Rep. Paul Broun, Republican of Georgia, giving voice earlier this morning to the newest GOP argument about a federal shutdown: that shutting down the government wouldn't be a big deal at all.
Broun's argument is that if Congress fails to fund government past April 8, it wouldn't completely shut down?essential functions would remain operational. "Shutting the government down," he said, "is not going to stop the essential services of the federal government."But while it's true that the Obama administration would almost certainly find a way to make sure Social Security checks go out, if you needed to change your address or bank account information, or sign up for payments, you'd be a out of luck. A wide range of important services?everything from issuing passports to conducting energy research to operating national parks to operating the veterans administration?would be shuttered.
The strange thing about the GOP's new argument is that at the same time that they are arguing that a government shutdown wouldn't be a big deal, they are also arguing that Democrats are trying to engineer a government shutdown to gain a political advantage. For example, just before saying a shutdown would be no big deal, Broun said of Democrats that "their diabolical plan is to shut the government down, blame Republicans, and try to get re-elected." But if Republicans really believe a government shutdown is as good an idea as they say it would be, then why are they accusing Democrats of trying to force once? If that's really what they believed, wouldn't they be trying to take credit instead?
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