Government Shutdown and Debt Ceiling Crisis?

Dear Madame L,

I think you're wrong about the government shutdown. I think it's going to happen tomorrow (Oct. 1), and then I think the Republicans will shut down the government again because they'll refuse to raise the debt ceiling limit in a couple of weeks.

What say you?

Concerned Citizen


Dear Concerned Citizen,

Madame L lost her crystal ball a few columns ago, but for some reason she still tries to out-guess Congress, reading everything she can, on both sides of the issues, trying to cut out the rhetorical b.s. and understand what the law really dictates.

And, she is happy to say, Madame L has finally found a good explanation, by an apparently impartial (and actually informed!) commentator, Eric Posner:

Posner writes that Obama cannot avert a government shutdown if Congress doesn't get its act together but that Obama can and should enable the debt ceiling to be raised if Congress still hasn't gotten its act together by Oct. 17th, the current projected date for that ceiling to be reached.

Madame L hopes you'll read the whole article, which is short and easy to understand, unlike so much of the blathering on these two topics.

Meanwhile, Madame L's friends who are "non-essential" federal employees are getting ready to take short unpaid vacations and/or apply for unemployment insurance.

Sincerely, if Unhappily,

Madame L