Coast Guard and Government Shutdown

[queentonic]

I live in a coastal state that depends heavily on the Coast Guard. The local news is reporting on how difficult this government shutdown is for Coast Guard families, but also how much the Coast Guard is having to cut back on their mission purpose for lack of funding. I contacted my local Congressman Peter Defazio (who is chair of the Transportation oversight committee) to request that he submit a bill to fund the Coast Guard and ONLY the Coast Guard during this governmental shutdown. I can't imagine any Republican who represents a coastal state voting against this type of bill. It would also put any president, no matter how dumb, in an impossible position of having to veto a bill that funds the Coast Guard. I would encourage any DUers who live in a coastal state to contact your congressional representative urging them to fund the Coast Guard. They really are a part of our national security and, remember, it was the Coast Guard that was the only functioning governmental agency during the initial phases of the Hurricane Katrina rescue missions.

[rusty quoin]

1. The shut down works out well for Trump and Putin.

[smirkymonkey]

3. How does it work out well for Trump?

It is not making him very popular. Of course anything that throws our country into chaos works for Putin.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

5. it keeps the scary Ann Coulter from saying mean things to him

Baby Donald is scared of Ann Coulter.

[smirkymonkey]

7. He's such a pathetic little puppet.

How anyone can look at that man and see strength just baffles me.

[rusty quoin]

6. He's Putin's puppet and he only cares about his base who love government destruction.

[smirkymonkey]

8. However, his base is still a minority in this country.

They may be loyal but they aren't growing and they aren't going to win him any more elections.

[rusty quoin]

9. It's all he's got

[GusBob]

2. Sorry but no

You will have to explain to me why the coast guard is more important than the Indian Health Service before I do such a thing

[Sherman A1]

4. Agreed

I would also have to understand why the coast guard is more important than park rangers, air traffic control, Tsa screening, the courts and every other government agency and the people who depend on those paychecks.

[queentonic]

10. Why Coast Guard and not others

I totally agree that all programs should be covered, but when I worked for a Congressman many years ago, we would look for any wedge issue that would force Republicans into a corner and do something they did not want to do. The Coast Guard fits that bill because the Repugs have spent their existence touting national security and the military. By voting to fund the Coast Guard, the unraveling of Trump's wall starts to happen. Once he allows one agency to be funded the pressure will naturally build for him to open up the funding for all agencies. We have to start from somewhere and this was the most likely scenario for putting the Repugs in an impossible position. The media would also label this a victory (however small) for the Dems.

[GusBob]

12. Sorry but no again

What you are doing is carving out and prioritizing the issues. In this scenario the Indian Health Service will always come last on the wish list as the “more important” services are covered.

No trade offs. All or none.

[Sherman A1]

14. I understand the logic of the argument you are making

I disagree with it and will not support it.

[GusBob]

11. I know right?

If I am going to take my time to talk to some toadie at my reps office I am going to advocate for a complete reopening of the government.

The coasties are all able-bodied young folks with access to support systems.

Native Americans? Not so much.

Of all the groups suffering from the shutdown, Trump is happy to see the NA’s suffer. He hates them for their successful casinos.

[Sherman A1]

13. I don't know what Trump hates or doesn't

He may hate Native Americans he may not, but I don’t believe in any carve out of any one group or agency. I understand the logic given for the proposal, but I disagree with it and will not contact my representatives other than to urge them to get the entire government funded and that i will certainly do.

[queentonic]

15. Carving out has already happened

I would like to point out that the carving out of programs has already happened with HR1. Speaker Pelosi separated out all of the programs (except for the NSA) for immediate funding in hopes that would force a positive vote from the Repug Senate. That didn't work so my idea is to start smaller and go from there.

[Sherman A1]

16. I understand the logic

I disagree with it.

[BumRushDaShow]

17. During the 2013 shutdown, the GOP went about cherry-picking funding

in order to cover their asses. That shutdown went on from Oct. 1st - Oct. 17th, the 17th being the day when the government re-opened - a shutdown that impacted me as a federal employee at the time (I am now retired).

What you propose may sound good "on paper" but it ultimately does the opposite of what you want. It gives them cover to keep the impact issues out of the media because they can then push the perception to the public that "it's not that bad" to remove the other hundreds of thousands of employees from government involvement altogether, a goal that they actually want - "less government". This gets followed with rants about "bureaucrats" and "lazy paper-pushers" who only want to over-regulate their precious "free-dumbs".

And I hate to say, since there was this sudden mention of "strike", it might be a pretext to some idiocy that involves an attempt to just "fire them all"... Like. Ronald. Reagan. - despite the fact that the PATCO issue and this are completely and diametrically unrelated.