Other People Are Catching On

The big focus in the media lately has been on the potential for federal government shutdown. As I've written before, I think this whole thing was a ruse. It has provided the Democrats with the political cover to "compromise" several times with fiscal conservatives. The dollar amount to be slashed kept moving to the right. As the thinking goes, we're supposed to be thrilled that the Dems were able to stave off cuts in funding to Planned Parenthood and the Environmental Protection Agency?

P-L-E-A-S-E!!!

As John Nichols wrote in The Nation,

If you had asked Franklin Roosevelt or Harry Truman or John Kennedy or Lyndon Johnson or Jimmy Carter or even Bill Clinton what Democrats would defend in a fight over the future of government, there’s no real question that funding for housing, public transportation, community development programs and safe air travel would be high on the list.

Yet, in order to achieve the Friday night deal that averted a government shutdown — for a week and, potentially, longer if an anticipated agreement is cobbled together and agreed to — all of those programs took serious hits...

Yes, the very programs that "liberals" supposedly are steadfast supporters of are the ones taking the fall. If the Democrats continued to give away chunks of the house in order to save it, we will end up with a front door that opens into a structure with no furniture, appliances, energy and, maybe, people.

But at least they will have saved the front door!