None of those actions actually do anything, though. All shutting the government down does is ensure government services don’t happen and government employees don’t get paid. Keep the government closed for long enough, and they all quit, and states end up taking over the functions the Federal government should have done.
That is the end goal of the current Conservative movement: to make the Federal Government so small you could drown it in the bathtub.. They would absolutely love for it to happen, but get Democrats to take the blame for it.
I see and partially agree with what you mean, but I don’t agree that those actions don’t so anything. Partially it’s having worked for change in Washington and walked away burnt out, that I know how much DC is a bubble that has cascading impacts to everyone.
In some ways yes shutting the government down means services don’t happen, but you are wrong about not getting paid. While they aren’t paid at the time, they have regularly gotten back pay after the shutdown. Some lower level may quit anyway, but often the government job is just to good at a high GS level to really give up, due to the healthcare and retirement. So it’s not easy, but it’s a paid time off.
The real impact is as you mentioned that services aren’t processed. This has a ripple impact across the world due to trade, and finance markets. This in turns puts pressure on politicians to compromise, as a slowing of the economic makes everyone upset, and that is a lever.
So it’s about finding levers that are more than show, like this current “shutdown” as many agencies have already been funded prior to this and the stopgap is likely to get passed shortly, but without longterm DHS funding. Schumer calling it a win, is just for show. DHS will continue, when they could have put their foot down and stopped everything.
Where I agree with you is that the ideal of the conservative movement is to make government small and privatize it. They can only do so much though, as the US federal government is a behemoth, and even what DOGE did–while stuipid, and short sided–barely impacted the overall long term budget. If they were really after shrinking it, they’d cut the military. DOGE claimed they cut around 55 billion, but the senate just passed a 1200 billion dollar budget. And remember the US GDP is 31 Trillion, and the 1.2 Trillion wasn’t all of the budget, just most of it.
I don’t think we need it all, but changes and improvement, especially in governments, tend to be slow and deliberate. Rash acts cause disruptions which have profound impacts, and we’ll see those.
All of which is to say yes, I agree those actions don’t seem like much, but they have more impact than you think.
Ok, then, here’s what I think: those outside actions you mention do make a difference – everywhere but in Congress. Votes count there, and when you don’t have the votes there’s not much else you can do.
In fact, I would argue that it’s precisely the actions outside of Congress that made this tiny bit of progress possible. If the people of Minnesota either rolled over to ICE or got overly violent against ICE, Democrats would t even have had the leverage to do what they did in Congress.
Stop expecting politicians (particularly those in the minority) to save us. We need to save ourselves. Making a stand outside of Congress, among the people, is much more important than yet another long speech.
None of those actions actually do anything, though. All shutting the government down does is ensure government services don’t happen and government employees don’t get paid. Keep the government closed for long enough, and they all quit, and states end up taking over the functions the Federal government should have done.
That is the end goal of the current Conservative movement: to make the Federal Government so small you could drown it in the bathtub.. They would absolutely love for it to happen, but get Democrats to take the blame for it.
I see and partially agree with what you mean, but I don’t agree that those actions don’t so anything. Partially it’s having worked for change in Washington and walked away burnt out, that I know how much DC is a bubble that has cascading impacts to everyone.
In some ways yes shutting the government down means services don’t happen, but you are wrong about not getting paid. While they aren’t paid at the time, they have regularly gotten back pay after the shutdown. Some lower level may quit anyway, but often the government job is just to good at a high GS level to really give up, due to the healthcare and retirement. So it’s not easy, but it’s a paid time off.
The real impact is as you mentioned that services aren’t processed. This has a ripple impact across the world due to trade, and finance markets. This in turns puts pressure on politicians to compromise, as a slowing of the economic makes everyone upset, and that is a lever.
So it’s about finding levers that are more than show, like this current “shutdown” as many agencies have already been funded prior to this and the stopgap is likely to get passed shortly, but without longterm DHS funding. Schumer calling it a win, is just for show. DHS will continue, when they could have put their foot down and stopped everything.
Where I agree with you is that the ideal of the conservative movement is to make government small and privatize it. They can only do so much though, as the US federal government is a behemoth, and even what DOGE did–while stuipid, and short sided–barely impacted the overall long term budget. If they were really after shrinking it, they’d cut the military. DOGE claimed they cut around 55 billion, but the senate just passed a 1200 billion dollar budget. And remember the US GDP is 31 Trillion, and the 1.2 Trillion wasn’t all of the budget, just most of it.
I don’t think we need it all, but changes and improvement, especially in governments, tend to be slow and deliberate. Rash acts cause disruptions which have profound impacts, and we’ll see those.
All of which is to say yes, I agree those actions don’t seem like much, but they have more impact than you think.
Ok, then, here’s what I think: those outside actions you mention do make a difference – everywhere but in Congress. Votes count there, and when you don’t have the votes there’s not much else you can do.
In fact, I would argue that it’s precisely the actions outside of Congress that made this tiny bit of progress possible. If the people of Minnesota either rolled over to ICE or got overly violent against ICE, Democrats would t even have had the leverage to do what they did in Congress.
Stop expecting politicians (particularly those in the minority) to save us. We need to save ourselves. Making a stand outside of Congress, among the people, is much more important than yet another long speech.