- With government activity hushed to a low hum and a press corps hungry for anything to write about, shutdown coverage has reached a fever pitch. With endless coverage of panda cams and memorial-stormin' veterans and happy-hour specials, it's easy to forget the myriad effects of a government shutdown large and small around the country.
- It's time we all followed the example of this 12-year-old kid, and expressed some outrage and disbeliefand the havoc caused by congressional politicking.
- Twenty-three local Head Start programs in 11 states have seen their funding stop.
- NIH has had to stop taking patients for clinical trials, including 30 kids. NIH has already seen their budget slashed by $1.5 billion this year due to the sequester.
- The WIC program, which helps feed over 9 million pregnant women, mothers, and children, will need to stop if the shutdown continues and funding runs out.
- And don't forget the 800,000-plus federal employees who are, for the moment, without work andapplying for unemployment in droves.
- And yet, the people who caused all this mayhem still get paid, thanks to the Constitution.
- And then there are things that aren't quite rage-inducing, but show how far-reaching the shutdown can be.
- The Department of Agriculture's "Meat and Poultry Hotline" will not be operational.
- 50 New Jersey goats have lost their jobs eating poison ivy on the grounds of a national park.
- So, the shutdown is way complicated when it comes to people and policy, even if the politics seem rather he said, she said. Journalists covering the politics, by the way, you're doing it wrong. As Dan Froomkin puts it, "So, no, the shutdown is not generalized dysfunction or gridlock or stalemate. It is aberrational behavior by a political party that is willing to take extreme and potentially damaging action to get its way. And by not calling it what it is, the political press is enabling it."
Daily Meme: Shutdown Sadness
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