Cigar
10-02-2013, 10:59 AM
The Saddest Paragraph You'll Read About the Government Shutdown Today
With NIH furloughs, children with cancer are being turned away from clinical trials.
You've heard about the Pandacam, the closed monuments and national parks, and the furloughed federal workers. But so far, nothing I've read about the government shutdown has been nearly as gut-wrenching as this tidbit from The Wall Street Journal (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303918804579109492207671138.html):
At the National Institutes of Health, nearly three-quarters of the staff was furloughed. One result: director Francis Collins said about 200 patients who otherwise would be admitted to the NIH Clinical Center into clinical trials each week will be turned away. This includes about 30 children, most of them cancer patients, he said.
House Republicans have failed to stop Obamacare from going into effect so far, but sadly and ironically, their actions have prevented hundreds of people from getting healthcare from just one clinic.
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/10/the-saddest-paragraph-youll-read-about-the-government-shutdown-today/280174/
The Two Basic Facts That Should Be in Every Shutdown Story
The current crisis amply illustrates the corporate media censorship that is going on. The media hides the truth from the public and continues to give the far right cover by convincing Americans that Democrats are equally to blame. For every Democrat that tries to speak the truth, the media will play Ted Cruz on endless loop to offer a countervailing lie. At the end, despite the focus on the shutdown, most media stories fail to illuminate the public as to these two basic facts:
To people who follow politics these two facts are obvious. But they're not part of most "tragedy of gridlock" false-equivalence stories, and I believe they would come as news to most of the public. The two facts are:
1. If the House of Representatives voted on a "clean" budget bill -- one that opened up the closed federal offices but did not attempt to defund the Obama health care program -- that bill would pass, and the shutdown would be over. Nearly all Democrats would vote for it, as would enough Republicans to end the shutdown and its related damage. (And of course it would pass has already passed the Senate, repeatedly, unless the minority dared filibuster it, and would be signed by the president.) For illustrations of the wanton damage, see here and here. 2. So far House Speaker John Boehner has refused to let this vote occur. His Tea Party contingent knows how the vote would go and therefore does not want it to happen; and such is Boehner's fear of them, and fear for his job as Speaker, that he will not let it take place.
These two points are why the normal D.C.-poohbah moanings about the need for compromise do not apply. The Democratic administration, and a sufficient number of Republicans, already agree and are ready enough to compromise to solve this problem. If the normal machinery of democracy were allowed to work, the manufactured crisis would be over. The only reason the senseless damage is being done is that hostage-takers have terrorized members of their own party.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/10/the-two-basic-facts-that-should-be-in-every-shutdown-story/280179/
All of this could have easily been prevented if The Adults performed their Job and not allow the children to throw temper tantrums because they didn't get their way 3 years ago.
With NIH furloughs, children with cancer are being turned away from clinical trials.
You've heard about the Pandacam, the closed monuments and national parks, and the furloughed federal workers. But so far, nothing I've read about the government shutdown has been nearly as gut-wrenching as this tidbit from The Wall Street Journal (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303918804579109492207671138.html):
At the National Institutes of Health, nearly three-quarters of the staff was furloughed. One result: director Francis Collins said about 200 patients who otherwise would be admitted to the NIH Clinical Center into clinical trials each week will be turned away. This includes about 30 children, most of them cancer patients, he said.
House Republicans have failed to stop Obamacare from going into effect so far, but sadly and ironically, their actions have prevented hundreds of people from getting healthcare from just one clinic.
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/10/the-saddest-paragraph-youll-read-about-the-government-shutdown-today/280174/
The Two Basic Facts That Should Be in Every Shutdown Story
The current crisis amply illustrates the corporate media censorship that is going on. The media hides the truth from the public and continues to give the far right cover by convincing Americans that Democrats are equally to blame. For every Democrat that tries to speak the truth, the media will play Ted Cruz on endless loop to offer a countervailing lie. At the end, despite the focus on the shutdown, most media stories fail to illuminate the public as to these two basic facts:
To people who follow politics these two facts are obvious. But they're not part of most "tragedy of gridlock" false-equivalence stories, and I believe they would come as news to most of the public. The two facts are:
1. If the House of Representatives voted on a "clean" budget bill -- one that opened up the closed federal offices but did not attempt to defund the Obama health care program -- that bill would pass, and the shutdown would be over. Nearly all Democrats would vote for it, as would enough Republicans to end the shutdown and its related damage. (And of course it would pass has already passed the Senate, repeatedly, unless the minority dared filibuster it, and would be signed by the president.) For illustrations of the wanton damage, see here and here. 2. So far House Speaker John Boehner has refused to let this vote occur. His Tea Party contingent knows how the vote would go and therefore does not want it to happen; and such is Boehner's fear of them, and fear for his job as Speaker, that he will not let it take place.
These two points are why the normal D.C.-poohbah moanings about the need for compromise do not apply. The Democratic administration, and a sufficient number of Republicans, already agree and are ready enough to compromise to solve this problem. If the normal machinery of democracy were allowed to work, the manufactured crisis would be over. The only reason the senseless damage is being done is that hostage-takers have terrorized members of their own party.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/10/the-two-basic-facts-that-should-be-in-every-shutdown-story/280179/
All of this could have easily been prevented if The Adults performed their Job and not allow the children to throw temper tantrums because they didn't get their way 3 years ago.