Over the past few days, I’ve explained that fiscal conservatives and libertarians had little choice but to use the “continuing resolution” as a vehicle to go after Obamacare.
I also pointed out that the shutdown fight in the mid-1990s resulted in a very important victory for advocates of smaller government.
And I wrote that it would have been better if the shutdown started even earlier to stop bureaucrats from their usual end-of-fiscal-year spending orgy.
So what should I write about today, as we enter another day of unplanned vacation for nonessential bureaucrats? Well, I heard President Obama warn yesterday that we need to take steps to protect the economy. Did this mean he was finally being reasonable and that he would agree to curtail the job-killing fiscal boondoggle otherwise known as Obamacare?
Don’t be silly.
Instead, he wants us to believe that a partial government shutdown somehow is bad for the economy. Just as he tried to convince us that themodest spending restraint of sequestrationsomehow was going to cripple the federal government (I wish!).
Obama’s over-the-top rhetoric is so laughable that the only appropriate response is mockery. So let’s enjoy some jokes and other humor about the government shutdown.
We’ll start with a very funny bit of satire about civilization collapsing without an omnipresent federal government. Here’s a teaser, but you should read the entire article.
Let’s remember, after all, that the United States was a Hobbesian jungle of vicious anarchy back in the 1800s when the federal government consumed only 3 percent of economic output!
Here’s some political satire I received in my inbox yesterday. It warns about the danger of unregulated and unlicensed children’s lemonade stands. Why? Because bureaucrats (like ones in California, Georgia, and Oregon) won’t be prowling the streets to shut them down.
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This bit of humor actually isn’t accurate since the shutdown sidelines federal bureaucrats and the lemonade stands were shut down by local bureaucrats.
That being said, we can safely assume that there are paper pushers in Washington who spend their time doing things that are equally foolish and pointless, so I’m sharing it with you under the media’s “fake but accurate” standard.
The late-night talk shows also are having some fun with the shutdown. Let’s start with some good one-liners from Jay Leno.
- Well, last night we got to see how “Breaking Bad” ended, and tonight we get to see how the federal government ends.
- This whole government shutdown thing comes down to who will blink first. Well, we know it won’t be Nancy Pelosi. We know that for sure because she hasn’t blinked since the last shutdown.
- If the government does shut down, nonessential White House employees will be sent home without pay — so more bad news for Joe Biden.
- Since 1976 there have been 17 government shutdowns. The longest was during the four years that Jimmy Carter was president.
And here’s one from David Letterman.
- Do you care that the U.S. government’s shutting down? I thought they were already shut down. I mean, honestly.
Let’s close with two additional bits of humor. This tweet from Jonah Goldberg made me laugh out loud. Julia, you may remember, was the Obama campaign’s make-believe woman who mooched off taxpayers from birth to death.
But now she’s trying to survive in the post-shutdown apocalypse.
Speaking of Julia, this Michael Ramirez cartoon hits the nail on the head.
Our last bit of mockery says we should celebrate the shutdown because government causes so much damage when it’s open.
The underlying message of this image obviously is true, but I’m guessing this is a picture of a house in Detroit, so it might be more accurate to pin the blame on the city government rather than the federal government.
Then again, federal subsidies doubtlessly enabled and facilitated Detroit’s destructive policies, so maybe it’s okay to share this bit of humor without having to rely on the “fake but accurate” rule.
That’s actually the hard part of my job. It’s sometimes difficult to figure out which form of intervention, at which level of government, should be blamed when something bad happens.
But this isn’t supposed to be a serious post, so I’ll leave that topic for another day.
If today’s post didn’t give you enough government shutdown humor, you can click here, here, and here for additional examples.
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