Who’s Benefitting From This?

In one of my rare political musings, it’s now 9:07 PM here on the east coast; the government is just mere hours away from what the news is saying will be the 18th time a fiscal disagreement has forced our government to shut down.  I’ve bitten the bullet and have read the recent articles about why this is happening and while I understand there is severe opposition to what they’re calling “Obamacare” in Congress, I just find it incredible that there are Republicans so hell-bent on having things their way that they’re willing to fuck over the country because they don’t like what’s going down.

So much for this august body doing what’s best for Americans, huh?  I remember seeing the articles about the filibuster that Republican dude undertook – that whole process just strikes me as being hysterically funny because, yeah, they can hold the floor for as long as they can… and they don’t really have to talk about anything meaningful so “Green Eggs and Ham” is actually a legit topic of discussion in this situation.

But to what end?  From what I’ve been reading, if the shutdown happens – and depending on how long it goes – it’ll cost more money to get things restarted and back to some semblance of normal… so just what in the hell is going on here and, even better, who’s getting rich behind this because knowing the way politicians work, someone is benefiting from this while Americans are going to potentially be out of work, government services shut down or greatly impaired, etc..

I read that some Republicans are raising all holy hell about a medical devices tax that’s supposed to be at the heart of their resistance .  After reading the article and what this tax is supposed to be about, I guess I’m like a lot of people and wondering why this is such a big fucking deal and while it might not mean anything to the average citizen, well, it obviously means something to the Republicans for them to act, as one article said, like fiscal terrorists, which is kinda crazy since it’s a well-known fact that the United States of America does not negotiate with terrorists.

They’re willing to hold the government hostage to get what they want and if other people wind up suffering, I guess it sucks to be one of the little people.  I also read that if the current crisis is averted – and I really do hope it is – those same ‘fiscal terrorists’ will have another chance to make a mess when it’s time to renew the Treasury Department’s debt ceiling, which is necessary to our country’s ability to pay its debts and fund the stuff the government’s already spent money on.

I don’t quite get it.  According to what I’ve read, none of this action will decrease government spending or reduce the national debt… so why cripple a system of government that already has ongoing money issues?  Things are hard enough as it is, right?  So why make things harder than they have to be?

As strange as it may seem, the government is actually working exactly the way it was designed to work – that checks and balances thing and Congress is, well, they’re being Congress.  I’ve said in the past that everyone raises most holy hell with whoever’s occupying the White House when, in fact, Congress is responsible for a lot of shit going bad and all because they can’t ever agree on what’s best for the country and its citizens.  You have these pissing contests between Republicans and Democrats that ultimately rains shit down on people like you and me.

This shit is crazy and I can only hope that it doesn’t get any crazier… but I guess we’ll find out in two hours, twenty-six minutes…