Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

Their shamelessness is their super power.

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

In after Baud. Damn.

The revolution will be supervised.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

The National Guard is not Batman.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

If ‘weird’ was the finish line, they ran through the tape and kept running.

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Giving up is unforgivable.

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

You are here: Home / Justice / Racial Justice / This Week In Blackness / Explaining the Government Shutdown to a 3-Year Old

Explaining the Government Shutdown to a 3-Year Old

by | 87 Comments

This post is in: 

You heard that right: Congressman Randy Neugebauer (R-TX), considered by the National Journal to be “the most conservative” member of the House, the guy who once yelled “baby killer!” in a congressional meeting about the Affordable Care Act, wants this park ranger to apologize for shutting down the government. This dude right here wins Asshole of the Day.

Also on today’s #TWiBRadio, we discussed how to explain the government shutdown to a 3-year-old, California actually moves abortion access in the right direction, and sometimes, we just have to accept that we’re too old for this shit.

Subscribe on iTunes | Subscribe On Stitcher | Direct Download | RSS

For a real explanation of the Affordable Care Act from folks actually in the know, check out this interview from this year’s NAACP Leadership 500 conference with the Director of External Affairs in the Office of the Secretary of Health Services Anton Gunn and the NAACP’s Senior Director of Health Programs, Shavon Arline-Bradley.

Or if you’d prefer we broke it into chapters:

Introduction, Enrollment, and the Marketplace

Consumer Costs, Subsidies, and Penalties

Insurance Company Regulation

Share and Spread the Word

Government Shouldn’t Tell Me What To Do

And this morning on #amTWiB, #TheMorningCrew discussed drones falling from the sky, parachuting men, and politicizing the shutdown.

Subscribe on iTunes | Subscribe On Stitcher | Direct Download | RSS

(Cross-posted)

Reader Interactions

87Comments

  13. 13.

    Karla

    I’m glad you’re back! I’ve been swamped with work lately so I haven’t been watching MHP, when when I was and you were a guest, I was interested in what you had to say, and I catch your podcasts when I can.

  16. 16.

    Corner Stone

    Thank God! I thought different-church-lady had effectively shut down your vital voice here!
    Thank goodness the overt racism by her, Martin and geg6 has not permanently shut down your essential contribution.

  19. 19.

    Baud

    Welcome back. I’ve missed This Week in Baud. Can’t wait to hear what I’ve been up to.

    And awesome puppeh!

  21. 21.

    Baud

    Office of VP Biden ‏@VP 42s

    “I’m proud of you,” VP called to tell the Park Ranger who was chastised by a GOP Rep today at the WWII Memorial.

  22. 22.

    gene108

    I’m watching Louis Gohmert on CSPAN talking about why Republicans need to destroy Obamacare now. His points are:

    1. Someone in his district wrote him a letter because BCBS changed his insurance plan to something he didn’t like or maybe it was his employer therefore the claim you get to keep your existing insurance is a lie;

    2. If Obama was serious about extending insurance and nothing more nefarious, the Democrats would’ve just allowed uninsured to buy into the Federal insurance system;

    3. Thus Obamacare is about GRE = Government Runs Everything;

    4. When you go to an exchange and/or talk to your navigator the government will get all your private information and someone in the government once left a laptop lying around, with Social Security numbers on it and therefore your information will get more public attention than Gangam Style got on Youtube;

    5. Obama’s mean to Republicans because he won’t give them what they want;*

    7. FDR was a real President, who made great speeches that reached across the isle like “all we have to fear is fear itself”;

    8. He kind of gets this point: the Republicans didn’t lose control of Congress for 11 years after the 1995 Shutdown, so the current House can feel safe for the foreseeable future for this shutdown

    What was amusing is CSPAN panned to the acting-Speaker and he was asleep.

    The utter and total cognitive dissonance required to be a conservative really continues to amaze me.

    *EDIT: He gives speeches about the shutdown that says Republicans are extortionists, unlike FDR who was a real bipartisan President.

  25. 25.

    Trollhattan

    Welcome back, EJW!

    Your moderate California Republicans–on task!

    With Gov. Jerry Brown days away from deciding the fate of a stack of gun bills, Second Amendment advocates today delivered to the governor’s office about 67,000 signed letters imploring him to veto the 14 prospective laws.
    “California already has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation and these 14 measures are particularly onerous,” said Craig DeLuz, a legislative advocate for the California Association of Federal Firearms Licensees.
    Senate Bill 374 that bans detachable magazines in rifles and Assembly Bill 711 that prohibits the use of lead ammunition are among the measures the gun-rights groups want Brown to stop from becoming law.

    blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2013/10/advocates-urge-gov-jerry-brown-to-veto-gun-bills.html#st…

  26. 26.

    Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader

    You know I wasn’t there because Congressman Nuremberger didn’t get punched in the face.

  29. 29.

    Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader

    Elon, after you disappeared, I was the first to notice and I launched an investigation into your absence. I’m going to go ahead and close the case.

  30. 30.

    ranchandsyrup

    @Trollhattan: It’s kind of quaint that sending an old fashioned letter is the still one of the most effective ways to get an elected official’s attention. Lobbyists and staff agree that email still doesn’t matter that much.

    Hope Gov. Moonbeam ignores those.

  31. 31.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @gene108:

    2. If Obama was serious about extending insurance and nothing more nefarious, the Democrats would’ve just allowed uninsured to buy into the Federal insurance system;

    This is where Gohmert demonstrates his abject ignorance. There are several provisions of the ACA that are not found in the Federal insurance system, all aimed at containing costs, that is, reducing the skimming by health “insurance” companies away from health care and into the pockets of their executives and (sometimes, if they’re lucky) stockholders. Mostly into the parasitical vermin that run these outfits.

  32. 32.

    Cacti

    Like I said earlier, notice how this prick finds a female Park Ranger to scold, then when a man on a bike speaks up for her, the Texas tough guy turns tail like a kicked dog.

    Typical bagger.

    ETA: Mr. super patriot was born in 1949, prime Vietnam era draft age. What a shock that he has no history of military service.

  33. 33.

    geg6

    Cute puppeh! Missed your posting, but I watch you on MHP all the time. As for the park ranger, VP Biden has, as usual, made her feel all better now. I just love that guy!

  34. 34.

    fuckwit

    @ranchandsyrup: Gov Moonbeam acquired a not exactly positive tough-on-crime reputation as Mayor of Oaktown– he was kind of the west coast Bloomberg, in fact.

    I’m not sure if that means he’s going to tell the NRA to go pound sand like Bloomberg does (which would be grand!)… or if he’s going to do whatever the Police Union tells him to do, which is pretty much what he did as Mayor.

  35. 35.

    KG

    @gene108: it’s a lot easier to be a bipartisan when you’re FDR and you win 42 of 48 states, your party holds at least 300 seats in the House of Representatives and as many as 76 seats in the Senate.

  37. 37.

    MikeJ

    @fuckwit:

    or if he’s going to do whatever the Police Union tells him to do, which is pretty much what he did as Mayor.

    The police unions often want exactly the opposite of what the NRA wants.

  38. 38.

    Cacti

    Also too, it must be nice to have job where you get paid $174,000 a year to go screw around in the middle of the day.

  39. 39.

    celticdragonchick

    @ranchandsyrup:

    Maybe, although attempts to ban detachable magazine rifles completely will likely not survive a trip to the SCOTUS, even if magazine limits pass muster.

  40. 40.

    celticdragonchick

    @MikeJ:

    Check out the comments at Policeone.com, which is the largest law enforcement site on the net. The cops there make the NRA look like squishes.

  42. 42.

    NotMax

    You wanna personalize the spelling of Aloysius, that’s your prerogative.

    But in the headline it correctly ought to be 3-year-old, not 3-Year Old.

    Given the latitude accorded headline writing, the extraneous caps would probably pass muster, the missing hyphen never would.

    /pedant

  43. 43.

    fuckwit

    @MikeJ: That’d be nice, and would be logical since they’re perhaps the most in danger of being shot by armed citizens and should be most motivated towards supporting gun safety regulations, but from what I remember, the cops are part of gun culture and often side with the NRA. Counter intutitive, but from what I’ve seen, the cops are eager patrons of gun shops and often enthusiastically support the political agenda of gun dealers, i.e the NRA’s backers.

  44. 44.

    Mnemosyne

    @jeffreyw:

    Can a Kiwi really be a “bro”? An Aussie, sure, but it’s kind of like finding the one Canadian “bro” out there.

    ETA: That’s right, I just said that New Zealand is the Canada of the South Pacific. Can anyone really dispute that?

  47. 47.

    MomSense

    Welcome back, Elon!

    Great post. Going to pour a glass of wine and listen to the discussion of the ACA.

    And what an ass that Neugebauer is. Apparently he was on a Texas radio program yesterday bragging about keeping the government shutdown as long as it takes.

  48. 48.

    fuckwit

    @Cacti: It’s so predictable. Draft dodger, chickenhawk, rich and corrupt Texas Rethug politician, who bullies a female cop whose salary he just cut off, while collecting $174k salary himself plus whatever graft he gets from back home, and wearing massive flag in pocket. Crooked cowardly motherfucker.

    I think it was Zappa who said, if you see someone on the TV, they’re probably lying. If you see someone on the TV with a huge flag behind them, they almost certainly are lying. And stealing too.

  51. 51.

    raven

    @fuckwit: So the fucking asshole is the same age as me, class of 67 but didn’t graduate from college until 72. That shit has deferment all over it.

  54. 54.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Villago Delenda Est:
    I don’t think that’s – okay, I DO think that’s abject ignorance and he doesn’t know the difference. However, the pile of cost controls (that have already proven they work) in the ACA are one of the big reasons the Republicans hate it and it’s not the Heritage plan. If he were smart enough to know the difference, he would lie about it.

  55. 55.

    raven

    @fuckwit: So the fucking asshole is the same age as me, class of 67 but didn’t graduate from college until 72. That shit has deferment all over it.

  57. 57.

    raven

    They now have footage of the cop hauling ass and hitting the barricade.

    eta News dude says they are now saying she had a history of mental issues.

  58. 58.

    NotMax

    Can we drop the “but Congress is still receiving a salary” stuff?

    The 27th amendment makes that argument moot, or at the very least makes any proposed alteration subject to court challenge.

  60. 60.

    mai naem

    Chris Matthews just ran the clip of Rand Paul and McConnell talking on a hot mike. Somehow, I don’t think this is going to help the”independent” “not from D.C.” Rand Paul much. Sounds like Senator Honey BooBoo’s going to be the next GOP Prez nominee. Just think – we can not have not just a Goldman Sachs Treasury Secretary and Fed Chief and Commerce Secretary and SEC chair, now we can have the President’s wife be a Goldman Sach’s employee.

  61. 61.

    Mnemosyne

    @NotMax:

    Can we drop the “but Congress is still receiving a salary” stuff?

    As long as Congressmen making $127,000 a year stop by federal parks to lecture the employees who are currently working for free with no guarantee that they’ll get their back pay (because those selfsame congresscritters refuse to guarantee it) … nope. I see no downside to pointing out that Congress is forcing others to work for free while they continue to draw their salaries.

    ETA: I don’t think anyone’s proposing an immediate alteration. We’re just pointing out how hypocritical it is for congresscritters to lecture employees who are working FOR FREE about doing their jobs while those selfsame congresscritters are still drawing a salary.

  62. 62.

    Amir Khalid

    @MomSense:
    About Neugebauer’s yacht, apparently paid for out of campaign funds. I wonder how (or if) his people persuaded the — FEC, right? — that it was a justifiable campaign expense. I seem to remember that Sarah Palin’s campaign wardrobe in 2008 didn’t count as such.

  63. 63.

    NotMax

    @Mnemosyne

    Have to disagree, as even if there were the political backbone it cannot be done, but won’t press the point too much.

    There’s a plethora of other valid lambasts to be directed at Neugebauer and his ilk.

  64. 64.

    PurpleGirl

    Why should the shutdown be explained to a 3-year old?

    I’m not buying “what about the children”.

    Three-year olds should be playing, running around, being rascals, etc. WTF do they understand of government and/or a shutdown…

  65. 65.

    raven

    HOWELL: Do you think that federal workers, when this ends, are deserving of their back pay or not?

    VARNEY: That is a loaded question isn’t it? You want my opinion? This is President Obama’s shutdown. He is responsible for shutting this thing down; he’s taken an entirely political decision here. No, I don’t think they should get their back pay, frankly, I really don’t. I’m sick and tired of a massive, bloated federal bureaucracy living on our backs, and taking money out of us, a lot more money than most of us earn in the private sector, then getting a furlough, and then getting their money back at the end of it. Sorry, I’m not for that. I want to punish these people. Sorry to say that, but that’s what I want to do.

  66. 66.

    Poopyman

    Welcome back, Elon! And don’t hold back on the doggie pics, either. Mr. Cole seems to have lost his camera and we’ve had to rely on TimF’s (excellent) Max pics.

    @NotMax: No, because it’s simply a fact that they’re still getting paid while willingly shutting off thousands of income streams.

  67. 67.

    MomSense

    @Amir Khalid:

    I don’t remember what the FEC decision was but my recollection of the yacht situation was that it was owned by a Neugebauer family LLC. His campaign wanted to use it for fundraising events. I think the issue was that use of the yacht would constitute a donation and would therefore be subject to the 2,400 max on individual contributions.

    I don’t think he bought the yacht with campaign funds.

  69. 69.

    JPL

    @PurpleGirl: Head Start is going to shut down in GA so there will be time for additional play. Unfortunately, the parents will have to take time off of work and that’s not good.

  73. 73.

    The Other Chuck

    @NotMax: As I’ve mentioned over and over, it’d be nice if Congress weren’t paid during a shutdown, but most of them will just make it up in graft anyway.

  74. 74.

    Applejinx

    I think I understand the way the teahadis think about this. :/

    When a thing is closed because they shut the government down, they are OUTRAGED not because the government/thing is shut down, but because they think that the government can’t legitimately own property or any such thing. Kind of like black people!

    And so therefore you get the righteous teahadi rage over the thing being closed. In their minds, because they killed the government, they should get to go in there and do WHATEVER THEY WANT.

    It’d make a floor wax, a dessert topping, a place for veterans to meet AND a toxic waste dump. They can put agent orange there and make the vets feel at home!

    Cognitive dissonance, thy name is teahadi.

    Seriously though, this is the reason. In their minds the gates should be thrown open and The Public should move in and start strip-mining pronto. Anything else isn’t justice.

  75. 75.

    NotMax

    @raven

    (Politco link)

    The act does not provide additional authority to buy materiel – for example fuel and supplies that are not to support the war in Afghanistan — therefore the shutdown will still create substantial disruption, said spokesman Cmdr. Bill Urban.

    Also unclear was what the shutdown meant for many of the special pays and benefits for active-duty troops. Although Congress’s bill authorized the Pentagon to keep up troops’ basic pay, service leaders said they feared the government shutdown could disrupt at least initially, many of the other payments, bonuses and benefits that make up troops’ income.

    Troops’ base pay represents only part of their total compensation. The rest comes in the form of housing benefits, which will continue, and the special pays and benefits that commanders use to keep troops in the force or entice them to specialize in certain high-need areas. The potential disruption to special pays during the shutdown, as well as a halt to promotions, could amount to thousands of dollars’ difference in a typical service member’s income.
    [snip]
    Another problem is promotions. With no budget for travel, service members can’t fly to a place such as Naval Personnel Command in Millington, Tenn., to sit on a board to screen their junior colleagues for promotion. And with no civilians on duty to process the paperwork or give other support, the promotions might not take effect anyway.

    The travel suspension also prompted the Pentagon to cancel intercollegiate sports at its three service academies, including a sold-out football game scheduled for Saturday between the Air Force Falcons and the Naval Academy Midshipmen in Annapolis, Md. Source

  76. 76.

    Mnemosyne

    @NotMax:

    There’s a plethora of other valid lambasts to be directed at Neugebauer and his ilk.

    I continue to disagree. The fact that Congress has insulated itself from being affected by the shutdown doesn’t excuse them from forcing other people to work without pay. It’s like the CEO who lays off hundreds of workers and then collects a multi-million dollar bonus for doing it. Do we excuse him by saying, Well, it was part of his contract … he couldn’t really refuse the bonus …?

  77. 77.

    NotMax

    @Mnemosyne

    For whatever it may be worth, the amendment was passed by Congress in 1789 and not ratified by the requisite percentage of states until 1992.

  78. 78.

    MomSense

    @Amir Khalid:

    I just had to go look up what the FEC decided and it looks like they let his campaign use the yacht for fundraising. One FEC commissioner dissented.

  79. 79.

    Mnemosyne

    @NotMax:

    I guess I’m just not accepting But the Constitution says we have to get paid! as a valid excuse when everyone else is having to go unpaid. The intent of that amendment was to make sure that Congress couldn’t corruptly grant themselves a raise in the middle of a session to benefit themselves, not to insulate them from their own actions.

    I think the optics are rotten when a Congressman who is continuing to cash his government paycheck lectures a Park Ranger who’s working for free thanks to that Congressman’s actions, no matter what that Congressman says about the Constitution forcing him to take the government’s money. I see no reason for us not to exploit those rotten optics.

  80. 80.

    NotMax

    @Mnemosyne

    Agree that the optics are horrid, but on the other hand there is also no timely method of equalizing the disparity, not even symbolically, while shutdown is a dismal reality.

    But as said, a personal observation, and can readily see how others may relish exploiting the situation in that vein.

  81. 81.

    Mnemosyne

    @NotMax:

    It was a very effective attack here in California when we had troublesome Republicans refusing to let the budget be passed several years in a row, so that’s one of the reasons I’m behind it.

    If Republicans want to try and explain why it is that they’re insulated from the shutdown, let them do the explaining about why it’s fair that they’re getting paid and no one else is.

  82. 82.

    Citizen_X

    @Mnemosyne: I said it before and I’ll say it again:

    when a Congressman who is continuing to cash his government paycheck lectures a Park Ranger who’s working for free thanks to that Congressman’s actions not doing his job.

    Oh, and welcome back Elon!

  85. 85.

    Ruckus

    @NotMax:
    No one is saying congress shouldn’t get paid.
    Everyone is saying that teaholes shouldn’t be able to complain about a shut down that was completely the fault of the teaholes themselves, especially to someone they just fucked over. It isn’t about the law that allows congress to be paid, it is exactly about how childishly fucking stupid the shutdown is.

  86. 86.

    NotMax

    @Ruckus

    No one is saying congress shouldn’t get paid.

    Guess that absolves all the folks on the TV and online over the past few days who have been calling for Congress to not be paid.

  87. 87.

    wasabi gasp

    Neugebauer is so disconnected from any sort of reality that he couldn’t and didn’t even consider the possibility that the park ranger might be a supporter of his tea party position. She was just something to walk on as he high-steps through his own bullshit.

Comments are closed.