The Hypocrite and The Shutdown

The U.S. Government shut down for the second time this year overnight clocking in at 8 hours and 45 minutes.

This was thanks to the hypocrisy of Kentucky fried Senator Rand Paul, who chose to throw a hissy fit about the two-year budget at hand and it's expansion of deficits. Deficits Paul had no problem enlarging when he voted yes on the mega 1.5 trillion dollar permanent tax cut for corporations and the rich. Paul proclaimed his party, the Republicans, were now part of the deficit expanders. No kidding Rand! It's your party that took the Clinton surplus and blew out the national sphincter with huge deficits racked up by senseless global military escapades, tax cuts and unfunded programs. The deficit was coming down under Barack Obama's final few years and now the Republicans are in complete control and doing it again. Congratulations to you Rand Paul for pointing out the obvious and grandstanding for your own vanity.

Some news reports have stated Paul engaged in a filibuster, that is not true. He used a rule of the Senate which permits any Senator to delay a vote. Paul did speak a lot but a filibuster requires the person to stay on the floor and not stop speaking, hence Ted Cruz' famous green eggs and ham speech of 2013. Paul didn't do that, he took breaks, other Republican Senators tried to get him to stop, but he wouldn't. The Senate even took a break, once it was clear that Paul was going to run out the clock to cause a shutdown. They gavelled back into session for a "new" day at 12:01A.M. E S.T., at which time Paul wasted a little more time before yielding and allowing the Senate to vote on taking the budget/re-open the government vote. They did, it all passed with a mix of Republican and Democratic support, then over to the House for more wrangling.

Finally it was passed and sent to President Trump to sign and voila, the government was back in business.

Government shutdowns are not new but come on people, get your act together.