There was an interesting diary this morning from a government worker who is not affected by the current shutdown. He noted that:
President Obama did not leave the country hanging. And he could have. In fact, a lot of us FAVORED that approach. The White House could have taken the "nuclear option" and grounded all air traffic, closed the ports, and sent border security home. Which would have meant no planes in the sky and anyone wanting to pop across the border would be free to do so. This is what is known as a "hard shutdown"
.
As things stand now,
the federal workforce is taking the hit, not so much the American people.
But will this have any effect on the 49 sociopaths in the House, or their Teabagger claque back in Dismal Seepage, Alabama or wherever? I have my doubts. In fact this might even be consider a plus: who cares if the only ones affected are all those "guvmnt" freeloaders?
The best result that could come out of the meeting between the President and the Republicans this afternoon is that President Obama simply tells them that if the clean CR isn't on his desk in 24 hours, he orders a step-up to the Hard Shutdown. Of course that's not likely to happen, especially since right now it would be spun as some sort of spiteful revenge of the Kenyian Karl Marx. But if everyone now signing petitions to end the shutdown were also to push for if-a-shutdown-then-a-hard-shutdown (since we are to have a dysfunctional government in any case), that would send a signal that evey a Teabagger might understand. Quoting once again from CrazyHorse's diary:
If planes were grounded, people stranded, and Jan Brewer suddenly had half of Mexico headed for her town, the GOP would have passed a spending bill first thing this morning.