Must listen, telling the truth! GOP is a disgrace.

Fire. All. Republicans.

if Republicans shut down the government over budget reasons, remember that they're the ones who grow the deficit every time they're in charge by giving massive amounts of our taxpayer money to corporations

our country can't survive much longer under republican rule, and will almost certainly crash under another garbage "president" like tRump

the hypocrisy is cartoonishly evil

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/09/22/us-braces-calamitous-costly-government-shutdown-eight-days/

Hey, just a heads up--

A (US) government shutdown is pretty imminent right now. They have until September 30 to pass any sort of budget to keep funding the government, but congress has been unable to come to any decisions or compromises. Typically what happens each year on Sept 30 is Congress will pass a continuing resolution (a temporary budget) to buy a month or two to keep arguing about it. This year, they haven't been able to pass even that. McCarthy has sent the House members home for the weekend already, which means they will have even less time next week to figure something out.

So, what happens during a government shutdown? Some parts of the government--deemed essential--will keep operating. Please be nice to these employees, because they will be working without pay. Fortunately a bill passed in 2019 means they are guaranteed to be paid at the end of the shutdown, but still. Thousands of other federal employees will be furloughed and not allowed to work. For hundreds of thousands of employees, they will struggle to pay bills.

What about everybody else, the public being served? Broadly speaking, tons of grants and projects and research and environmental reviews and loans and services will be halted and delayed. Most significantly though:

SSA will continue to issue retirement and disability checks, as well as Medicaid/Medicare benefits. There might be delays, especially in new signups.

FEMA will continue to offer disaster relief and aid, but may run out of funds if the shutdown continues.

Thousands of low income parents will lose access to Head Start programs and childcare programs.

FDA food safety inspections, as well as other safety inspections (including worker safety), may be delayed

Mail delivery continues, as the US Postal Service is independently funded.

Food stamps, housing vouchers, and college financial aid may lapse if the shutdown lasts beyond October. The longest shutdown in US history was in 2018, for 35 days. This one is probably unlikely to be that long, but if it is, people may lose access to these programs.

WIC will only be able to operate for a few days after the shutdown, leaving millions of pregnant people, infants, and children at risk of going hungry.

Weather forcasting, air traffic control, TSA, etc will continue (though the employees won't be paid)

Hopefully a shutdown will be averted, but it's far more likely this year than other years. If you are in a position to be affected by a lapse in government services, I would recommend keeping up with the news so that it doesn't hit you as a surprise. Ultimately I can make no real predictions for how it will turn out or which things will be affected, but I hope this helps.

Y’all know that the US government is gonna shut down tomorrow, right

Americans are nine days away from experiencing yet another government shutdown. Former President Donald Trump, who led a 35-day shutdown in 2019, is suggesting Republicans should let it happen again.

On Wednesday night, Trump took to his social media site Truth Social to offer advice to Republican lawmakers. If Congress does reach an agreement on funding before September 30, the federal government will shut down — and with that deadline just nine days away, the GOP has yet to find a viable solution to keep the government funded.

Trump, who was responsible for the longest government shutdown in US history, urged Republicans to make the most of the "very important deadline" to keep the government funded.

"Republicans in Congress can and must defund all aspects of Crooked Joe Biden's weaponized Government that refuses to close the Border, and treats half the Country as Enemies of the State," Trump posted on his site. "This is also the last chance to defund these political prosecutions against me and other Patriots. They failed on the debt limit, but they must not fail now. Use the power of the purse and defend the Country!"

With regards to the debt limit, Trump is referring to the concessions Republicans had to make with Democrats in order to raise the limit and ensure the government could continue covering its spending obligations. They did not get the spending cuts they had hoped to achieve within that bill, which is why Trump is urging them to hold the line on government funding.

However, Republicans cannot agree amongst themselves on what those spending cuts should look like. Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday had to pull a vote on a group of conservative lawmakers' continuing resolution that would keep the government funded through October 31 because not enough members of his party supported the legislation.

After failing to corral his party around the conservatives' resolution, McCarthy is reportedly seeking to pass a funding bill that would include deeper spending cuts alongside an immigration package that Democrats are likely to vote against — meaning he would need conservative holdouts to hop on board. If they don't, McCarthy would have to appease some Democratic lawmakers to avoid a government shutdown — and GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz said that could cost McCarthy his title as Speaker.

"If Speaker McCarthy relies on Democrats to pass a continuing resolution, I would call the Capitol moving truck to his office pretty soon because my expectation would be he'd be out of the speaker's office quite promptly," Gaetz told CNN.

These party squabbles are having lawmakers on both sides of the aisle frustrated. "It's yet another reminder that in both houses, a small group of hard-right Republicans are dead set to grind the gears of government to a halt," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said.

A government shutdown would mean thousands of government employees furloughed, which could lead to processing delays for programs Americans rely on like Social Security and SNAP. The clock is ticking to see if Congress can avoid that outcome — and things aren't looking good.

Expelling Rapey McForehead would be a great step toward clearing out the trash poisoning our country. LFG!!!!!

^^^ Since Donald Trump is the de facto Speaker of the House, that table in the cartoon needs a pile of junk food that Trump can throw at the wall when he doesn't get his way.

If you don't do so already, always refer to it as the REPUBLICAN government shutdown. Give credit where it's due!

The impending shutdown is also being called the "Seinfeld shutdown" because it's basically a shutdown about nothing. Actually, it could be considered a shutdown about nihilism because that's what the far right crazies in the House really stand for.

the french government used the article 49.3 (which allows them to bypass the parliament) TEN TIMES to pass the 2023 budget 🙃🙃🙃

but we are a democracy and the country of human rights aren't we?

I'm so stressed. Sick again....the sinus thing is just never-ending. And, it seems like the shutdown may happen, because the stupid Freedom Caucus - aka the Freedom Fuck-us - is railroading McCarthy into doing their bidding - all on behalf of their Lord and Savior Trump.

At work yesterday, we had our "potential shutdown preparation" which was rather tone-deaf. 100% of my office is 'excepted', meaning we work without pay until a budget is passed. Lots of questions came up, of course, but the bottom line, we were told is that it's "business as usual" in terms of work. Yeah, there's no "usual" about this, although seeing as this seems to happen almost every fucking year now, I guess it might seem "usual" to some. That pissed me off though. I want to hope this will be resolved soon and the shutdown won't happen, but there have been years when I've gone nearly a month without pay. It's not fair that we are treated as political pawns in this bullshit every year. Meanwhile, you can be damned sure Congress gets THEIR paycheck on time. Why not us peasants who are actually doing the work?

Also we're flooded here and my car is stranded at the top of the driveway. The driveway kind of dips down in the middle - it's kind of like a saucer, lol - and the water was up to my knees yesterday. Good times.