Library of Congress and FTC will take their sites offline if gov’t shuts down | Hacker News Reader

Library of Congress and FTC will take their sites offline if gov’t shuts down

arstechnica.com

12 pointstimw6n26 comments

These comments seem very ignorant of what a government shut down is and why it's happening. It has nothing to do with debt or taxes or spending limits. Congress must pass a budget or a CR by September 30 or most agencies must close their doors. There are exceptions for public safety and other reasons. It's the law.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/09/28/gover...

To translate, "shut down" means subsist on tax revenue alone and not issue anymore debt. For 2012 that was $2.5 trillion for the year. I realize it would be a disaster to go cold turkey like that, but I also don't buy the notion that you can't run an effective and modern government on that kind of money.

I think you are confusing the budget with the debt ceiling.

This has nothing to do with how efficient the government is or taxes or debt. By law Congress must pass a budget (or a Continuing Resolution) by Sept 30 or vast swaths of the federal government must literally shut down. It does not matter how much they spent nor how much the treasury has in the bank. `

I'm aware of the distinction, but from the article:

"With the possibility of an American federal government shutdown looming next week as the result of the debt-ceiling crisis ..."

Not a "continuing resolution" or "budget" crisis.

But if that is the issue, then OK. I concede that $0 is NOT enough to run an effective government with.

The article is wrong.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/09/28/gover...

The debt ceiling is being used as leverage. It is not, in and of itself, causing the shutdown.

They will claim they have no money for cops, post offices, libraries, kittens and apple pie, while they continue to spend billions waging endless war on anyone, foreign or domestic, who does not kowtow.

It's an old trick, like a smaller city will shut down bike paths and school bus service to inconvenience voters into coughing up the dough.

I wish there was a way to call their bluff though, and separate the finances of these services from the rest of the government. I'd gladly stick an extra $100 on my 1040 if I knew it'd go to the Library of Congress. Let the fucking department of defense make the cuts.

It's not a trick and it has nothing to do with tax raises or asking voters for money. The LoC cannot continue most of its services if Congress does not appropriate funds to it. It's the law.

So why shut down the website? Why not just leave it there?

Politicians, government, and many government employees are petulant children that will take their ball home the instant they feel they're not getting their way.

But when Wikipedia goes dark to protest SOPA, that's advocacy!

Wikipedia is not a government organization.

Wikipedia was always up, period. In addition, there are mirrors of the data all over the place.

I'm curious. When your funding goes away and your employer stops paying you, how long do you need to keep working for free to avoid being considered a petulant child?

When your boss is happy to pay for his useless secretary that he's banging, but he's not happy about paying for actual work to be done until he can continue squirrelling money away for his personal pet projects.

When your boss is happy to stop paying for expenses and we're forced to put it all on credit, thereby racking up 20% monthly interest.

When your boss is happy to allocate resources for his personal pet projects, but more meaningful contributions to the company are "temporarily" cut due to budget concerns.

So that's a timespan denominated in negative seconds, right?

This isn't funding going away, nothing and noone being paid.

It's more like the unlimited credit card was cancelled.

Do you know anyone who works for the federal government? I do; I have cousins who work at EPA. They got their hours cut because of the sequester; they weren't paid full weeks.

Obviously, some people are still getting paid. But your "unlimited credit card" observation is inaccurate.

Yep, the limit so far is 17 trillion, which is very limited..

It's always funny when the libs can't take what they dish out. Really? Negative points for pointing out the obvious - Obama only stands for what benefits Obama?

Wow, guess you can't take it, eh? :) that's ok, I know you're butthurt over it.

You are just plain wrong. If congress doesn't pass a budget, there's no money and most nonessential employees don't get paid.

It is illegal to keep working for the federal government for free. In a shutdown, most non-essential workers will be on unpaid vacation.

> how long do you need to keep working for free to avoid being considered a petulant child?

Um, they have to pay extra to shut down the website. Just leave the website up. Petulant is right, they are putting up the message to complain about things, not to save money.

What did government employees do to deserve a shutdown?

This is absolutely a failure of the politicians in the House of Representatives. The Tea Party wing of the Republican party will not pass a clean bill to allow the government to continue to function unless Obamacare is "defunded" which is both fairly ridiculous and not actually possible.

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