Spit Isn't Rain

For some much-needed clarity regarding the proximate cause (and some of the possible consequences) of the government "shutdown", look no further than this recent Thomas Sowell column:

As for the House of Representatives' right to grant or withhold money, that is not a matter of opinion either. You can check the Constitution of the United States. All spending bills must originate in the House of Representatives, which means that Congressmen there have a right to decide whether or not they want to spend money on a particular government activity.

And, a little later:

The hundreds of thousands of government workers who have been laid off are not idle because the House of Representatives did not vote enough money to pay their salaries or the other expenses of their agencies -- unless they are in an agency that would administer ObamaCare.

The Senate chose not to vote to authorize that money to be spent, because it did not include money for ObamaCare. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says that he wants a "clean" bill from the House of Representatives, and some in the media keep repeating the word "clean" like a mantra. But what is unclean about not giving Harry Reid everything he wants?

We have a combination of things creating the false appearance of an immediate crisis: Widespread ignorance about how the government is supposed to work and lies by leftist politicians promulgated, unchallenged by a lapdog media. But many opponents are also falling for the nonsense. Sowell states later that, "[p]erhaps the biggest of the big lies is that the government will not be able to pay what it owes on the national debt". I no longer recall where I saw it, but I am pretty sure that I saw a conservative commentator swallow that whopper hook, line, and sinker.

I recommend reading the whole thing -- and drawing the attention of others to it as well.

-- CAV