Take-aways from the deal to "re-open" the government:
1.. The Congress just quietly voted to neuter itself. (Not sure they had any balls to being with...) By including language in the CR that would require an up or down vote on a law to NOT raise the debt ceiling, they've given the President power to veto said law. Meaning the President can say "No, we're going to raise the debt ceiling anyway." Meaning, the debt ceiling increase is now assumed rather than debated. Now we cannot say "No we cannot pass this Appropriations bill because it would increase the debt past the debt ceiling." The President would just raise the debt ceiling. The "Power of the Purse", the last Congressional stronghold of Constitutional checks and balances, has been breached.
2. No delay in the individual mandate means that you can be fined for not having health insurance. However, you cannot sign-up on the exchanges right now because they are broken. I guess you could lie to the IRS and say you did sign-up on the exchange. I wouldn't recommend it, though. The IRS loves tracking people down.
3. McConnell got a sweetheart provision from Reid in the CR to increase funding for a Kentucky lock and dam system. I'm sure that infrastructure needed funding, but he didn't get any spending reductions elsewhere to pay for it. Once again, Senator McConnell slides into bed with Harry Reid and the rest of the country gets screwed with its pants on. It's long past time the US Senate had a Republican leader who was actually a leader.
4. No guarantee that either House or Senate will return to "Regular Order" for Appropriations. Both Houses, and both parties, have been lazy and ineffectual in their manner of funding the government for far too long. We wouldn't have had a shut-down if the individual departments of the Federal government had been funded with their individual Appropriations bills. No more CRs (Continuing Resolutions, actions which just extend previous funding bills without changing funding levels or program authorizations), no more Omnibus Bills (Throwing all government spending in one bill which can then be filibustered, delayed, and vetoed). Do your damn job, Congress.
5. How many of you will actually care about any of this and vote for Congress members with principles come November 2014? Sorry, but this cynical former government employee says less than 10%.
