Religious Contractors Laid Off And Govt. Shutdown Info

Friends, my feeling on this matter may anger some of you but if the government is shut down, then all of the government should be shut down including the contractor ministries. We should not cherry pick or play favorites with what stays opens or closes. I watched on tv this morning as a member of NASA complained about NASA workers being laid off and launch schedules being missed. NASA, federal employees and citizens listen to me, THE GOVERNMENT IS CLOSED FOR BUSINESS, NO ANDS IFS OR BUTS. I know this hurts people but a fact is a fact. If this shutdown does not hurt we will never solve our nation’s financial problems. Now, that being said, I believe that contract ministers should be allowed to volunteer for religious services on military bases. By the way, I am a retired member of the military who regularly attended church on military bases.

 InfoWars, reported on September 30, 2013 that "Some of the doomsday rhetoric surrounding the consequences of a government shut down sounds an awful lot like the fear mongering that was used to scare lawmakers into passing the 2008 bailout bill, which quickly turned out to be a cynical bait and switch."

Listen now to the type of alarmist rhetoric which our corrupt politicians are using today.

"If Republicans refuse to cave in, the situation will be 'as dangerous as the breakup of the Union before the Civil War'. (Democratic Senator Tom Harkin)

"... a government shutdown will shutter crucial services the American people depend on and wreak havoc with our economy. (Lindsay Siler, the issues campaign director for Barack Obamas Organizing for Action)

The truth of this matter is quite the opposite of this heated false rhetoric.

" ... the ominous 'government shut down' is nothing of the sort. It would be the 18th time it has happened since 1977. In no previous case did such circumstances lead to anything even approaching the apocalyptic hype being bandied about by Harkin and his ilk, nor did it significantly impact the economy in any way. The vast majority of government activities and services will remain fully operational whether a 'shut down' occurs or not. Crucial services will not disappear and America will not collapse into a state of anarchy."

Since this statement is true, then why are we seeing such hyperbole? What tactic did Republican Bush leaders use in October, 2008, the last time we heard such dire warnings?

"On October 2, 2008, Democratic Congressman Brad Sherman gave a stunning speech on the House floor during which he decried the fact that, Many of us were told in private conversations that if we voted against this bill on Monday that the sky would fall, the market would drop two or three thousand points the first day, another couple of thousand the second day, and a few members were even told that there would be martial law in America if we voted no.

Hank "The Weasel" Paulson

"... Paulson was behind the threats, brow-beating Congress into authorizing the bill in the name of the desperate need to buy out toxic debt, a proposal 'which he abandoned the day after he got the money', said Senator James Inhofe. Once he got approval for the bill by threatening that its rejection would see a total collapse of the financial system, former Goldman Sachs CEO Paulson pulled a bait and switch and injected the money directly into banks.

We must remain vigilant to try to stop any kind of secret agreement being inserted into language of a bill designed to solve this partial government shutdown. Remember the warning from CFR's David Rockefeller,

"Never let a good crisis go to waste".

Below is an article that discloses what govt agencies are still open and doing business and the source of that information.

Men's News Daily reported the following on October 2, 2013. "All of this whining and crying about a "government shutdown" is a total joke. You see, there really is very little reason why this "government shutdown" cannot continue indefinitely because almost everything is still running. "

For Example:

* 63 percent of all federal workers are still working -- The Weekly Standard

* 85 percent of all government activities are still being funded -- Senator Rand Paul

"It turns out that the definition of 'essential personnel' has expanded so much over the years that almost everyone is considered 'essential' at this point."

"The following are facts which prove that almost everything is still running during this government shutdown:

* 1,350,000 'Essential' Federal Government Employees Continue to Work. that does not include the 589,000 postal employees, who are working, too.

* The U.S. Postal Service will continue to deliver our mail.

* U.S. military personnel will remain on duty and will continue to get paid. - Washington Post

* Social Security recipients will continue to get their benefits. -- National Public Radio - September 30, 2013

* Medicare recipients will continue to get their benefits. -- National Public Radio - September 30, 2013

* Medicaid recipients will continue to get their benefits. -- National Public Radio - September 30, 2013

* Food stamp recipients will continue to get their benefits -- USDA.gov

* Those on unemployment will continue to get their benefits. -- DOL.gov

* Federal retirees will continue to get their pensions. -- OPM.gov

* The federal school lunch program has enough money to go through at least the end of this month. -- USA Today

* Public schools all over the country will continue to stay open. -- Washington Post

* Almost all federal law enforcement officials will continue working -- InfoWars

* The Federal Reserve will remain "completely functional". -- National Public Radio - September 30, 2013

* The Supreme Court will continue to operate normally and federal courts have enough money to keep going for at least two weeks -- National Public Radio - September 30, 2013

* TSA employees will continue to inspect travelers at our airports - National Public Radio - September 30, 2013

* Hopelessly outmanned border patrol agents will continue to try to stem the tide of illegal immigration. -- National Public Radio - September 30, 2013

* Visas and passports will continue to be issued by the State Department. -- National Public Radio - September 30, 2013

* The Veterans Administration will continue to offer medical services, and it will be able to continue processing benefit payments at least for now. --VA.gov

* The Department of Defense announced the awarding of 94 new contracts worth a combined total of more than 5 billion dollars on September 30th - the day right before the "government shutdown". -- Defense.gov

* The "government shutdown" has not prevented the new two billion dollar NSA spy center from opening up. -- InfoWars

* Federal prisons will continue to operate normally. -- USGOVINFO.com

* Amtrak trains will continue to run. -- USAToday

* The Patent and Trademark Office will be open -- Washington Post

* The Consumer Product Safety Commission will continue to issue product recalls if the products "create an immediate threat to the safety of human life". -- CPSC.gov

* The National Weather Service and the National Hurricane Center will continue to track weather patterns. -- InfoWars

* If the federal government needs to respond to a natural disaster, this "shutdown" will not affect that. - WhiteHouse.gov

* The IRS will continue to collect taxes, but it will be suspending punitive audits -- Treasury.gov

* Barack Obama will continue to get paid for the full duration of this "shutdown" - CNN

* The U.S. Congress will continue to get paid for the full duration of this "shutdown". -- CNN

* Our federal government recently spent $98,670 to construct a single outhouse in Alaska. CNS News

"... perhaps now is a good time for the American people to evaluate whether or not they actually need a gigantic federal government that wastes enormous mountains of our money ... It is about time that Washington D.C. started experiencing some of the "belt-tightening" that the rest of the country has been going through. For far too long, the fatcats in D.C. have been living in an alternate reality where they have been able to live the high life at our expense."

Oh, by the way, I learned that Senators and congressmen can make money off of the government shutdown because they are allowed to play the stock market while they are in office. They can do this by shorting stocks in late September knowing that the shutdown would occur on 1 October. Let me give you a hypothetical example.  Let say General Electric stock was $50.00 a share on 25 September and closed at $40.00 on 1 October. A politician just made $10.00 a share shorting his GE stock. Politicians should not be allowed to make money off the stock market while they are in office.

In a stunning development, some military priests are facing arrest if they celebrate mass or practice their faith on military bases during the federal government shutdown.

“With the government shutdown, many [government service] and contract priests who minister to Catholics on military bases worldwide are not permitted to work – not even to volunteer,” wrote John Schlageter, the general counsel for the Archdiocese for the Military Services USA, in an op-ed this week. “During the shutdown, it is illegal for them to minister on base and they risk being arrested if they attempt to do so.”

According to its website, the Archdiocese for the Military Services “provides the Catholic Church’s full range of pastoral ministries and spiritual services to those in the United States Armed Forces.”

In his piece, Schlageter worries about this restriction as Sunday nears. “If the government shutdown continues through the weekend, there will be no Catholic priest to celebrate Mass this Sunday in the chapels at some U.S. military installations where non-active-duty priests serve as government contractors,” he wrote.

Because of the lack of active-duty Catholic chaplains, the military relies on hiring civilian priests to serve as government service and contract ministers. Those civilian priests are not allowed on the bases during a shutdown, Schlageter wrote.

One Republican lawmaker on the House Intelligence Committee told The Daily Caller on Friday that this “crosses a constitutional line.”

“The constitutional rights of those who put their lives on the line for this nation do not end with a government slowdown,” Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo, a graduate of West Point and an Army veteran, said in a Friday statement. ”It is completely irresponsible for the president to turn his back on every American’s First Amendment rights by furloughing military contract clergy.”

Added Pompeo: “The President’s strategy during the slowdown, just as during the sequestration, is to create as much pain as possible. However, this action crosses a constitutional line of obstructing every U.S. service member’s ability to practice his or her religion.”