Government By Crisis

With the old 111th Congress having passed the healthcare law, some years ago, that essentially is a redone Republican (R) plan from the 1990s and a "gift basket" to medical insurance companies, the present-day R's, that control the federal House of Representatives, are about to shut down the government over their opposition to it, believe it or not, though they realize they don't have the political numbers in the overall government to actually repeal the law in 2013.  Their main opposition to the Affordable Care Act is that poor and low-income people might be able to get healthcare.  That sums it up in short.  This is the same party that once opposed Social Security (from the "New Deal"), Medicare (from the "Great Society'), and generally opposes social welfare in general, whether or not it also benefits the middle class, and now they are going to shut down the government to make a point.  Workers could get thrown out of jobs, and payments could stop going to military personnel and recipients of social security insurance, among others, depending on how long all of this lasts.   None of these shenanigans are doing the economy any good, but stay tuned, the next planned crisis inside the government shutdown crisis is called the debt ceiling crisis.

[Originally published on Northern Pacific Report on 9/26/13 and revised on 9/30/13.]