http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24209622

So the political fundamentalists are opposed to Health Reform Bill that helps the most needy in society .......... wtf is wrong with these people !!
They vote for war but reject better health care for US citizens.
Who is actually running the asylum nowadays, the Tea Party or the President?

Republicans - discrediting self-government since 1920.

Somebody explain to Nigee how separation of powers works (or doesn't).

Oh my Jack Lord Bo are you serious ....... book him Draugo !!

But then I realise you're talking about the latest series, not this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQ9xfNn09eQ

Aw ..... brings back great memories of my childhood

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okDSz6UdiZM

Putin is the one on the left who is a bit chipper ....... book 'em Danno !!

Putin33: 1920? Where were you in 1898?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mWtWz_aGyk

ROFLMAO

Niger - There is nothing "better about a system that forces people to buy insurance and then the only options are either to expensive for the poor jp front or have such huge deductibles that the poor can't afford to actually use it.

Nigee - New windows phone didn't know the name yet. Shouldn't happen again.

Obama's executive branch made 15 changes to the ACA. It is an open question if the executive can make arbitrary changes to a piece of legislation. If the Senate was Republican no doubt Congress would have negated the changes.
The latest House proposal funds Obamacare but delays the individual mandate one year.
The Obama administration already arbitrarily delays the employer mandate one year.
The Democrats clearly caused the government shutdown because they demand to be the only party to make any changes whatsoever to the ACA. The Democrats passed the law without one Republican amendment and without one Republican vote and still refuse to let the Republicans make any change to the legislation at all even if it means shutting down the government.

The government's gears are meant to grind, not to be efficient. Checks and balances.

@ NigeeBaby

"Just another shining example of the efficiency and accountability that a healthy democracy brings to managing a government."

*Picard facepalm*

How many times do I have to tell you that America has not, is not, and will never be a democracy? We're a *constitutional* republic, which means the states can do whatever they goddamned want unless the Constitution says otherwise, and the federal government can't do anything unless the Constitution says it's okay.

Gunfighter06, that's a load of shit. The United States is obviously a democracy. We vote for our leaders and have a strong rule of law. We are also a republic, since... well, that's so obvious I don't even know how to explain it. These things are not mutually exclusive and only people wholly ignorant of what words mean can think so.


For what it's worth, I think the shutdown is a debacle. As, incidentally, do most Republicans. Probably a vast majority. But the unreasonable types are too strong and House leadership too weak to prevent this quixotic move to shutdown the government over Obamacare. Silliness.

It's just occurred to me that Niger or Nigers would actually make a rather fun (if a tad posh) sounding nickname if it wasn't for the hundreds of years of unpleasantness associated with it. A damned shame.

As far as the budget goes, it has warmed the heart over the past few days to see both Republicans and Democrats united in their willingness to bugger things up. I didn't know such close cooperation was possible in this day and age.

@ Invictus

As originally intented, the only part of the federal government that was elected democratically was the House of Representatives. We're much closer to a constitutional republic than a representative democracy. Democracy is no different than mob rule, and when you add money to the system, you get plutocracy.

Republicanism is the idea upon which America was designed, and many of our problems (not the least of which are political) are a direct result of drifting away from that. We're supposed to be 50 semi-sovereign laboratories of innovation, not a 300-million-person clusterfuck.

We wouldn't be a 300 million person cluster guck if the Republican Party would act like fucking adults once. Holding the whole damn country hostage to reverse a vote that you lost when you do not have the means to do it is not the fault of the country, it is the fault of the people republicans elected. If there was a mandate against obamacare the republicans would have more than a slim majority in the house. If republicans want to dusmantle it that's what free and fair elections are for.

Don't ring your hands about the state of our country before we do something about the actual obstructionists who are willingly trying to make this country a cluster guck. And the dumbshits like you that vote for them.

Ha cluster guck

Santa says guck not fuck then calls the other side fucking Republicans in the same post. Talk about being two-faced.

I see draugnar hasn't changed. What the "guck" does that even mean?

@draug

What the guck are you going on about?

@ Santa

As I recall, we were a 300 million person clusterfuck before any of this nonsense started, and let's not bullshit; Republicans and Democrats are equally complicit in creating our current predicament. This all started with the New Deal back in the 30s and has been continued by every president and both parties. We need to return the federal government to AT LEAST its 1900 size, preferably smaller.

Did you know that we didn't even have a federal income tax until 1913? That's right, for the first 123 years of our country, Uncle Sam didn't get a dime of your hard-earned income. Guess what? We still had roads, schools, bridges, healthcare, and a stick-swinging-badass military (which won at least 5 major wars by my count)

We were a 300 million person cluster guck ever since the Republican Party became obstructionist ass hats when Obama was elected just like they were obstructionist ass hats when Clinton was in office.

Did democrats refuse to fund the government over the bush tax cuts? No! Did they even torpedo a budget over them? No! Yet every time these children, elected by you, don't get their way, they have to bring the entire fucking country to its knees.

And dipshit, we had a military that ran on coal, roads built for horses schools that serviced only the elite after grammar school and I don't even know where you are getting healthcare. You are a fucking idiot.

"As originally intented, the only part of the federal government that was elected democratically was the House of Representatives."

OK, but that's not the case any more. By constitutional amendment, the Senate is democratically elected and people vote for the electors for president in every state. All state legislatures and governors are democratically elected. Things like sheriff and county board are elected. As I say, to say America isn't a democracy is to not understand the term, and to think that democracy is somehow incompatible with a republic is to grossly misunderstand both terms.

It's really a waste of air to defend the GOP on their actions over this current shutdown. This was quite stupid, as everyone who thinks about it for a minute without ideological blinders on can tell. But a few dozen House Republicans and some pundits outside government have forced this issue. It's ridiculous, especially since it's totally moved the conversation away from Obama's debacle in Syria. The silver lining is that maybe, just maybe, the defeat here will allow the leadership to reassert control over the caucus.

You're smarter than that, Santa. You know just as well as I do that the "D" or "R" next to someone's name just means what they believed once upon a time, before they became corrupted by money and/or power.

"Yet every time these children, elected by you, don't get their way, they have to bring the entire fucking country to its knees."

You *do* realize that they wouldn't be able to hold the debt ceiling hostage if the Democrats weren't running full speed towards it? I will openly admit that Bush-era Republicans started this fire, but Obama Democrats have poured gasoline on it. Besides, nothing will happen because of this little shutdown. I'm just hoping that the federal government is a tenth of its current size within six months.

"And dipshit, we had a military that ran on coal, roads built for horses schools that serviced only the elite after grammar school and I don't even know where you are getting healthcare."

So? The point is that infrastructure is cheap. Armies and navies are cheap (provided that the military-industrial complex doesn't bone the taxpayer and the CINC doesn't send the military all over Creation on bullshit nation-building follies). Schools shouldn't even BE a federal responsibility and neither should healthcare. Take a look at a spending chart sometime. What are we spending money on? Healthcare! Schools! Welfare! The military-industrial complex! Things that the federal government should not be doing in the first place! There's a reason why the federal government (as originally designed) couldn't levy income taxes: Because (as originally designed) they didn't NEED them!

@ Invictus

What leadership? Every suit in Washington is empty!

Institutional leadership. Speaker, Majority Leader, Whip.

No, idiot. MY point is that infrastructure, and government, in the 19th century was cheap. Now it is decidedly not. The modern world does not allow for dirt or crudely paved highways, arch bridges, coal battleships, or one room school houses. Which is what you yes naggers won't understand.

I reiterate: What leadership? No one in Washington has the stones to say "To hell with getting reelected, I'm going to restore this government to its intended size"

Well, you have to have the Senate and the presidency to do so.

Federal spending on schools is less than 2% of the yearly budget, gf. Hardly causing the government to break the bank.