VIRGINIA SUFFERS THE MOST FROM THE GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN? WHY?

Posted on October 12, 2013 by Tom Salmon
United States Capitol

United States Capitol (Photo credit: Jack in DC)

According to USA Today (Top 10 states hurt by the government shutdown), if you want to see the greatest suffering caused by the government shutdown, Virginia is the place to go.

1. Virginia

Virginia is considered to be the state most affected by the government shutdown. It has heavy exposure to federal employees and federal contracting dollars. Virginia also has the second most veterans per capita.

(from here)

That sounds awful, and if we are missing a paycheck or a benefit that we think we have earned, then we know our natural reaction. We want both someone to blame and someone to fix our problem, and that person is probably not that person we see every morning in our mirror.

Because the people who run the corporate news media have their own agenda, they write their reports to stoke our anger and our desire to find someone else to blame. Therefore, we get stories like this in The Washington Post.

Much of the focus of the government shutdown’s damage has been on the inconvenience of closed government offices and lands. What’s less remarked upon is how damaging the shutdown of federal lands, especially national parks, has been — a sign of the hidden ways it is changing American life. The recreation economy is large, and shuttering our most popular attractions is causing serious damage to communities and the nation as a whole.

One place this is manifesting itself is in Utah, the home state of Tea Party Senator Mike Lee, one of the architects of the government shutdown strategy. Not long ago I was in Moab a small town (population about 5,000) in eastern Utah that depends on tourism for its lifeblood. There are two national parks nearby, Arches and Canyonlands, as well as a state park and lots of Bureau of Land Management land. (from here)

In such articles, the writer accentuates the harm and tries to “remind” us of the cause. Thus, the story names Tea Party Senator Mike Lee and says:

It’s worth underscoring for the umpteenth time that this is no way run a country.

What the corporate news media carefully avoids is carefully discussing the issues that led to this partial shutdown of government, but the issues are staggering. Consider how one of our fellow citizens, an ordinary blogger, put it.

When people do not respect each other’s God-given rights, government becomes stupid. When compromise is necessary, our primary recourse is to let people run their own lives — letting them make and take responsibility for their own decisions. If what we most care about is ourselves, our family, our friends; then the fact someone on the other side of the city, the county, the state or the country wants to do it differently does not much matter much so long as we are allowed our own choices. (from here)

Has our government become stupid? Are we stepping on each others God-given rights? What is the fight about? Why is Congress refusing to give President Obama his so-called “clean” bills to finance the Federal Government and raise the debt ceiling. Consider just a few editorials from The Washington Times, the  smaller newspaper in Washington D.C.

What has been the focus of the battle over the government shutdown? Obamacare. Why? Here is an excerpt from MOFFIT: The Obamacare ‘myth’ becomes all too real.

The president’s supporters insist this isn’t a “government takeover.” That’s  a “myth,” they say, because private insurance plans and providers will still  exist.

Sure, they will. As long as they do as they are told. Virtually all key  health care decisions will be made by government officials. Not you. Not your  employer. Not your insurance company.

Beginning on Jan. 1, government officials will require you to buy a federally  approved health plan or pay federal fines or tax penalties. They will define and  redefine, at their pleasure, the content of your health benefits package,  meaning the medical treatments and procedures you must have; the kind and level  of preventive health care services you must have; the level of coverage that you  must have; the level of cost sharing, deductibles and co-payments that are  acceptable — to them, not you.

However, Obamacare is not the only issue. As our government’s deficit nears the full height of our nation’s current debt ceiling, that milestone reminds us of another problem. Consider this excerpt from YOUNG: How extreme overspending became the new norm.

Make no mistake: the last four years’ dismal deficit-spending record is  unlike anything seen since World War II’s aftermath.

Using Congressional Budget Office  figures compiled over the past 40 years, fiscal years 2009 through 2012 saw  federal spending average 23.3 percent of U.S. gross domestic product (GDP). This  average is higher than any single year in the previous 40 years. Only 1983’s  spending comes within a half-percent of it, and that was because of our Cold War  military buildup that ultimately destroyed the Soviet Union.

The past four years’ federal deficits are similar. Over this period, the  deficit has averaged 8.4 percent of GDP. Again, that average is higher than any  single previous year’s over the past 40; only 1983’s deficit comes within 2.5  percent of it. (from here)

When we are transforming our healthcare system from a system that serves us to a system that servers our leaders, why should we be surprised that people resist? When our leaders insist upon piling heaps of debt on both us and our children why should we be surprised when people resist?

If you are not resisting, why not? What are you waiting for? Please write your congressman. Please remind him of the solution for fixing stupid government.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. –That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to  effect their Safety and Happiness. (from here)

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