This'll be nothing compared to what happens when the US defaults later in the month.

The country has been Enronned.
 

It may be that the shutdown will help us avoid default. The last shutdown made the Republicans weak.

I admit, though, that the timing is troubling. We don't have much wiggle room.
 

Am I right that the President is constitutionally bound to honour the upper limits set by Congress on a) taxation, b) spending, and c) borrowing; and that he can't actually perform on all of these at the same time?

If so, what he should do is raise taxes on the rich - hopefully, to use Denis Healey's lovely metaphor, he should tax the rich until the pips squeak.

Meanwhile, it seems like a good time to shoot all the lawyers...
 

Hahaha. Rooting for the killer robot! Which only goes to prove how insane our choices are. But you're right, Joe. I'm not a fan of POTUS or his flawed, compromised healthcare reform. But both he and the plan are looking like gifts in comparison to the league of vandals burning the house down.

BTW, I read that the healthcare site was down this morning. Yet I was able to access my state site with no problem; it's up and running with accompanying marketplace info, contact numbers and enrollment directives. This may be a state-by-state experience, that some sites are better or less ready to go. But it doesn't appear to be a universal problem. I'm a resident of a state fighting healthcare participation, so maybe it simply indicates lack of traffic. Don't know.

What's more worrisome than the current shutdown is the October 17th deadline. Then we go from bad to catastrophic. Obama may be faced with choosing between a financial or constitutional crisis. Then it gets real dangerous.

Peggysue
 

PS: Okay, I found if you want to enroll for the healthcare package at the moment, you're going to enter a queue. Maybe 'this' is what people are complaining about. But . . . considering everyone has a 6 month window on enrollment, I'm not sure why this is a huge problem.

We shall see.

Peggysue [who already has insurance]
 

Maybe I'm just in disaster-movie mode, but if Obama really is Karl Rove's stooge (and I have no reason to think he's not) then I can't help suspecting that Obamacare is an evil plot to make employers close out their health programs, and unions close out theirs, and then when Obamacare collapses in a couple of years we'll all be left with no coverage at all to deal with our cellphone-induced brain cancers and chemically-induced colon and liver and kidney cancers--we'll be on our own.