt of the blame for the shutdown, is that fair?
How long will the shutdown continue?
Who will be willing to negotiate where there is no winner take all? I ask that question because I foresee that end-result to be the only end-result.
How much damage to the economy will the sides be willing to allow?
Questions, questions, questions.
