US Federal Government Shutdown

[Lenonis]

So you're all butthurt about other people's life choices? Is that the source of this anger? Just let it go.

I'm sorry. Did a conservative really just say this? REALLY?

Let's talk about butthurt about other people's life choices then.

Like a woman's choice to get an abortion.
Or a man's choice to marry another man.
Or a person's choice to transition to another gender.
Or a person's choice to say happy holidays instead of merry christmas.

I could go on...

[Spectral]

Sure: http://www.slate.com/articles/health...tice_myth.html

I don't see anything there that addresses the costs of defensive medicine and compliance at all, it addresses only the direct costs of suits.

[GreenGoldSharpie]

I'm sorry. Did a conservative really just say this? REALLY?

Let's talk about butthurt about other people's life choices then.

Like a woman's choice to get an abortion.
Or a man's choice to marry another man.
Or a person's choice to transition to another gender.
Or a person's choice to say happy holidays instead of merry christmas.

I could go on...

The damning part is I outlined how I really don't care about their choices, but rather how they're notoriously critical of people who do everything right but who don't meet their sad, little moral standards (like the folks you outlined). Did they really think they could go on criticizing people and not start to get the blowback they're so richly deserving of?

There's a reckoning coming for many of these losers.

[Vanyali]

No, they don’t. We did last time because of what I just showed you. That didn’t pass this time. There are banks like USAA that NAVY Federal Credit Union that will give out intreast free loans if you have an account with them, but otherwise the Military won’t get paid after Feb 1st. Seriously, you can google all of this.

It's Hammerfest.

the only thing you're gonna get out of engaging with him is annoyed as he decides basic facts of reality are false.

[Macaquerie]

The NHS is not enormously expensive. In GDP terms it is around half the cost of the US version, and covers everyone. And in GDP terms, under the government of the last 8 years, it has actually been falling in terms of investment. At a time when the population is ageing. But that is because the government that we have looks at the US version of healthcare, and is jealous of it. Not because it is better for the people that use it, but because it is significantly better at extracting profit from the people that use it.

So I'll take our version, thanks. You can keep the weird situation that ends up with a healthcare system that is by far the most expensive in the world, whilst ranking as nothing better than average in comparison to so many cheaper examples.

Skroe is definitely a bit of an anomaly around these parts. There are definitely things he's quite knowledgeable about and he does a pretty decent job masquerading as a mature adult most of the time, but then every once in a while his inner edgelord comes out and he'll spew the same kind of doctrinaire right-wing garbage you'd hear from any crazy conservative commentator.

Shitty and overpriced healthcare is definitely not some kind of core American value. Americans don't vote for it because we've never really had the choice to vote for it, since the corporate interests that back both parties are decidedly against it and the closest we've come is some cobbled together half-measure that started off as a Republican handout to the insurance sector and ended up as a referendum on whether black people should be allowed to be president.

[Grokresh]

Skroe is definitely a bit of an anomaly around these parts. There are definitely things he's quite knowledgeable about and he does a pretty decent job masquerading as a mature adult most of the time, but then every once in a while his inner edgelord comes out and he'll spew the same kind of doctrinaire right-wing garbage you'd hear from any crazy conservative commentator.

Shitty and overpriced healthcare is definitely not some kind of core American value. Americans don't vote for it because we've never really had the choice to vote for it, since the corporate interests that back both parties are decidedly against it and the closest we've come is some cobbled together half-measure that started off as a Republican handout to the insurance sector and ended up as a referendum on whether black people should be allowed to be president.

This! I don't understand how he kept attacking the NHS as too expensive for them to afford other things when IT COSTS US LESS THEN THE AMERICANS SPEND ON HEALTHCARE per capita LESS, LESS LESS LESS. I don't know how much simpler that can be made. It just doesn't make sense to me how one can sit there arguing something with no basis in reality at all.

[Hammerfest]

No, they don’t.

Yes, they do. You don't know what you're talking about and have instead succumbed to leftist propaganda. The US military gets paid regardless of these so-called "shutdowns."

[GennGreymane]

The Pay Our Military Act wasn’t passed this time; Military won’t get paid. Are you going to keep snipping that part out when you quote me?

You know they wont listen to you Winter.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

Every second a government control by Republicans is closed is a second less damage we will endure. #yourownmedicine

[Hammerfest]

The Pay Our Military Act wasn’t passed this time; Military won’t get paid. Are you going to keep snipping that part out when you quote me?

The military got paid in previous shutdowns prior to the "pay our military act" pony show because they used their carry-forward funds... which the Obama administration disencouraged during the 2013 "shutdown." They didn't need the "pay our military act," it was just a media stunt. During these so-called "shutdowns" the military always gets paid.

[Spectral]

Every second a government control by Republicans is closed is a second less damage we will endure. #yourownmedicine

That's not how this works. The NIH doesn't magically do evil things when Republicans have a slim majority in the Senate. Closing down medical research (and other important government functions) for even a week is a mild disaster.

[FeedsOnDevTears]

The Pay Our Military Act wasn’t passed this time; Military won’t get paid. Are you going to keep snipping that part out when you quote me?

Dems Just Tried to Pay Military Families During #TrumpShutdown. Guess Who Said HELL NO?

McCaskill (D-MO): I don’t want one moment to pass with there being any uncertainty of any soldier anywhere in the world that they will be paid for the valiant work they do on behalf of our national security...I ask for immediate consent.

McConnell (R-Turtle): I object.

[Vanyali]

That's not how this works. The NIH doesn't magically do evil things when Republicans have a slim majority in the Senate. Closing down medical research (and other important government functions) for even a week is a mild disaster.

Medicine is considered essential personnel and continues to get paid. Or they're paid up-front in a yearly budget, which goes through before January.

[Ghostpanther]

At this point, the GOP should go the nuclear option. Because of the constant obstructiveness of the Democrats, it may be the only way they can get a long term spending bill passed. I know, it may bite them in the ass after the mid terms. But I would take the risks.

[Spectral]

Medicine is considered essential personnel and continues to get paid. Or they're paid up-front in a yearly budget, which goes through before January.

Research is emphatically not considered essential. I worked for a government agency that does biomedical research during the last shutdown and I was literally banned from coming to the NIH campus. If I wanted to do my work for free, I would have been turned away by security.

The essential personnel are basically the bare minimum to make sure that research animals and patients don't die from lack of care.

[GreenGoldSharpie]

At this point, the GOP should go the nuclear option. Because of the constant obstructiveness of the Democrats, it may be the only way they can get a long term spending bill passed. I know, it may bite them in the ass after the mid terms. But I would take the risks.

Go for it. When we're back in power we'll have all kinds of fun with the precedent you guys are setting.

[Vanyali]

Research is emphatically not considered essential. I worked for a government agency that does biomedical research during the last shutdown and I was literally banned from coming to the NIH campus. If I wanted to do my work for free, I would have been turned away by security.

Ah, research gets sniped. Makes sense. I know the rest of medicine isn't, because even telehealth (yes, that's a thing, and yes that's a nurse telecommuting healthcare and getting paid RN wages) is considered essential.

[Spectral]

Ah, research gets sniped. Makes sense. I know the rest of medicine isn't, because even telehealth (yes, that's a thing, and yes that's a nurse telecommuting healthcare and getting paid RN wages) is considered essential.

Yeah, I added this sentence a moment too late:

The essential personnel are basically the bare minimum to make sure that research animals and patients don't die from lack of care.

So, yeah, I don't mean to be melodramatic - a shutdown isn't going to lead to patients literally dying. It does shutdown research though, which is actually immensely costly because it means terminating in progress experiments and throwing off timelines for others that are being set up. The three week shutdown last time actually cost me more like 2 months of work.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

That's not how this works. The NIH doesn't magically do evil things when Republicans have a slim majority in the Senate. Closing down medical research (and other important government functions) for even a week is a mild disaster.

#Trumpshutdown

Get to the table instead of pointing fingers. Then we can talk.

[Lenonis]

At this point, the GOP should go the nuclear option.

Keep dreaming. The leaders in the GOP see the writing on the wall in 2018 and 2020 and they won't give away their only level of power when they are the minority. But by all means, keep it up. Teeing up the justification for the Dems to go nuclear when they are in power is fine by me. You are really destroying any legitimacy to go back to being an obstructionist party after 2020.