Are Government Shutdowns Good for Limited Government?

Plus: A listener asks whether younger generations are capable of passing reforms to entitlement spending.

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Are Government Shutdowns Good for Limited Government?

 

In this week's The Reason Roundtable, editors Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Peter Suderman break down the politics of a potential government shutdown on the horizon and assess the United Auto Workers strike ahead of the next Republican presidential primary debate.

0:29: Another looming government shutdown

20:02: United Auto Workers strike

27:46: Weekly Listener Question

34:24: The next GOP debate is this week.

42:05: Bob Menendez, senator of sleaze

Mentioned in this podcast:

"It's Government Shutdown Theater, Again," by J.D. Tuccille

"5 Dissenters in the House," by Liz Wolfe

"Congress Is Still Using 'Emergency Spending' on Non-Emergencies," by John Stossel

"Don't Let the Government-Shutdown Charade Distract You From the Debt Crisis," by Romina Boccia

"Shutdown Highlights Basic Fact: Most of Government is 'Non-Essential,'" by Nick Gillespie

"Final Countdown to Government Shutdown," by Meredith Bragg and Nick Gillespie

"Government Shutdown: Planet of the Apes Remix," by Meredith Bragg and Nick Gillespie

"The Government Is Going to Shut Down Again (and That's Bad)," by Andrew Heaton and Sarah Rose Siskind

"5 Sequester Facts To Know Before Committing Suicide," by Meredith Bragg and Nick Gillespie

"Tim Scott Invokes Ronald Reagan and Says UAW Strikers Should Be Fired," by C.J. Ciaramella

"Biden, the 'Most Pro-Union President,' Reaps What He Sows," by J.D. Tuccille

"Strikers Demand 4-Day Workweek," by Liz Wolfe

"Baby Boomers Screwing Younger Workers, Private Sector Edition," by Nick Gillespie

"How to Make Unions More Powerful, the Libertarian Way," by Brian Doherty

"Are We Really Doing a Trump vs. Biden Rematch?" by Steven Greenhut

"Zelenskyy Goes To Washington," by Liz Wolfe

"Gen Xers are most worried with 86% saying they are worried about the future of Medicare and Social Security," according to Allianz Life insurance.

"The Real Class Warfare Is Baby Boomers vs. Younger Americans," by Nick Gillespie

"Generational Swindle: How D.C. Is Screwing Over Millennials," by Nick Gillespie

The Trump campaign's "Whoop a man's ass" commercial

Send your questions to [e-mail]. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name.

Today's sponsor:

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Audio production by Ian Keyser; assistant production by Hunt Beaty.

Music: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve

What are we consuming this week?

Nick Gillespie

• Vintage Annals Archive

Peter Suderman

• A Clockwork Orange

Katherine Mangu-Ward

• The Hastily Assembled Angel Also Sustains the World by Shane McCrae

Matt Welch

• Tim: Let it Bleed Edition

---

Comments

[Dillinger]

>>United Auto Workers strike

shoplifters of the world unite and take over.

[EdG]

Great insane comment, John. The loonies appreciate your work!

[InsaneTrollLogic]

Are Government Shutdowns Good for Limited Government?

If they're non-essential federal employees, then maybe these employees are better off in the private sector or working for the states instead of the feds.

[JesseAz]

*excludes all Ukrainians whom are essential.

[Elmer Fudd the CHUD 2: Steampunk Boogaloo]

Or possibly deposited in landfills, where they can never hurt anyone ever again.

[Zeb]

Probably not since almost no one in congress wants limited government. If one of the parties actually wanted to limit government, I like to think they could use government shutdowns and debt limits as leverage to actually get some budget reductions.

[Roberta]

They want it, but the media always portrays that desire, or them, as evil, so rather than lose the next election and have their gains undone, they knuckle under. It's happened several times in the last 40 years.

[One-Punch_Man]

They are killing grandma
They are killing the Earth
It's all for the children.

I think that's some cries you would hear

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

So how about a national media strike?

[VULGAR MADMAN]

By the public?

[sarcasmic]

The job of politicians and political parties is to get elected and then to get reelected.

They're not going to get elected by promising to cut government, being that any cut means someone loses their job, benefit, contract, or whatever. They might get some traction by demonizing someone and promising to cut benefits to them, like immigrants for example. But they don't mean it. Because if they followed through some voters would lose their job, benefit, contract or whatever, and then the guy won't get reelected.

[JFree]

The gored oxen are the individuals who directly lose because of some spending cut. They are not a voting majority in any district. Not even close. The reason they have so much power to resist spending cuts is because those oxen are the vast majority of donors, political consultants, grease spreaders, grassroots party activists, and other influencers. Candidates don’t know HOW to win an election without them and their candidacy is dependent on them.

It’s the working reason why the actual foundation of aristocracy/oligarchy is elections. Elections are simply the means by which ‘the few’ prove their influence and power. All election systems are an indicator of aristo/oligo. The foundation of polity/democracy is participation (eg town meeting) not elections.

One of the most effective divide and conquer strategies is elections

[Don't look at me!]

Would ascension to the throne through family lineage be better?

[sarcasmic]

“Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.”
-W Churchill

[JFree]

Aristotle thought polity was best. Because at core he believed in both wisdom of the crowd and the notion that the many are more incorruptible than the few. I think I do too.

Democracy is simply the degraded form of polity and has never existed here in the US. What exists in the US now is oligarchy - the degraded form of aristocracy. Aristocracy was the original goal of the founders but I don't think much of that and those days are long dead.

[VULGAR MADMAN]

If the government shuts down, how can it perform its core function of financing Ukraine?

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Through the same channels that Ukraine used to finance the Bidens?

[damikesc]

DoD indicates that the funds for training Ukrainian soldiers will not be impacted by the shutdown.

...which should make people ask if they can decide what is and what is not impacted, then why do Dems always take away Social Security and the like with shutdowns...

[ElvisIsReal]

No, because they all get back pay and all the BS anyway.

[sarcasmic]

If I was a government employee I'd look forward to a shutdown. I'd get a nice little vacation. Might suck a little for people living paycheck to paycheck because they wouldn't be getting paid, but they can find sympathy in the dictionary between shit and syphilis. After all, they're going get paid for that time they didn't work (not that most government employees actually work, they just have to show up).

[VULGAR MADMAN]

“Shit and syphilus” is all you have to offer to any discussion, you diseased freak.

[sarcasmic]

Tell us more about your poor old dad.

[VULGAR MADMAN]

You ain’t my dad, freak.

[sarcasmic]

Never said I was. Just figured your projection was a result of family issues. So who is it in your family who is dying of syphilis while living in squalor?

[VULGAR MADMAN]

Wow, not one spelling mistake. They make you stop drinking?

Was it a court order?

[Elmer Fudd the CHUD 2: Steampunk Boogaloo]

He’s broke until he gets his welfare check and EBT card this weekend. I think his last hurrah for the month was yesterday, when after seven months he finally mustered up the liquid courage to respond to me, after his violent, drunken threats

[JesseAz]

So you don't even know what projection is.

[VULGAR MADMAN]

He’s like a primitive AI.
He notices people saying things and repeats those things without understanding them.

He needs more work.

[sarcasmic]

Count how many times JA used the word "simpleton" after I used it once.

Not the first time I've given him his word for the day that he has to look up and practice in order to pretend like he understands it.

[VULGAR MADMAN]

Nice try, bot.

[sarcasmic]

Tony was smarter than you.

[JesseAz]

I’ve been calling you simpleton for months dumbfuck.

[Elmer Fudd the CHUD 2: Steampunk Boogaloo]

Sarc, in addition to being a pussy, you’re a stupid, wet brained, lying piece of shit. All of us are cognitively superior to you. And I wouldn’t be exalting my education or vocabulary if I were you.

[Elmer Fudd the CHUD 2: Steampunk Boogaloo]

He isn’t anyone’s dad. I doubt his dick even works. And it it did, he almost certainly has a low sperm count. Which goes well with his low testosterone, and low IQ.

However, I have it on good authority that his BAC is consistently through the roof.

Poor, pour Sarc.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

"Generational Swindle: How D.C. Is Screwing Over Millennials," by Nick Gillespie

You oughta see what they're doing to zoomers.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

You mean the ones that haven't killed themselves?

[I, Woodchipper]

Yes but only if made permanent.

[NOYB2]

Are Government Shutdowns Good for Limited Government?

Is the airspeed of a laden swallow good for limited government?

[InsaneTrollLogic]

African or European swallow?

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

African or European government?

[Terran]

It's like a who's line is it anyway "questions only" round in here, isn't it?

[Don't look at me!]

Why do you ask?

[EISTAU Gree-Vance]

You know who else endorsed limited government?….

[CE]

Government shutdowns are a good start. They would work better if all the government workers identified as "non-essential" were permanently fired each time, instead of being reinstated with back pay and accrued vacation credits.

[One-Punch_Man]

Non-essential would become essential somehow. I don't know firing people that have no control over the shutdown? That's kinda cold.
They took a job, I know that shouldn't exist but still. My next year budget would be to lay them off in waves. Give them time to look.

UAW - yeah firing those aholes.

[Terran]

" I don’t know firing people that have no control over the shutdown? That’s kinda cold."

It's more cruel to let them think that being unproductive (in terms of goods and services) is productive, as that's a form of enabling.

[CE]

Well, you still have to give them the legally required minimum notice. But if "firing" sounds too harsh, think of it as "freeing them up to find more productive work," or "enabling them to be utilized better for the good of society."

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Haa! New York Times admits that yeah, well, ok, so the Ukraine military DOES use Nazi iconography, but it's not as bad as you say.

[Roberta]

It’s like the Confederate flag(s) on the vehicles used to assault the Branch Davidians. Doesn’t mean they’re actual rebels.

What else but Nazi iconography would you use to scare the Russians, huh? Maybe something Finnish.

[Don't look at me!]

scare the Russians

LOL

[NOYB2]

The idea that the Ukrainian military, given its history, uses Nazi symbols as some kind of clever psychological trick without believing in it is ridiculous. Ukraine has a long history of collaboration with Nazis and Nazi beliefs, from the 1930's all the way to the present, and Nazi-related ideas play a strong role in the politics of Ukraine.

As far as the Russians are concerned, any display of Nazi symbols by Ukraine just supports their belief in the righteousness of their cause.

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