Is It Time To Prosecute Republicans For Violating the U.S. Constitution?

Should the democrats be prosecuted for past government shutdowns? Should democrat mouthpieces be prosecuted for sticking their head up their arse?

Shutdown #1: HEWdown

When did it take place? Sept. 30 to Oct. 11, 1976
How long did it last? 10 days
Who was president? Gerald Ford
Who controlled the Senate? Democrats, 62-38; Mike Mansfield was majority leader
Who controlled the House? Democrats, 291-144; Carl Albert was speaker
Why did it happen? The major budget conflict during this period came because Ford vetoed a funding bill for the Departments of Labor and Health, Education, and Welfare (or HEW, today split into the Departments of Education and of Health and Human Services), arguing that it failed to restrain spending adequately.
What resolved it? Congress overrode Ford's veto Oct. 1, so the spending bills took effect, but it wasn't until over a week later that the partial shutdown ended, as it was only on Oct.11 that a continuing resolution ending funding gaps for other parts of government became law.

Shutdown #2: The Abortion Shutdown

When did it take place? Sept. 30 to Oct. 13, 1977
How long did it last? 12 days
Who was president? Jimmy Carter
Who controlled the Senate? Democrats, 59-41; Robert Byrd was majority leader
Who controlled the House? Democrats, 292-143; Tip O'Neill was speaker
Why did it happen? The House insisted on continuing the ban on using Medicaid dollars to pay for abortions except in cases where the life of the mother was at stake. The Senate wanted to loosen this to include allowances for abortions in the case of rape or incest or when the mother's health was in danger. Because the issue had become tied to funding for Labor and HEW, failure to come to an agreement led those agencies to have a funding gap.
What resolved it? The Medicaid ban was continued until Oct. 31 and the shutdown ended, to give negotiators more time to work out a deal.

Shutdown #3: The Abortion Shutdown II: Abortion Boogaloo

When did it take place? Oct. 31 to Nov. 9, 1977
How long did it last? 8 days
Who was president? Jimmy Carter
Who controlled the Senate? Democrats, 59-41; Robert Byrd was majority leader
Who controlled the House? Democrats, 292-143; Tip O'Neill was speaker
Why did it happen? Not enough time had elapsed since the temporary measure ending the shutdown passed for the abortion standoff to be resolved.
What resolved it? Another temporary bill was signed by Carter to allow for more time for Congress to resolve its abortion dispute.

Shutdown #4: The Abortion Shutdown III: Dark of the Moon

When did it take place? Nov. 30 to Dec. 9, 1977
How long did it last? 8 days
Who was president? Jimmy Carter
Who controlled the Senate? Democrats, 59-41; Robert Byrd was majority leader
Who controlled the House? Democrats, 292-143; Tip O'Neill was speaker
Why did it happen? The second temporary measure ending a shutdown, meant to allow more time for negotiation, didn't last long enough. The House, in particular, rejected a Senate proposal that would have allowed for Medicaid to pay for abortions by victims of statutory rape. House conservatives rejected it as too lax and House liberals as too tough on rape victims. Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), who is still in the House, asked on the House floor, "What happens in Fort Apache [South Bronx], where a girl is gang-raped and told she will be killed if she reports it?"

What resolved it? A deal was brokered in which the exception allowing Medicaid to pay for abortions in cases where the mother's life is endangered was widened to include abortions resulting from rape or incest, or which are necessary to protect the mother's health (even if her life was not endangered).

Shutdown #5: Jimmy Carter vs. the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier

When did it take place? Sept. 30 to Oct.18, 1978
How long did it last? 18 days
Who was president? Jimmy Carter
Who controlled the Senate? Democrats, 59-41; Robert Byrd was majority leader
Who controlled the House? Democrats, 292-143; Tip O'Neill was speaker
Why did it happen? Congress passed a defense bill including funding for a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. Carter judged that carrier wasteful and vetoed it. He also vetoed a public works appropriations bill because of water projects that he considered wasteful pork. Additionally, spending for HEW was delayed, once again, over a dispute concerning funding for abortion.
What resolved it? A new defense bill, excluding funding for the carrier, was passed, as was a new public works bill excluding the water projects Carter opposed. The previous year's compromise solution on abortion, in which funding was reserved for cases of rape, incest and jeopardy to the mother's health, was agreed to in both houses.

Shutdown #6: Higher pay, fewer abortions

When did it take place? Sept. 30 to Oct. 12, 1979
How long did it last? 11 days
Who was president? Jimmy Carter
Who controlled the Senate? Democrats, 58-42; Robert Byrd was majority leader
Who controlled the House? Democrats, 277-158; Tip O'Neill was speaker
Why did it happen? The House wanted to raise congressional and senior civil servant pay by 5.5 percent, which the Senate opposed. The lower house also wanted to limit federal abortion spending to cases where the mother's life was in danger, while the Senate wanted to keep funding in cases of rape, incest, and when the mother's health is in serious jeopardy. The dispute was not resolved before a partial shutdown.
What resolved it? The House got its pay increases but had to allow abortion funding in cases of rape or incest (but not when the mother's health, rather than life, was in danger). The latter was a slight tightening of the previous year's Medicaid abortion compromise.

Shutdown #7: You wouldn't like Reagan when he's angry

When did it take place? Nov. 20-23, 1981
How long did it last? 2 days
Who was president? Ronald Reagan
Who controlled the Senate? Republicans, 53-47; Howard Baker was majority leader
Who controlled the House? Democrats, 244-191; Tip O'Neill was speaker
Why did it happen? Reagan promised to veto any spending bill that didn't include at least half of his proposed $8.4 billion in domestic budget cuts. The Senate passed a bill that met his specifications, but the House insisted on both greater defense cuts than Reagan wanted and pay raises for itself and for senior-level federal civil servants. Eventually, the House and Senate agreed to and passed a package that fell $2 billion short of the cuts Reagan wanted, so Reagan vetoed it and shut down the government.
What resolved it? The House and Senate passed, and Reagan signed, a bill extending current spending through Dec. 15, giving them time to work out a longer-lasting deal.

Shutdown #8: Let them eat shutdown

When did it take place? Sept. 30 to Oct. 2, 1982
How long did it last? 1 day
Who was president? Ronald Reagan
Who controlled the Senate? Republicans, 53-47; Howard Baker was majority leader
Who controlled the House? Democrats, 244-191; Tip O'Neill was speaker
Why did it happen? Basically no reason. The new fiscal year started and Congress just hadn't passed new spending in time, and so parts of the government were forced to shut down. While there were some disagreements over spending levels between the House and Senate and the administration, the reason the former didn't pass the bill before a shutdown was basically that they had other plans.

"Congressional leaders barred a late-night session because of major social events tonight by both Republicans and Democrats," Martin Tolchin at the New York Times reported. "President Reagan invited all members of Congress to a barbecue at the White House, while Democrats were having a $1,000-a-plate fund-raising dinner."
What resolved it? The House and Senate passed spending bills late, and Reagan signed them despite the fact that they exceeded his desired spending levels in the near-run.


ET. AL.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2013/09/25/here-is-every-previous-government-shutdown-why-they-happened-and-how-they-ended/

Sir, you may want to take a step back and reevaluate your statement. Why? I believe you may have made your comments in haste. As it is true that both parties are guilty of playing politics with the nations debt and to a larger degree the dept ceiling itself. We cannot honestly talk about one party with regard to such transgressions and do our audience justice. Because both sides of the aisle are guilty as charged in this rotunda. Perhaps, you should become an independant, sir, but of course if you do that you limit your responsibility and duty as a citizen of these United States to effect electoral change.

It's time to prosecute all politicans who violate the Constitution.

When the "impeaching" starts, folks, lets not limit it to Obama, let's get GW, Cheney, and Rumsfeld for their fabrications with Iraq's WMD; at least Tony Blair has stepped up and admitted his part ... let the Bush Administration do the same. We ALL deserve better than what we've been getting the past 2 decades.

"Pundit prep: Shuttering the government actually costs more than keeping it open. The White House says the last shutdown, which lasted 16 days, meant 6.6 million days of lost work, $2 billion in back pay for 850,000 federal employees who did no work and 120,000 private-sector jobs gone." - Washington Post

This from President Lincoln in his special address to the Congress of 7/4/61 is also germane:

"Our popular government has often been called an experiment. Two points in it, our people have already settled—the successful establishing, and the successful administering of it. One still remains—its successful maintenance against a formidable [internal] attempt to overthrow it. It is now for them to demonstrate to the world, that those who can fairly carry an election, can also suppress a rebellion [or a shutting down of the government] —that ballots are the rightful, and peaceful, successors of bullets; and that when ballots have fairly, and constitutionally, decided, there can be no successful appeal, back to bullets; [or to shutting down the government] that there can be no successful appeal, except to ballots themselves, at succeeding elections. Such will be a great lesson of peace; teaching men that what they cannot take by an election, neither can they take it by a war [or by shutting down the government] —teaching all, the folly of being the beginners of a war."

It would be hard to say that secession, and shutting down the government itself, don't spring from the same traitorous mind set.

Walt

You call the legislators racist? What is your basis for that?

Brass cajones. How do you manage to walk. But here is my serious answer. No not all Republicans are so tribalistic that they are willing to put party interests above national interests by way of shutdowns, negotiating with other countries to circumvent our foreign policy, inviting foreign leaders to topple our foreign policy, speaking favorably more of the Russian leader than their own, insinuating non-stop that he is muslim, non-citizen, other. That said your ire should be directed at these politicians who happen to be republican and go out of their way to work against their own President; example being Senator Tom Cotton and 45 other Senators.

Wow! What we are talking about is epic instigation and race-baiting. I will just leave it at that....

Washington (CNN) -- Senate Democrats failed Thursday to win a procedural vote to open debate on a bill that would provide medical benefits and compensation for emergency workers who were first on the scene of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The motion for cloture, or to begin debate, needed 60 votes to pass due to a Republican filibuster, but fell short at 57-42 in favor.
While supporters said they would try to bring the bill up again, either on its own or as part of other legislation to be considered, the vote Thursday jeopardized the measure's chances for approval in the final weeks of the current congressional session.
The House previously passed the bill on a mostly partisan 268-160 vote.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg reacted to Thursday's result by calling it "a tragic example of partisan politics trumping patriotism."
House passes 9/11 first responders bill

"I urge Senate Republicans to reconsider their wrong-headed political strategy and allow the bill to come to the floor for a vote," Bloomberg said in a statement.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/12/09/senate.9.11.responders/index.html

If you vote for a GOP candidate, you are nuts.

Walt