THE STRIKE IS ABOUT TO BEGIN

"House Republicans advanced legislation Thursday to avoid a government shutdown for one more week, cut spending and fully fund the Pentagon, but the White House labeled the measure a distraction and said President Barack Obama would veto it.

Obama said in a statement he believes "we need to put politics aside and work out our differences" on a spending plan that covers the government through September, when the current budget year ends.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, quickly countered with a statement saying he was "confident that those Democrats who believe it is important to fund our troops and make real spending cuts will prevail upon Senator Reid and our commander in chief to keep the government from shutting down.""
Yahoo News

"The government would be forced to shut down if President Barack Obama follows through on a promise to veto a Republican-backed stopgap spending bill, House of Representatives Republican Leader Eric Cantor said on Thursday.

"I've just been informed that President Obama has threatened to veto the only bill before us to keep the government functioning ahead of tomorrow's deadline," Cantor said in a prepared statement. "If the President vetoes this bill and shuts the government down, our men and women in uniform serving in Afghanistan, Iraq, and around the world will not be paid. ... I urge the President revisit his decision and work with us.""
Yahoo News

Kind'a makes you wonder just what they consider essential, doesn't it?

This is the game that government's always play and it's right out of the union playbook. When money is short and they want more of ours the first thing that gets cut is the most important and vital service the government supplies. They always cut the police, fire and school budgets first but leave their own pay and perqs in place. They feed the fish in the zoo and starve the soldier in the field. I've got to find a list somewhere of just what will be funded when they shut the government down. I'll bet that there's plenty of stuff on it that is a whole lot less important than the military. But those things wouldn't put the pressure on the employers as effectively as not paying the military.

I don't know how long this strike is going to go on. The one thing that I'm going to be real interested to see is how long it takes all the retired people I saw at the TEA Party rallies to start screaming about not getting their checks from Social Security and Medicare. It's time to put up or shut up. We all want smaller government but its not going to be painless.

There's something else that I've been wondering about. Right after the last election there was all kinds of resistance from the old guard in the GOP to the TEA Party and it demands to cut spending. Suddenly we had this huge turn around and the GOP leadership seems to have embraced the whole concept of spending cuts and smaller government. Do you think, and maybe I'm just too cynical, but do you think that somebody, somewhere in the GOP said let's give 'em what they want and before you know it they'll be back, screaming for benefits and leaving the TEA Party in droves. Is this shutdown being driven by Progressive interests in the GOP as well as the same interests in the Democrat Party?

I don't trust any of 'em.