Why did the U.S. government shut down in October 2013?
Disclaimer: I personally support Obamacare. The most direct answer is that the Tea-Party Republicans are to blame. They are the ones who are forcing Boehner to do this government shutdown. The fact of the matter is, the constituents of the Tea-Party Republicans hate Obamacare SO much, that they will vote them out if they DON'T make a move against Obamacare. They will be out of office if they DON'T take a stand against Obamacare. They were voted into office precisely for this reason. They HAVE to do this. But nothing is done in a vacuum. You have to ask yourselves, why does the Tea-Party so strongly control so many districts? Why do they use such vicious tactics?The answer to that question is that Obama is to blame. Obama is ultimately to blame for this government shutdown, because it's exactly the type of politics that Obama played in 2009. There was no Tea-Party in 2009. There were no Tea-Party Republicans. Democrats controlled both the Senate and the House. So what did Obama do? He passed Obamacare without a single Republican vote. He basically wrote the Republicans off. He tried to pass the biggest form of legislation in US Government in 20-30 years via a partisan vote. He didn't care what the Republicans thought. He ignored the minority. He made a lot of Republicans very very angry. So what do they do now? In 2010, a whole bunch of Tea-Party movement people got swept into power precisely to take down Obamacare and to reign in the debt. These people were elected specifically to take down Obama. And that's what they're doing. Obama shoved the law down their throats, so the Republicans are using the same tactics to get back at Obama. The Moderate Republicans might have allied with the Democrats against the Tea-Partiers, but now they won't because Obama burned his bridges with them in 2009. Republicans feel that Obama wanted his name on one of the biggest pieces of legislation in the 20th century for his own legacy. That's why they don't trust Obama. Moderate Republicans trust the Tea-Partiers far more than they trust Obama. So ultimately, both Tea-Party Republicans and Obama are to blame. Obama caused divisive politics by pushing through major legislation in the narrowest vote ever for any major law. Of course they're going to fight back.
Why aren't Americans extremely angry with the 2018 government shutdown? Isn't it just complete hypocrisy when a $17 trillion economy shuts down due to a $5 Billion funding? Also, keeping in mind in FY2017 the federal government spent $3.9 trillion.
The vast majority of Americans wouldn’t even know the government was partially shut down (emphasis added) if they didn’t hear about it on the news. Most of the things we depend on the government to do, it’s still doing. Some government employees will be furloughed for a day or two, and a few paychecks might be delayed for a short period of time (but full pay will be forthcoming despite the delay). Once the shutdown ends, things will go back to normal, government workers get their back bay, the nonessential government functions that were shut down get restored, and the markets shrug it off and go back to waiting to stalking the Fed or obsessing over the next earnings season.As far as the “hypocrisy” part of the question goes, I wonder if the person submitting this question knows what hypocrisy means. If he did, he would know that asking about shutting down an economy over $5 billion in funding is a completely incoherent question. It makes no sense at all. The economy still works. People who aren't employed by the government are going to work, paying taxes, and living their normal lives. People who obsess over the gossip and drama in Washington DC might lose a bit of sleep, but most of us either don’t care because we’re not impacted or don’t care because we know it’s eventually going to get resolved.Why am I going to be angry about something that (1) doesn’t have any impact on my life, (2) will get resolved in a matter of weeks, and (3) will likely have a minimal impact on the country? How is that worthwhile? It’s not. It would be ideal if the adults in the room on all sides could get it together to prevent us even having to deal with this gossip and drama, but it’s not going to matter once February comes around.
Do you agree that Republicans holding the country hostage is a bad approach to governing?
I agree (and it looks like most of us do. For once, I'm in the majority! 8^) ). One of the differences between liberals and conservatives is that liberals want to govern through compromise and consensus while conservatives want to dictate terms from a position of strength. This is why when the Republicans loose the presidency they are totally obsessed with getting it back. They don't care what damage they might do to the nation. They're like the little kid who will take his football and go home if he can't be quarterback. They know that if anything positive is achieved through bipartisan cooperation, The President gets most of the credit. So they have taken bipartisanship off the table. When a Democrat is in the White House, they will filibuster their own bills, rather than for Obama to claim some credit for signing them. They've voted to repeal Obamacare more than 40 times, KNOWING it's not going to happen, partly because it keeps anything else from moving through the House. And this is nothing new. They treated Clinton the same way, and Carter. It's just the way they work.
Conservatives, why did GOP Senators kill the "Bring Jobs Home Act" when it didn't have any pork or earmarks?
When we punish our job creators, they stop creating jobs. If a company sends jobs overseas; it actually creates jobs here. Think about it. If a steel mill shuts down here and then opens up in China - somebody has to man the ship to bring the steel from China. Somebody has to unload the steel at the dock. Somebody has to truck the steel to where it's needed. It doesn't matter where a thing is made; because ancillary jobs are just as important. By forcing our job creators to pay higher taxes to produce things here in America, less Americans get employed (because it costs too much), and those secondary jobs go away. If a steel mill in Cleveland produces steel used in Cleveland, who needs deckhands on the ships, or port workers, or truckers? I know, Capitalism is complicated.