Government Shutdown

What exactly is wrong with our elected officials? The Republicans who want to shut down the government are absurd and preposterous. People depend on Social Security and other government programs. For some, it is the only way they can eat, keep a roof over their heads and buy their prescription medications. It is inconceivable that they can even consider something this drastic. My mother is 78 years old and gets Social Security. I was just laid off because the company was shut down and am getting unemployment.

"Deep" and "sitcom" are not words often used in the same sentence. But a visit to the "VEEP" soundstage in Columbia gave a glimpse of the larger cultural power of this savvy satire from HBO, returning for its second season Sunday night. I also came away dazzled by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who last year won an Emmy as best comedic actress for her portrayal of Vice President Selina Meyer. "VEEP" drills as far down into the state of the national psyche as any TV comedy has in the past 30 years.

I'm not sure what all the fuss is about regarding the government shutdown. I think the solution is quite simple: Just pay all the regular government workers their regular pay and let them continue to work — and furlough all the members of Congress. Those lawmakers should have to work around the clock without compensation instead of continuing to get paid and not resolving anything. Once they solve the budget problems they can resume getting paid. And bingo! They will "magically" come to consensus and have it solved in a day or two. David Fogle, Catonsville

The drumbeat for weeks has been that $85 billion in across-the-board federal spending cuts known as the sequester would be so horrendous for the economy that lawmakers in Washington would be forced to compromise by the March 1 deadline. When no deal was reached, not only did the stock market shrug it off, but the Dow Jones industrial average of 30 blue-chip stocks soared to new heights. On Tuesday, the Dow blew past its old record of 14,164.53 from Oct. 9, 2007, and continued to climb, ending the week at 14,397.

The possibility of a government shutdown has Washington and the left-wing mainstream media in high dudgeon. Maybe they are hoping for a repeat of 1995, when President Clinton refused to sign a budget, shut down the government and got away with it by blaming it all on the GOP. But who's to blame for this mess now? Last year, Democrats controlled both houses of Congress plus the presidency. By law, they were required to pass a budget. They didn't. Why? Were they afraid of being punished by the voters?

National • Here come higher "Apprentice" ratings: Trump conducting Hawaiian investigation into Obama's birth . (Time) • Seriously? Seriously?! Trump poll numbers very strong in GOP race . (WSJ) • John Edwards says he'd kill himself before going to jail. (Mail Online) • He's so tricky: Ghaddafi calls himself "leader of the revolution" in letter to Obama asking for war to end . (AP) • GOP lawyer drafts papers for Obama impeachment.

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton and congressional leaders pledged last night to work together to avert a government shutdown next month, but they cautioned that major differences over the budget still need to be resolved.Mr. Clinton summoned the Republican and Democratic leaders to the White House to begin discussions on avoiding major disruptions to the government when the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1.Spending bills funding government operations are supposed to be enacted and signed into law by Oct. 1, but Congress is far behind in its schedule.

TRENTON, N.J. -- Instead of heading to the beach or preparing for a backyard barbecue, New Jersey's 120 legislators were called to the State House yesterday by Gov. Jon S. Corzine, who urged them to resolve a budget stalemate that has led to a four-day government shutdown. But the day ended with the impasse worse than ever. After listening to the governor make a 30-minute appeal, in which Corzine emphasized his willingness to compromise with fellow Democrats in the Assembly over his proposal to increase the state sales tax, Speaker Joseph J. Roberts Jr. declared that the governor's plan could not pass.

WASHINGTON -- In remarks that reveal the personal tenor of the budget battle, House Speaker Newt Gingrich suggested yesterday that he and Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole toughened the spending bill that has led to the partial government shutdown because they felt President Clinton snubbed them on a recent plane ride.At a breakfast session with reporters, Mr. Gingrich said he was insulted and appalled that, on the long trip aboard Air Force One this month to and from the funeral of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, the president failed to invite the Republican leaders to the front of the plane to discuss the budget, and then made them exit at the rear of the plane.

Tens of thousands of federal workers in Maryland -- from Social Security secretaries to Naval Academy professors to NASA rocket scientists -- were expected to be sent home this morning as part of a government shutdown that has left many wondering what's next."

John Gage, who has served as president of the American Federation of Government Employees for nearly a decade, said Tuesday he intends to retire later this summer to spend more time with his family. "I have a growing family that I've kind of neglected," Gage, who is 66 and lives in Baltimore, said in a brief interview with The Sun . "I never have been able to really put in perspective the people who love me and the union activities. " As head of the nation's largest federal employee union, Gage has battled with lawmakers and the White House at a particularly difficult time for federal employees.

In what Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid described as "a win for everyone," Congress appears poised to accept a compromise on disaster relief funding that will avoid a threatened government shutdown at the end of this week. Assuming all goes according to plan, the government should have spending plans to carry it through Nov. 18. Crisis averted. Again. Until next time. Are we supposed to be grateful for this? Elated? Relieved? Congressional leaders must hope that their repeated hostage-taking of the American public has given us a massive case of Stockholm syndrome, because there is no way short of a mass identification with our captors in Washington for us to believe that anyone on Capitol Hill is really acting in our best interests.

Does anyone remember President Clinton's 1995 government shutdown as a result of a fight with Newt Gingrich? It has been estimated it impacted all sectors of the U.S. economy. Health and welfare services for military veterans were curtailed; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stopped disease surveillance. Toxic waste clean-up work at 609 sites was halted. Other impacts included: the closure of 368 National Park sites and the loss of some 7 million visitors; 200,000 applications for passports and 20,000 to 30,000 applications for visas by foreigners went unprocessed each day; U.S. tourism industries incurred millions of dollars in losses; federal contracts, representing $3.7 billion in spending, were affected adversely.

Bracing for the loss of a steady paycheck is becoming something of a routine for Frank Silberstein. A statistician for the U.S. Census Bureau and a union steward for the American Federation of Government Employees, Silberstein said the pitched battle in Washington over whether to raise the nation's $14.3 trillion debt ceiling has — for the second time this year — put federal workers in Maryland on edge about whether they'll still have a...

Now that Congress has gotten past the fight over a threatened government shutdown, it's moving on to the next trench warfare on deficit reduction, with more clouds of calamitous stalemate hanging over it. Just as in that first fight, House Speaker John Boehner is embarking on political blackmail to achieve deeper spending cuts, saying categorically that the House majority will not raise the federal debt limit on which U.S. global credibility rests...

I laughed upon reading John Wilhelm's letter ("Budget showdown not Congress' finest hour," April 11) in which he expresses disgust with Congress for daring to near the deadline for a government shutdown. Mr. Wilhelm and many others seem to forget it takes three to tango, and two of those three are the U.S. Senate and the President. The House does not act in a vacuum. Had they proposed a budget that the Senate and President Obama would have signed off on without delay, not only would it have not contained any cuts, it would have likely included the increased spending this President and Senate have championed for the last two years.

For lack of money, the federal government yesterday placed itself in mothballs.Hundreds of thousands of workers deemed "nonessential" were sent home, and offices were closed, because Congress (controlled by Republicans) and the White House (home of a Democrat) failed to reach a compromise about federal spending.Home is where much of the work force will stay, until the pressures of politics and the inconveniences of a government working at half-speed compel the two sides to set aside some of their differences.

In what Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid described as "a win for everyone," Congress appears poised to accept a compromise on disaster relief funding that will avoid a threatened government shutdown at the end of this week. Assuming all goes according to plan, the government should have spending plans to carry it through Nov. 18. Crisis averted. Again. Until next time. Are we supposed to be grateful for this? Elated? Relieved? Congressional leaders must hope that their repeated hostage-taking of the American public has given us a massive case of Stockholm syndrome, because there is no way short of a mass identification with our captors in Washington for us to believe that anyone on Capitol Hill is really acting in our best interests.

The possibility of a government shutdown has Washington and the left-wing mainstream media in high dudgeon. Maybe they are hoping for a repeat of 1995, when President Clinton refused to sign a budget, shut down the government and got away with it by blaming it all on the GOP. But who's to blame for this mess now? Last year, Democrats controlled both houses of Congress plus the presidency. By law, they were required to pass a budget. They didn't. Why? Were they afraid of being punished by the voters?

As a federal government shutdown loomed Friday, researchers at Maryland's medical institutions are planning to continue their work on hundreds of millions of dollars worth of projects without disruption — at least for now. Johns Hopkins is the nation's largest recipient of grant money from the National Institutes of Health, with $610.5 million in awards in fiscal 2010. With the money allocated and projects under way, the work should not be interrupted, according to Dr. Daniel E. Ford, vice dean for clinical investigation at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.