What The ‘Government Shutdown’ REALLY Means [GUEST POST]

Once again public ignorance has become the perfect tool of a villainous political faction. It seems that nearly half of our people have been hoodwinked into the nonsensical belief that both sides of this issue are equally to blame. Half of this problem (of ignorance of law and government) is certainly a failure of our educational system, but the rest arises from the media’s talking heads, spreading the myth, with shouts of “A pox on both your houses”.

And yet, if the vast majority of the public had a proper understanding of the workings of their own government, a monumental fury would instantly descend on the House of Representatives, like a plague. So, lets take a closer look at the true nature of this situation – starting with our Constitution, and its plan for exactly how the laws of this nation would be created.

Our government was structured in three branches – the Legislative that make the laws, the Judicial to interpret the laws, and the Executive to carry out and enforce the laws. Then finally, to have the force of a properly “representative” government, Congress (the Legislative branch) was made up of two separate houses – a Senate, which would offer equal representation for each of the states, regardless of population, and a House of Representatives, to represent the will of the people, no matter how they were distributed among the states. But it would be the people’s representation in the House, that would decide how and when the nation’s resources were to be used – meaning that any law which called for spending money, had to originate in the House. In short, what this means is, that every penny of the Federal debt, and every dollar that this nation spends, has originated as a direct action of the House of Representatives – which is then, and only then, approved by the Senate and signed into law by the President! With this understanding in mind, who then created our Federal debt, the President of the House of Representative?

So – WHAT THE H – – – IS GOING ON HERE?

Following the dictates of our Constitution the “Affordable Health Care Act” had been passed by both houses of Congress, and then signed into law by the President. This is when, a political faction, who disapproved, challenged it’s legality all the way to the Supreme Court. That court then found the law to be wholly Constitutional. If we now follow the pattern of the law-making processes of the past 230 years, as defined by the Constitution, that would have been the end of it – except for a single peculiarity in today’s House of Representative. A peculiarity in the form of a tiny faction of that body who decided to become the “tail that wagged the dog”.

That faction, with the nom de plume “Tea Party” is composed of about 40 members – of a House which is populated by more than 400. But how can a clique of only 10% of the House members, hold and wield power over the entire House? The answer is found in one word – money! Only now can the American people truly begin to understand the fullest implications of the Supreme Court’s decision on Citizen’s United.

When that court concluded that “Corporations are People Too”, and that as such, could pour all the money they wanted to, into political campaigns, they opened the floodgates to “government for sale to the highest bidder”. It was then that the so-called “grass-roots” Tea Party movement found themselves awash in tens of millions of dollars – from such sources as the Koch brothers, along with other billionaires and similar corporate entities. With that level of funding they easily swamped their opponents, and so gained entry to the halls of power – wherein they would voice the will of their paymasters (rather than the American people).

But this new power in American politics has proven to be a force far different from any political movement that came before. Where previously an elected political faction would simply argue their concepts and convictions, hopefully with sufficient force to persuade other lawmakers to their point of view, this new faction would adopt a more direct approach. If persuasion doesn’t work – try a pistol. The fact is, that the new healthcare law has put one helluva crimp in the profits of the private health insurance industry. What’s the solution? Simple. Buy a political faction with instructions to “wreck that law – at any cost”. Empowered with infinite money, supplied by the health insurance industry, along with other billionaires and corporate interests, this “faction” has been able to bullwhip the majority of its party, with the threat to flood the primary elections, and thereby sweep “non-conformists” from power. Then, just to make sure of their own success, they threatened their party’s Speaker of the House, to first take away his Speakership, and then kick him out of office entirely, if he doesn’t follow their leadership – and their leadership alone.

Then finally, after this “tail” had whipped it’s “dog” into obedience – if they couldn’t repeal the healthcare law, (by any known procedure) they’d just render it toothless, by strangling the money needed to allow it to work. But if they tried to write an independent bill to de-fund that law, the Senate would never approve, and worse yet, the President would certainly veto it. But this obstacle to their demands is easily circumvented – just tack it on as a component to the bill that funds ALL OF THE OPERATIONS OF GOVERNMENT (a poison pill). Under this scheme, either the President will quash his own bill – which was the signature achievement of his Presidency – or (as the public is supposed to believe) “be responsible” for shutting down the entire government. In the latter case, the politically-driven House of Representatives can then piously say – “Look what you made me do!!!”

In short, minority rule, by blackmail.

But here’s the real problem, in this scheme. For the sake of the nation, and the preservation of this Republic, the President cannot dare to yield to this tactic. The only reason that today’s dilemma exists, is because the same political faction had pulled this trick before, and unfortunately, the President had caved. He tried to make himself appear “reasonable” by negotiating the Sequester, when that political clique in the House threatened not to raise the debt ceiling. Who would have expected that the taste for blood, yielded to the Tea Party in the past, wouldn’t come back to haunt this nation once more? And does anyone believe that if satisfied this time, they won’t come back with even more egregious demands, again, and again and again? Make no mistake, rule by blackmail means the end of representative government in this country.

When the House of Representatives failed to pass a bill to provide all of the funding needed to operate the government of the United States, that body – and that body alone – closed a strangling cord around the necks of the American people. They’ve left millions of Americans suddenly without an income, millions of children without food, an uncountable number of veterans without critical services, and imposed a litany of other hellish situations upon the American people, whom they were elected to serve – to serve, that is – not to torment and intimidate. By their action alone, the agencies upon which countless Americans depend, some of them for their very lives, have been shut – closed.

And now, as the 17th of October approaches, for their own political agendas – and that of their paymasters – they threaten once more to not raise the Federal debt ceiling. And while doing so, they continue to spread the hellish lie that in so doing, their simply stopping the country from spending any more money. I say “lie” because those members of the House, who’ve created this folly, understand full well, that by not raising the debt ceiling, they are simply telling the President that he can’t pay the debts that the House itself, had already racked up!

And take note as well, that the last time around, simply the threat that Congress wouldn’t raise the debt ceiling, cost this nation its triple-A credit rating, for the first time in our history. Just by opening their mouths, the Tea Party has already cost the people of the United States billions in higher interest rates on the existing government debt.

With the government left without the means to pay its debts (the interest on its bonds, and other obligations), for the first time in our history, this nation becomes “faithless” in the eyes of the world. The confidence of the world, in this nation’s ability, or even willingness to pay its debts, would collapse – as would certainly the value of, and trust in, our currency.