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Post by Umbra on Oct 1, 2013 22:44:04 GMT -5
So today marks the first day of a federal government shutdown in the U.S., because of the rejection of a bill to fund various federal programs. The repercussions of this can already be observed: 800,000 laid-off federal workers, the closing of national parks, and a hiatus of service in the DSHS, the FDA, and other departments--all of which pose a serious problem for the nation. What are your thoughts on this? Do you think this could have been prevented?
I have thoughts of my own--no, more like suspicions--but I will save the conspiracy theory.
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Post by sukotsuto on Oct 1, 2013 23:48:20 GMT -5
It has to happen sooner or later. The resulting effect would determine whether we really need the federal gov't or not to run our lives. Is there an official list of everything that's affected, and whether this is an instantaneous effect or not?
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Post by Umbra on Oct 1, 2013 23:58:32 GMT -5
This is a live update on the situation from a reliable source: rt.com/usa/government-shutdown-live-update-564/Edit: I forgot to add that I'm all for less federal gov't, but I don't think that change needed to be as sudden as this. Dependency on the gov't should be slowly fazed out, in my opinion, so as to not leave everyone clueless and desperate, like someone who is living with their parents and is, without warrant, kicked out onto the street--a lesson can indeed be learned this way, but it can be done in a less harsh way.
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Post by sukotsuto on Oct 2, 2013 13:34:03 GMT -5
lol My oceanography class got affected. My professor was about to open up a web page from a .gov geology website to show the class on the projector, but it shows a message that the site is currently down along with a link that lists all the other websites that are down. I could have told him that he can probably access an older version of the page via archive.org, but I didn't bother
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Post by Hiro the Half-Elf on Oct 2, 2013 13:35:51 GMT -5
Does anyone know offhand if the DEA is operating right now? I think it would be hi-larious if the war on drugs were still going on while the government's turned off.
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Post by Umbra on Oct 2, 2013 14:23:20 GMT -5
I checked the website for the DEA and it's still up, as is the Department of Justice, too. I think the DOJ would be one of the last executive branch departments to fall, here being America, of course.
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Post by Phone Master Ion on Oct 2, 2013 19:51:12 GMT -5
It's pretty exciting but at the same time it's not like the US is going to fall apart overnight. It's interesting seeing so many people's usually carefully concealed political opinions come out at a time like this. Not that it makes much difference though...
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Post by Umbra on Oct 4, 2013 0:14:02 GMT -5
Yeah, this is quite the time to see one's political affiliation come out, I agree. Well, except for the non-affiliated "I hate politics" people who hate Democrats and Republicans equally. Somehow, I can empathize with those types (but not the blatantly ignorant ones).
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Post by Youngster Joey on Oct 4, 2013 6:08:05 GMT -5
Never fear, Hiro, the DEA stands strong.
I like how 97% of the people in NASA got deemed non-essential. Poor guys.
Honestly, I haven't really got a strong opinion on the matter. That being said, this is an awfully expensive way of making a point.
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Post by Umbra on Oct 4, 2013 16:43:12 GMT -5
I'm glad that financial aid for education was not drastically cut. As much as I like to criticize the federal government, my education has been and will likely continue to be entirely dependent on them paying for it. This is one area that I do not complain about government spending.
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Post by Youngster Joey on Oct 17, 2013 11:09:46 GMT -5
Hm, well, looks like the government's back up at a massive expense to the country.
Not so sure how I feel about the Democrats raising the debt ceiling, though. At some point, you do need to cut back on spending...
While I don't feel that putting the federal government at a standstill was the best idea, I'm inclined to agree with the Republicans that Obamacare isn't the answer. It's sort of like putting a Band-Aid on a gushing wound. If health care is too expensive for most people to afford, simply forcing people to buy insurance and subsidizing the cost for those who can't doesn't actually fix the problem of absurdly expensive health care costs. By forcing people to participate in the current system, it simply allows the costs to continue to go unchecked.
It's not unlike the college debt situation, now that I think about it. By subsidizing college for those who can't afford it, colleges can and do continue to charge exorbitant prices. If no aid was given towards tuition, colleges would be forced to cut costs and provide more affordable services (and yes, this means cutting some services... although this isn't necessarily a bad thing. I mean, give me ONE good reason NYU should have a privately chartered bus shuttling people between a dorm a mere 15 minutes' walking distance away from campus in an extremely safe part of the city with fantastic access to 24/7 public transportation.)
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Post by sukotsuto on Oct 19, 2013 23:38:16 GMT -5
The Obamacare/ACA thing had gotten an overwhelmingly negative feedback from pretty much everyone I know. There's also this thing I hear that the website for it is not only unreliable, but the people who coded the site may have stolen some copyrighted code in creating that website.
As for the shutdown of around 17% (from what I hear) of government services, it didn't really do much down to most people's level. It's probably a lot more far-reaching than it may seem, but the government was shut down a few times before, they probably had a few safeguards in place whenever it happens.
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