Senator Threatens Partial Government Shutdown

Cornyn says it may be the only way to tame debt and deficit

Sen. John Cornyn suggests in a Houston Chronicle op-ed that it "may be necessary to partially shut down the government in order to secure the long-term fiscal well-being of our country" in the next round of budget negotiations "rather than plod along the path of Greece, Italy and Spain."

The Texas Republican, who voted for the fiscal cliff deal, accused the White House of dragging out negotiations on important deadlines.

"In every instance, the looming deadline for action has been obvious," wrote Cornyn, the Republican Senate whip. "And in every instance, the White House has purposefully slow-walked the process in a shameless attempt to score cheap political points."

Cornyn, who many expect could face a primary challenge in 2014 from a more conservative member of his party, explained that he voted for the cliff legislation to prevent taxes from going up on all income brackets.

"I don't believe Washington needs more money; I believe Texans should keep more of their hard-earned dollars, which is why I voted for the act," Cornyn wrote. "This bill, while admittedly not perfect, makes tax cuts permanent for nearly all Texans."

Via The Houston Chronicle.

Do you agree with Sen. Cornyn on this?

[justapirate]

Once again, have to choose the best of limited choices that aren't what I wanna say.

As far as a limited shutdown? Wonder if it would actually work?

[jessejaymes]

Here's what I think Republicans? We spent 10 times more than China on Defense. We spend more on defense than the next 9 countries combined. We give BILLIONS STACKED UPON BILLIONS to companies to take our jobs to China and the Orient. We give more billions to countries that thumb their noses at us, like Pakistan. We have troops all over the world protecting from the "communist threat". Which commie threat is that today? China is the biggest economic power today. They're not commies, they're greedy capitalists. We need thousands and thousands of troops in Germany to protect us from Cuba? Get real Senator. CUT DEFENSE SPENDING IN HALF AND THEN LET'S TALK.

[DARSB]

What he said.

[kirbstomp1]

....and let the gavel rap 3 times to close out this session. Lol

[NormalFlora]

Excellent plan, jessejaymes

[jessejaymes]

@kirbstomp1 LOLOLOLOL Darn tootin'

[IMAQT]

Yep, another Ron Paul policy becoming more popular by the day. Taking care of matters at home has never looked so good.

[Sharpshooter]

If I don't pay the light bill, they turn off my lights.... don't pay for heat, it gets cold, don't pay the mortgage, I'm evicted, don't pay the car load, it's repossessed and if I decide to just print off some money to pay the bills some guys from the government give me a ride in the back seat of a car they haven't paid for, burning gas they haven't paid for, locking me up in a building they don't pay the light or heat bills on.

You REALLY needed to ask that question?

[IMAQT]

“When the federal government spends more each year than it collects in tax revenues, it has three choices: It can raise taxes, print money, or borrow money. While these actions may benefit politicians, all three options are bad for average Americans.”
Ron Paul

[JoeJared]

Shut it down for good. They don't work for us.

[DerivePI]

I think we are at the point where people will start recognizing that increased spending = increased taxes and reduced spending = cutting taxes. With that understanding, the GOP and their fiscal cliff deal is schizo and the liberals are fiscally insane. More than 1 out of 10 dollars received by the fed went to pay interest on our debt. Next year it will be over 11%.

[jessejaymes]

You did notice the 60 million the Oklahoma Republican tacked onto the "fiscal cliff" bill for his corporate farmers right?

[DARSB]

"increased spending = increased taxes" Really? Let's take a moment to recall the nearly trillion dollar cost of Medicare D and the trillions spent on two wars while cutting taxes - twice.

[DerivePI]

@jessejaymes - nope, thanks for adding that log to the fire. Glad I'm not retired and better suited to weather this storm (turn and turn about).

[DerivePI]

@DARSB - way ahead of you DARSB. The future isn't so far away.

[jessejaymes]

@DerivePI The system is broken beyond repair. It doesn't do any good to throw out this or that congressman along party lines anymore. Both parties are corrupt to the core. The fiscal bill had massive spending tacked on by both parties. Liberals didn't tack on NASCAR spending and Conservatives didn't tack on Hollywood spending.

It's time for America to clean house up and down the line. This can only be done in the primaries. If you vote Republican then by all means vote republican in the primaries, just not for an incumbent. Same for the Democrats. RE-ELECT NOBODY 2014

[harold_lloyd]

If the House causes a shutdown, specifically if the teabagger sect of the house causes a shutdown, then the results of the 2014 elections will be devastating for the Republican party.

[Politicskid]

I personally am very annoyed the President thinks it's okay to steal trillions of dollars from me and my peers. I'm a freshmen in high school, and it's just immoral that he won't act to even attempt to begin to gradually curb spending. I mean, look, his fiscal cliff deal is gonna cost us $3 trillion over the next ten years!

Why do you liberals not seem to care? You're so concerned about global warming affecting my future...why not the national debt, too?

[harold_lloyd]

@Politicskid I'm a little irked myself. But it's not stealing, and the Pres isn't the one doing it. Oddly enough, the group I fondly call 'teabaggers' are so intent on their ideologically driven goal of fiscal restraint that their actions have had a contrary effect. Because the Republican party is in open revolt, compromises that might have done some good were derailed because they weren't all of what the teabaggers wanted. So better organized Dems are more influential than might otherwise be the case.
It's a funny world...

[Politicskid]

@harold_lloyd Compromises that don't solve anything are pointless. It just keeps dragging things on, meanwhile the national debt is increasing. So tell me, why do you think the Democrats are so much more in favor of taking money away from us?

[harold_lloyd]

@Politicskid Ideology that precludes compromise is way beyond pointless.
The truth is, the debt will continue to grow until the voters elect people who will do the painful things like raising taxes and making meaningful cuts in spending.
where the teabaggers fall short is that they match strong beliefs with abyssmal ignorance, a dangerous combination.
If we were to go back on the gold standard, the most immediate effect would be to make the money in your wallet and the money in your checking account worthless.
If we really cut spending as drastically as teabaggers want, the nation would be in a deep depression in very short order. They would sharply reduce the money supply.
What we need, I think, is a bipartisan plan to reduce the debt to about a quarter of it's current amount over about fifteen years and do it in a way that minimizes harm to those most vulnerable.
That would be good government.
We haven't seen that yet.

[Politicskid]

@harold_lloyd That deep depression may be what's needed. If you could have a depression for two years, but avoid a possibly eternal one, which would you pick?

Tax hikes are not the answer. Raising tax rates DOES NOT increase revenue when the cause of a recession is economics, like it is right now. The only thing raising taxes does in prolong the recession, and give these mostly terrible politicians more power. Look at the 80s. Reagan lowered tax rates, and yet federal revenues went from about $800 billion to $1 trillion.

[Dan_Tien]

Start the shutdown by suspending pay and benefits for members of the US Congress. If their own personal wealth is effected, then they may be motivated to get things sorted out.

[DerivePI]

Maybe you could have John Roberts' court define a tax/penalty that could be applied over their salaries, but short of that, that silly little old constitution gets in the way.

[Dan_Tien]

@DerivePI So there is a clause in the Constitution that says that Congressman will get paid whether they work or not? The Constitution must have been written by Congressmen.

[DogLady_1]

I'm voting yes, but I want to know which parts of gov't they plan to shut down before I get totally behind this. There are some parts of gov't that could be shut down forever, and we would all be better off for it.

[bsking]

They can shut down half the government. and people will still get their disability checks. Veterans will still get their benefits.. and Grandma and Grandpa will not have to eat cat food tbey'll still get their check.

People who will not get there checks are mostly friends of senators and congressmen who as we all know benefits the most from tax dollars and pork bills. like people developing lunch menus on planet Mars ,just in case we ever there.

Or egg head to never got out of school but have PhDs in multiple subjects who live very well off of government grants well they study the suns effect on a certain particular blade of grass over another one... or how many salamanders make up a nuclear family of salamanders.

[frigginhell]

"rather than plod along the path of Greece, Italy and Spain." Why is it when it comes to education or healthcare or gun laws that we can't compare ourselves to european nations that beat us silly in all those things. We can't compare ourselves to Sweden or Finland or any of the other prosperous european countries with social services and economic mobility far beyond what we have in the USA. But when it comes to being dragged in the gutter by the socialist evil liberal president then we can sit and compare ourselves to european countries like Greece or Spain or Italy all day long? Is that not the very definition of being a hypocrite? Regardless, this quote boils down to the following: the gop will act like screaming whining children to get their way country be damned and they'll let it all go to hell before they compromise. Given that this has been the standard operating procedure for them over the course of the last 4 years, I wonder why they even bother to acknowledge it in a press conference. We all knew you were going to do it. Trying to put a spin on it before it happens isn't going to endear you to us.

[PNWest]

It is better for the democrats if the GOP is successful in shutting down the government. The stock market will temporarily go down and people will get pissed off. It would serve as a reminder that the GOP is only willing to stand up for the rich and powerful. It would be better for the country if the GOP would work with the democrats to resolve the problems. I hope that the GOP decides to work with the dems for the good of the country. They rarely do this. I don't worry about the democrats so much. They usually put country before party.

[Real4WheelDrv]

At least you qualified it with a usually, Hillary still should have gotten the nomination in 08, and should have tried for it last time.

[PNWest]

@Real4WheelDrv Yes - it would have been untrue to claim that the dems always put country first. They occasionally do put party before country. When they do I condemn them.

[PNWest]

@Real4WheelDrv Hopefully Hillary will be rested, primed and ready to go in 2016. If she decides to run I don't think anyone can beat her.

[PuroChorizo361]

They're not doing anything anyway. Isn't that what "Some" of you ppl are saying?

[Bobolinsky]

I have a suggestion... Instead of trying to ram through Immigration Reform by the end of the month and leaving us with little time to do anything other than ram through a debt ceiling increase and spending cut deal that will avert sequestration...

Why don't we address those two looming deadlines first?

[Bobolinsky]

Tea Party favorite Sen. Ted Cruz is already making waves.

"Just hours after he was sworn-in, Texas’ new Republican Senator Ted Cruz went on offense against president Obama and Democrats – who he says are reluctant to cut spending."

"Appearing on CNBC, Mr. Cruz said,“I think we have to be prepared to go so far as to shut the government down if we don’t get some serious policies to stop the out of control spending to tackle the debt.”
http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2013/01/04/cruz-shutd...

[VeryLameduck]

Someone explain WTF a partial shutdown is? Are we fully operational right now?? Seems not.

[Denizen_Kate]

LMBO! Excellent question, Duck.

[Buzzfriendly]

I am not sure if I agree with him but I can't see any harm in shutting things down for a few weeks or months here and there. Strategically done it could save a lot of money.

[RobertJHarsh]

We should have gone off the cliff on Jan 1st. Wait two months and Obama will be complaining for more taxes and he'll go after capital gains and higher corporate rates. He plan to kill off small business in this nation is certainly gaining momentum.

[Denizen_Kate]

He wants to partially shut down government? Which parts? In any case, sure pal, go ahead ... but any income I earn during that shutdown shall not be considered taxable on my form 1040 for 2013. Does that work for you?

[marine1]

This is my game plan for te future. I have structured my remaining years to, as allowed by law, stay under those magic goverment gotcha numbers and will do just that .Allowable expenditues will be used to "MY" best advantage.

[harold_lloyd]

"Cornyn says it may be the only way to tame debt and deficit."
I know it's crazy, but what if congress just did its' job?
You know, raised some taxes, cut some spending, and generally headed the nation towards fiscal responsibility.
They aren't even talking about reducing the debt any more, so all the fuss is really about how to become Greece, but with more style...

[mudpike]

Let it crash . Then wait for the inexperienced 'community organizer' to try to his lie way out of yet another failure. Even the few liberal Dems I work with are getting sick & tired of his same old ' Blame Bush Blues'. BO's had over FOUR (4) years - it's about time for a new song .